SkyHog
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2005
- Messages
- 18,431
- Location
- Castle Rock, CO
- Display Name
Display name:
Everything Offends Me
Shiprock Airstrip (5V5)
You know, its amazing. I live in a desert, but I've never really seen a REAL desert until this. There is no sign of life, period in this area. Its all sand dune, miles and miles of sand dune. The airport is easy to pick out because it is the only thing that isn't sand. There isn't a cactus, a bush, a tumbleweed, or anything else except sand. It looked like I was flying in Africa or something.
Anyways, at the 3 previous airports I had been to, I received many warnings about how badly the Shiprock Airstrip was abused. I heard stories about glass on the runway, burning tires, strips of metal being sucked into prop blades, and all kinds of nastiness, so for the first time in my life, I performed a low pass to check the status of a paved strip.
Aside from some sand that had blown across the threshold, and some tire burnout marks, the runway was in pristine condition. I had originally planned on a touch and go since there is literally NOTHING near this strip, but I floated a bit on landing and ate up too much runway. Then an interesting thing happened that I hadn't seen since I was a presolo student. A gust of wind picked the airplane off the runway about 20 feet up during the rollout. Thank goodness my first instructor had beat this procedure into my head because I added a little power and held the yoke back until we settled back down to the runway. Crisis averted (if you want to call it a crisis).
Since winds were calm, I rolled to the end of the runway, turned around and departed the way I came. I took a whole lot of runway getting off, and I knew that at this point, I was done landing and taking off at airports. It was simply getting too hot and DA was starting to get closer and closer to my airplane's limits, so we headed back to Albuquerque.
Shiprock - a giant rock that is supposed to look like a ship, is located in the background of almost every picture I have here. I don't think it looks any more like a ship than a rock, but I guess the locals do. From the pattern, you can see the Four Corners Monument that marks the spot of where Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet. Its not bad, but not very impressive from the ground.
The ride home was horrible. We were struggling to maintain 8500 ft, which is a pretty low altitude getting into Albuquerque from the north. If it weren't for updrafts getting us to 9500 when it counted, we would have never gotten home. With Density calculated, I'll bet our 8500ft cruise was closer to 13,500ft. Insane.
Video:
1) Landing, Runway 20
Pictures:
1) Shiprock
2) Shiprock
SHIPROCK AIRSTRIP QUICK FACTS:
Airport Elevation: 5270 Ft
Runways 2/20: 4840'x75ft, Ashpalt, in excellent condition (on this day)
CTAF: 122.9
Nick's NOTAMS: Beware of all kinds of debris on the runway. It wasn't present when I got there, but with as many warnings as I got, it must be a big problem. Don't land off airport here. It'll be a long ways until you get to civilization.
You know, its amazing. I live in a desert, but I've never really seen a REAL desert until this. There is no sign of life, period in this area. Its all sand dune, miles and miles of sand dune. The airport is easy to pick out because it is the only thing that isn't sand. There isn't a cactus, a bush, a tumbleweed, or anything else except sand. It looked like I was flying in Africa or something.
Anyways, at the 3 previous airports I had been to, I received many warnings about how badly the Shiprock Airstrip was abused. I heard stories about glass on the runway, burning tires, strips of metal being sucked into prop blades, and all kinds of nastiness, so for the first time in my life, I performed a low pass to check the status of a paved strip.
Aside from some sand that had blown across the threshold, and some tire burnout marks, the runway was in pristine condition. I had originally planned on a touch and go since there is literally NOTHING near this strip, but I floated a bit on landing and ate up too much runway. Then an interesting thing happened that I hadn't seen since I was a presolo student. A gust of wind picked the airplane off the runway about 20 feet up during the rollout. Thank goodness my first instructor had beat this procedure into my head because I added a little power and held the yoke back until we settled back down to the runway. Crisis averted (if you want to call it a crisis).
Since winds were calm, I rolled to the end of the runway, turned around and departed the way I came. I took a whole lot of runway getting off, and I knew that at this point, I was done landing and taking off at airports. It was simply getting too hot and DA was starting to get closer and closer to my airplane's limits, so we headed back to Albuquerque.
Shiprock - a giant rock that is supposed to look like a ship, is located in the background of almost every picture I have here. I don't think it looks any more like a ship than a rock, but I guess the locals do. From the pattern, you can see the Four Corners Monument that marks the spot of where Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet. Its not bad, but not very impressive from the ground.
The ride home was horrible. We were struggling to maintain 8500 ft, which is a pretty low altitude getting into Albuquerque from the north. If it weren't for updrafts getting us to 9500 when it counted, we would have never gotten home. With Density calculated, I'll bet our 8500ft cruise was closer to 13,500ft. Insane.
Video:
1) Landing, Runway 20
Pictures:
1) Shiprock
2) Shiprock
SHIPROCK AIRSTRIP QUICK FACTS:
Airport Elevation: 5270 Ft
Runways 2/20: 4840'x75ft, Ashpalt, in excellent condition (on this day)
CTAF: 122.9
Nick's NOTAMS: Beware of all kinds of debris on the runway. It wasn't present when I got there, but with as many warnings as I got, it must be a big problem. Don't land off airport here. It'll be a long ways until you get to civilization.
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