Salt Lake City area information ..

[Jeanie]

I'm seriously considering flying from Alpine, TX (E38) to McCall, Idaho next summer. I looked at the route last night as I was pondering this flight. It's about 1100NM or so - probably closer to 1200 w/ all the maneuvering to avoid the SUAs and mountains.

I noticed that the absolute direct route puts me crossing Salt Lake City Airport right thru the middle ... I won't be doing that. I also noticed that just west of that area are a LOT of restricted areas and MOAs.

So, here's the question for those of you in the neighborhood. Would it make sense for me to go west of that area maybe towards Ely and go up a V airway? I have gps onboard but it doesn't show the edges of SUA - I'll have my ipad w/ me w/ foreflight but who's to say it will actually work when I need it!

I'm just in the pondering stages here haven't actually gotten a chart in hand to see the big picture and also consider the mountains/ passes.

 

[studiomusic]

You don't want to mess with the MOAs out in the west. Flying to Wendover (ENV) from Bountiful Skypark (BTF) I've seen the live ammo training missions they have out there. Scary at night!
SLC traffic isn't all that bad most of the time.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

One time I went that route, it was to Provo, then deviating west over Utah Lk. then NW to thread through the restricted airspace, thence intercepting V32 or follow the highway to Bonneville VOR, (down low to check out the salt flats), then to Wendover.

 

[Clark1961]

North from Alpine...maybe stay east of SLC and west of Grand Junction until north of the Uinta's then hang a left? The ground elevation gets a bit on the high side but not so many of those tall piles of rock...

 

[Wingsofglass]

I'm based in Ogden and so fly through SLC all the time. Looking at your route, there are two ways I would do this. You can either fly to just north of Provo (KPVU) and ask for a class B transition up I15. I have never been denied this transition. ATC will send you up I15 and give you a really nice view of SLC. Just south of Ogden, they will turn you loose and you can continue direct and miss all the restricted areas. You might fly through an MOA but that is no big deal.

The other way is to come up the backside. This way you will stay east of SLC bravo until you are north of it and continue on your way. Again this will put you north of the restricted areas.

Both these methods are so easy I did them as a student pilot. You can PM me if you want to do this route and I will give you all the exact details.

Personally, I would not deviate west just to avoid SLC because it puts you over very lonely terrain for a long time and is pretty far out of the way.

 

[Jeanie]

Thanks everyone I'll check out the routes you suggested. And I'll pm you, wingsofglass, after a bit.