GA Flying in Las Vegas

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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3Green
If I'm in Vegas a couple days earlier than a work conference starts, and wanted to get some GA flying in, I presume North Las Vegas would be the place to be. Any suggestions on good FBO's to work with, and what to see or do while there? I get in on a Friday about noon, and work stuff doesn't start til Monday AM.

Any POA'ers in Vegas? Arriving 4/15...
 
I had good a good experience getting in-and-out of Henderson. No clue about plane rental there, though.

It's not too far away to cruise past Hoover Dam. IIRC, the outer edge of the Grand Canyon didn't seem too far away via RV, either.
 
Thanks, Chris. Yeah, I noticed that Lake Mead is REALLY close... just off to the east!
 
When I was there I flew out of VGT. Great airport! Nice facilities, friendly controllers. Like Chris, I know nothing of the FBOs around there any more, but the airport was nice.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
If I'm in Vegas a couple days earlier than a work conference starts, and wanted to get some GA flying in, I presume North Las Vegas would be the place to be. Any suggestions on good FBO's to work with, and what to see or do while there? I get in on a Friday about noon, and work stuff doesn't start til Monday AM.

Any POA'ers in Vegas? Arriving 4/15...
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Just gonna miss ya. I'm going to be out there for a trade show M-W (red eye home Thurs morning) Yeah, I got forced into flying a cattle tube. Look for me on the news if the TSA f's with me on the way home.
 
EdFred said:
Just gonna miss ya. I'm going to be out there for a trade show M-W (red eye home Thurs morning) Yeah, I got forced into flying a cattle tube. Look for me on the news if the TSA f's with me on the way home.
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Pirep: no feely-gropey for me last week...
 
Check for the schools at both VGT and HND, set up a lesson for area familiarization. The area is not simple with Class B, Nellis AFB and boatloads (planeloads?) of tourists taking both helicopter and aircraft sightseeing flights all day between the airports and the Grand Canyon.

Once that's done, and both sides are happy with your abilities, then rent one of the C172s and fly down to Sedona for lunch. Closest chance to landing on a carrier you'll probably get (other than Telluride).
 
West Air Aviation at VGT, a very nice T-41B and a new model C182 pn the line.
Older C172s are primary trainers.

Cactus Aviation at HND, Archer and C172 plus other aircraft.

As another post stated, ClassB is tricky to get around to the west, but not impossible. Getting VFR through the B is the hard part.

Sedona is great, down river to Lake Havasu is a good trip.
Sat will start out good with afternoon winds picking up. Sunday is breezy with 20% chance of rain. Hint, stay away from Red Rocks if windy, it gets rough over there with winds falling off the cliffs. Red Rocks has good hiking trails, and there is still snow on Mt Charleston.
 
BillTIZ said:
As another post stated, ClassB is tricky to get around to the west, but not impossible. Getting VFR through the B is the hard part.
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The Vegas TRACON was by far the most stressed-sounding TRACON I've heard in years.

But coming into KHND from the East, through the "gap" there in the mountain range, on Flight Following with Center from ABQ, they happily cleared me into the Bravo when LA Center handed me off to them.

They got cranky later when they wanted me lower while I was still over that mountain range at night, VFR, and could see that the lights of the city were holding steady and not yet descending the windscreen. "Unable, but I have the 737 in sight.", fixed both my problem and the controller's problem.

He needed to guarantee separation for the 737 that was nose-to-nose with me, about to turn from his "base" to final landing to the north at Las Vegas that night.

But one could tell from his fast pace and tone of voice that he was stressin'.

2nd most stressed out was PHX Approach. But they had a good reason. Me under the high overcast and a 206 were on the same VOR radial truckin' toward PHX, and he was IFR above by 4000' and in the clouds. Controller didn't like our "stack formation" when the 206 said he wanted down.

It was smooth out, and the 206 accelerated in his descent and ended up quite a bit ahead of me in the end. But I'm sure our merged data blocks trucking along for many miles kept grabbing the controller's attention, sub-consciously. ;)
 
Interesting, in light of this conversation, the FAA Safety Blast I received today, right before my trip to Vegas:

North Town 2 Instrument Departure
Notice Number: NOTC2901


AWARENESS ADVISORY
North Town 2 Departure
Fly this Departure Precisely

The North Las Vegas, NV airport has had over 80 pilot deviations over the last two years. These 80 have been on the “North Town 2” Standard Instrument Departure (SID), alone.

The Las Vegas valley has four airports. The Las Vegas McCarran International airport is one of the busiest airports in the nation. Nellis Air Force base is also one of the busiest military air bases. Add general aviation Henderson Executive and North Las Vegas airports, and you have a very high volume traffic area and little airspace to maneuver: over one million operations per year. It is imperative that the North Town 2 departure be flown, “as published”, to avoid loss of separation from other Las Vegas area airspace users.

There is nothing remarkable about this departure. Most deviations have occurred simply because of inadequate pre-flight planning and briefing. You must be prepared to fly the departure “as published” precisely. If you are going to fly out of the North Las Vegas airport, under normal circumstances, you can expect ATC to issue this departure “as published”. Radar vectors are not used. All turns are right turns, except the initial slight left turn off runway 30.

A prudent, proficient, well prepared pilot is no accident. In the case of pilot airspace deviations, “what happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas”. Don’t gamble with inadequate flight planning! Don’t raise the question: “if this pilot cannot fly an instrument departure precisely, what else can’t he fly”?

Be prepared to fly the entire procedure precisely! See Attachment-AWARENESS ADVISORY
Click to expand...
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Interesting, in light of this conversation, the FAA Safety Blast I received today, right before my trip to Vegas:
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I fly to Vegas several times a year and I always tell people to carefully brief this departure before they even call to taxi. Those official busts are probably only the very worst violators, because ATC is always ****ed at someone coming off KVGT.

When I go site seeing around the bowl, dam, or lake, I usually grab an instructor. There is just too much airspace to deal with VFR for anyone but a local. That said, I always arrive and depart IFR.
 
Interesting. I found the Las Vegas area to be one of the easier class c or b areas to fly in/thru though admittedly I only ever once did a night flight. Earned my instrument rating there and semi-regular flights there over two years.

OTOH I mostly avoided VGT and used LAS and Henderson.
 
Most of the people departing on the VGT northtown departure screw it up by 1) missing the interception of the outbound radial, 2) turning back to LAS VORTAC to early and not going NW all the way to the turn around point, 3) turning the wrong way at the NW turn around point, 4) busting the altitude.

Some actually turn inbound to the VORTAC when the hit the OUTBOUND radial !!
HUGE BUST!

Getting around the valley VFR is not tough, just need to know the land marks, know where the hills (mountains) are, and know the Class B boundaries and altitudes. Also know what the wind effects will be off the local mountains. HND and LAS is easy from east through southwest. LAS is the Class B airport so a clearance is required. VGT is tougher, sheltered and tucked under the Class B and west of Nellis AFB, also Class B to the surface at Nellis.
 
alaskaflyer said:
Interesting. I found the Las Vegas area to be one of the easier class c or b areas to fly in/thru though
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Me too, it was a piece of cake - The controllers didn't answer me for several calls and told me to stand by. I was still standing by when I landed at Boulder City. :cryin:

Sheesh, they made Chicago look responsive. :hairraise:
 
I was out in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and flew out of VGT from Elite. They had just moved into a new location for them but was all set to preflight and scoot. We went out over Nellis, through the Fire Valley, then off to Hoover Dam.
I haven't received any emails from them recently so don't know what they're doing.
Elite Aviation, 2634 Airport Drive, Suite 101, N. Las Vegas, NV 89032
 
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silver-eagle said:
I was out in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and flew out of VGT from Elite. They had just moved into a new location for them but was all set to preflight and scoot. We went out over Nellis, through the Fire Valley, then off to Hoover Dam.
I haven't received any emails from them recently so don't know what they're doing.
Elite Aviation, 2634 Airport Drive, Suite 101, N. Las Vegas, NV 89032
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They are still there on the south side of the airport. Exiting VGT going east or northeast over Nellis Class B is easier than going SE as long as they are not in the middle of a Red Flag launch or recovery.
 
Seems like all the "troublemakers" up at VGT cause the controllers to be cranky about HND folk! ;)

(Kidding. Kinda.)

The KHND FBO folks were top-notch. The cab ride is short. I really had zero interest in landing at VGT. Did that in someone else's airplane in the 1990s to go to Comdex.

Don't really see any advantage to going to VGT. Easier to get in and out of HND.
 
Having been into and out of both KHND and KVGT, here's my advice:

KVGT is the most convenient airport to go into for a trip to Vegas. Henderson is the best airport for just flying around for fun.

Cactus Aviation rents airplanes at a decent rate (IIRC, it was slightly more expensive, but its Vegas, baby!). I would strong recommend them for some fun while you're there. KVGT is too much of a PITA for fun flying because of the proximity to KLAS and the military base (I think its Davis-Monathan). From Henderson, take off, and get your Bravo clearance immediately, and then fly over the strip. If you ask, you can usually get the tour.

Note - if you do it at night, no matter what: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER fly through the beam of light.
 
elmetal said:
Sounds like experience. Please, do tell!
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LOL. No experience....although it is tempting to do....but not tempting enough. If that light is supposedly visible from space, how bright would you imagine it is (knowing that its a few feet wide by a few feet wide) at 2500ft?
 
SkyHog said:
LOL. No experience....although it is tempting to do....but not tempting enough. If that light is supposedly visible from space, how bright would you imagine it is (knowing that its a few feet wide by a few feet wide) at 2500ft?
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Yeah, might destroy your night vision.

Or, you could put red tinted film over your airplane windows before departure. :thumbsup:
 
SkyHog said:
Having been into and out of both KHND and KVGT, here's my advice:

KVGT is the most convenient airport to go into for a trip to Vegas. Henderson is the best airport for just flying around for fun.

Cactus Aviation rents airplanes at a decent rate (IIRC, it was slightly more expensive, but its Vegas, baby!). I would strong recommend them for some fun while you're there. KVGT is too much of a PITA for fun flying because of the proximity to KLAS and the military base (I think its Davis-Monathan). From Henderson, take off, and get your Bravo clearance immediately, and then fly over the strip. If you ask, you can usually get the tour.

Note - if you do it at night, no matter what: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER fly through the beam of light.
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Davis-Monanthan (spelling) is in ARIZONA.

Nellis AFB is in Las Vegas.

Cactus Aviation at HND is a good place to rent.
VGT has higher traffic volume, adds to complexity under the Class B shelf.

"Strip Tours" are not always easy to get, LAS ATC is fond of saying " remain clear of the Class B".
 
BillTIZ said:
Davis-Monanthan (spelling) is in ARIZONA.

Nellis AFB is in Las Vegas.

Cactus Aviation at HND is a good place to rent.
VGT has higher traffic volume, adds to complexity under the Class B shelf.

"Strip Tours" are not always easy to get, LAS ATC is fond of saying " remain clear of the Class B".
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I know you're local (I was close to local for a while, based in HII), so your experience is probably closer to accurate, but I have never been denied clearance into the LAS Class B....and I've gone in during some pretty busy times (even landed/took off from KLAS once to drop off a passenger).

I've found LAS Clearance Delivery to be more of a PITA than Las Vegas Approach.

The Davis Monathan thing was a big ol' brainfart....of course its Nellis (slaps forehead).
 
SkyHog said:
I know you're local (I was close to local for a while, based in HII), so your experience is probably closer to accurate, but I have never been denied clearance into the LAS Class B....and I've gone in during some pretty busy times (even landed/took off from KLAS once to drop off a passenger).
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Maybe they've changed the staffing levels - I had trouble even getting a response, much less a clearance.
 
SkyHog said:
I've found LAS Clearance Delivery to be more of a PITA than Las Vegas Approach.

The Davis Monathan thing was a big ol' brainfart....of course its Nellis (slaps forehead).
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I flew prit near every day in the LA basin for 11 months using every airport 'cept TOA and LAX. Only prob I ever had was in the air when after a handoff, ATC yelled that I climbed above my alt restriction and that was cuz he thought I was someone else.

However, in each of the 3 times I tried to get cleared into LAS Bravo, I was denied.


Monthan...no A tween the N and T.
 
We flew in and out of VGT last week... no problem at all. Controllers were all friendly and helpful. It did take quite a while getting a response from LAS Appr due to heavy comm traffic, while circling over Lake Mead to the East... wife got sick from that. Went into VGT over Nellis and went back out the same way. VGT Gnd setup everything for our departure, which made it easy. VGT is very convenient if you are staying on the strip. Don't let it scare you off. Just request FF and tell them unfamiliar and they will guide you in nicely. It was cool watching F-16's zipping in/out under us as we crossed over the approach end of Nellis... :)
 
I appreciate all the feedback; ended up being too busy with work stuff to do any GA flying on this trip.
 
I have an event in remote southeast Utah I'm attending on Memorial Day and I've set up a two or three day overnight rental with Cactus Aviation at Henderson Executive. In addition to the usual Warriors and Archers they have two 180hp 172R Cessnas, a Cirrus SR20 and an Arrow III on the rental line. I've found them to be very nice to work with over the phone and by email. I'll report back on how it goes in actuality.

And I think their rental prices are super reasonable. Maybe because I'm used to renting in the Tahoe area :yikes:
 
alaskaflyer said:
I have an event in remote southeast Utah I'm attending on Memorial Day and I've set up a two or three day overnight rental with Cactus Aviation at Henderson Executive. In addition to the usual Warriors and Archers they have two 180hp 172R Cessnas, a Cirrus SR20 and an Arrow III on the rental line. I've found them to be very nice to work with over the phone and by email. I'll report back on how it goes in actuality.

And I think their rental prices are super reasonable. Maybe because I'm used to renting in the Tahoe area :yikes:
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Some of there C172s are former Embry-Riddle aircraft, you'll note the paint and n number. I did not realize they picked up an SR20. I'll have to check that out.
 
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