Sunday, April 19, 2009

Las Vegas - Flagstaff / Beechcraft Bonanza A36 (N3759W) / VFR

I haven't been to Flagstaff in ages, so I decided to fly over there from Sin City in my Bonanza. I filed VFR for LAS V562 PGS V291 FLG, which took me a bit over an hour to fly.

The flight was uneventful. The sun was just setting as I departed Lost Wages on 7R. V562 took me out to MEADS over the lake, and then southeast to Peach Springs. At PGS I turned slightly to join V291 to Flagstaff.

I started out at 5500, then climbed to 7500 as I left Lake Mead. After Peach Springs, I climbed to 9500, and I stayed there until I had the airport clearly in sight, since it was quite dark. I made a left downwind approach to runway 3 and landed quite smoothly. I was surprised to see a 737 parked at the terminal; I didn't think that anyone was flying 737s in and out of Flagstaff these days, although there's certainly no obstacle to doing so.

The field is at about 7000 feet, and the surrounding terrain is much higher, including Humphrey's Peak, one of the taller mountains in the U.S. outside the Rockies, at 12,000+ feet. It was on the other side of the field, though, so I was okay.

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