Albuquerque folks

DavidWhite

DavidWhite

Final Approach
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Apr 19, 2011
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Olympic Peninsula
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DW
Next Monday (June 4th) I'll be passing through town and staying the night most likely. Was curious if anyone wanted to get together and grab dinner.
 
My last time though there I chose AEG because fuel was significantly cheaper.

Flip side was even though the FBO is relatively modern and seemed staffed, they'd wandered off somewhere and finding the front desk person took an extra 15-20 minutes for the fuel stop.

No biggie but I wanted to get going. Self-serve was easy. It was finding them for a quart of oil that was hard. ;)

My background photo on the iPad is 79M at the self-serve pump at AEG if I remember correctly.

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AEG was great, I was there yesterday evening.

Easy in & out, some traffic but not burdensome, really pleasant (and very accessible this trip), Bode waived tie down fee with use of their SS.
SS is 'city prices'. (I might consider Carrizozo for fuel, coming from south next time - 1.20 cheaper.) Tip - stay on alpha straight to Bode; if you come to the ramp early, it is rough.
They have cars, decent rates & handy, quick. Able to drive to the plane. Free wifi. The drive to town was on good roads, light traffic, 60mph. PF Changs was decent!
AEG does not coordinate FF, you have to leave there on a southerly heading and arrange with ABQ. ABQ was so much better than my last experience there years ago; very accomodating.
Inbound if you are high enough you can pass N of the Manzano range and directly over ABQ, but not likely outbound unless you can get 10K or better in a few miles....so just plan to go south of the range, about a 170 heading worked today.
Man was there smoke coming off the Gila yesterday, it was ~ifr up to at least 14000' for 80 miles....and that thing is a hundred miles SW.
 
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Let'sgoflying! said:
AEG was great, I was there yesterday evening.

AEG does not coordinate FF, you have to leave there on a southerly heading and arrange with ABQ.
Inbound if you are high enough you can pass N of the Manzano range and directly over ABQ, but not likely outbound unless you can get 10K or better in a few miles....so just plan to go south of the range, about a 170 heading worked today.
Man was there smoke coming off the Gila yesterday, it was ~ifr up to at least 14000' for 80 miles....and that thing is a hundred miles SW.
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Tower at AEG is contract, not FAA, so natural interface with Center is ABQ.
If you plan on overflying ABQ you can expect them to direct you to stay above 10,500 (in or out, depending on traffic, although not so much as in the past since the ANG fighter wing was dissolved).
You can continue to expect "flak" from the Gila fire -- it is still -0-% contained (and burned 153,000 acres so far.) But, this morning, the smoke is staying south of T or C and far west of Las Cruces (prolly no further east than Deming)
 
I may be out of town next Monday, but if I'm not I'll be happy to have dinner with you, David! I agree with the consensus that AEG is the way to go, as long as you don't mind a 15 minute drive to civilization.

Smoke from the Gila fire is definitely something to keep in mind, though so far the haze hasn't been as bad around Albuquerque as we saw last year from fires in the Jemez. If you're coming in from the ESE, the mountains should shield you from the brunt of it until you're right over the city.

Also, on a recent tour of ABQ tower, the controllers stressed the importance of making contact with the TRACON as soon as able when departing AEG to the south VFR, as at 8,000' this will put you across the major approach path to runway 8 for the Southwest jets flying into ABQ. No big deal, just something to keep in mind.
 
If I was going that way I would stop at Moriarty.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Inbound if you are high enough you can pass N of the Manzano range and directly over ABQ, but not likely outbound unless you can get 10K or better in a few miles....so just plan to go south of the range, about a 170 heading worked today.
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The distance is sufficient to climb even in a 150. However, talking to ABQ Approach requires being quick and confident. Sometimes by the time I finally get the transit, I'm almost at the casino. Through my own fault usualy. The last time it happened, I tried to receive a turn to the West instead of East. So it was... "what's your destination today?" "Clovis - 2966V" "And you want to turn WEST, are you sure?" "Affirmative, Approach, N2966V request transition to the west.... ooooh"
 
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DavidWhite said:
Next Monday (June 4th) I'll be passing through town and staying the night most likely. Was curious if anyone wanted to get together and grab dinner.
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That sounds like a good idea. You'll still need to get a rental car, however, unless Rob wants to drive you to the airport in the morning. If you cannot get a car, I'd shoot for ABQ instead of AEG and stay in one of the hotels next to airport. That way a taxi ride won't cost a fortune.
 
AEG is probably the better stop due to cheaper fuel and no ramp fee. Some smaller area fields also have good fuel prices-just remember to check DA and run t/o perf. numbers before filling up as they don't offer the big long obstruction free runways that ABQ and AEG offer.
 
zaitcev said:
That sounds like a good idea. You'll still need to get a rental car, however, unless Rob wants to drive you to the airport in the morning. If you cannot get a car, I'd shoot for ABQ instead of AEG and stay in one of the hotels next to airport. That way a taxi ride won't cost a fortune.
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I think I will be going into ABQ, then. I can't get a rental car without spending an insane amount of money because I'm not 25.
 
Do you know (of) Flyer23D? I think he's in that area. Maybe you can score a ride in his sweet 195 :)
 
The wife and I were at Double Eagle last fall and I will go back there again instead of ABQ. Reasonable rental cars and friendly ramp people.
 
DavidWhite said:
I think I will be going into ABQ, then. I can't get a rental car without spending an insane amount of money because I'm not 25.
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I don't think you're gonna be able to get a hotel room either since you're under 18...I could be wrong though.
 
GCA319 said:
I don't think you're gonna be able to get a hotel room either since you're under 18...I could be wrong though.
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I get hotel rooms all the time, a rental car won't happen. All the hotel folks want is a credit card on file incase in a state of confusion I crap on the bed or something.
 
DavidWhite said:
I get hotel rooms all the time, a rental car won't happen. All the hotel folks want is a credit card on file incase in a state of confusion I crap on the bed or something.
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I've had problems with hotels AFTER I was 18 not letting me stay. They wanted 21.
 
jesse said:
I've had problems with hotels AFTER I was 18 not letting me stay. They wanted 21.
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That happened to me in NV due to a casino being attached to a hotel-I ended up having to stay in AZ instead.
 
Rats - It looks like I'm going to be tied up on Monday (all week, in fact.) Next time!
 
David posted at Purple Board that he's taking a guy from Moriarty at his offer to stay, which removes the concerns about the hotel and car. I actually thought about that too, but it didn't work out.
 
zaitcev said:
David posted at Purple Board that he's taking a guy from Moriarty at his offer to stay, which removes the concerns about the hotel and car. I actually thought about that too, but it didn't work out.
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That's really cool! You'll enjoy flying into 0E0, David. Nice little airport (watch for glider traffic) and the mountains should shield you from most if not all of the smoke from the Gila.
 
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