Jafar said:
They have only one active runway. It doesn't matter what the wind is doing, where the sun is at, how the planets are aligned or anything else. It's 13 or nothing. Forget about 31, 18 and 36. They are strictly for aesthetic purposes. Forget it about it if you're in some tail wind critical Lear or something. Winds could be 310 at 10 and we'll still be using 13.
Yeah, that's pretty much any uncontrolled airport for ya. You ought to hear how grouchy the folks in the pattern at our local uncontrolled get when you try to use something other than 32 even though winds are favoring the crosswind runway. Not only that, but there are about a zillion different uncontrolled airports on the same CTAF, and they are all pretty busy, and so you get frequency congestion because of that.
Anyway, I did my private through CFI at Provo. I remember the good old days when me and my 152 were the only ones around, flying left traffic to 13. In fact, on my solo day, my folks came down and video taped it. The only other airplane in the pattern during any of the three circuits was a mixmaster. But then it got
bad. Provo needed a tower when I did my CFI there two years ago. Sad to hear that nothing has changed. And I complain about my #5 for landing sequence at my cushy Class D--I don't want to go back.
Actually, I have a funny story about this: 13/31 used to be both left traffic, but the whiney residents/grouchy farmers under the pattern prevailed and now it is right traffic to 13. The first day that this right traffic went into effect was the day of my initial CFI checkride. Talk about mayhem! Never got the power-off 180 in, because Katanas from my
own school kept taking the runway in front of me. Guess it turned out ok, though. I passed.
In the Katana's defense, it is a cool airplane. I got one up to 14000' MSL (before I had to head back down--it would have kept going upstairs if I didn't have to stop because of O2) with the power all the way back on a wicked good thermal day. The airplane's just hard to see in the pattern.
I'm out of the loop on the UT flying scene. It's been a couple years since I have done any flying out there. They've got some pretty good glider ops up in Heber City though. You ought to check that out if you have any inclination. Cedar Valley is a pretty good jump school if meat bombin' it is your thing.
But if I had it to do
all over again, I'd proabably do the USU degree in aviation instead of the UVSC one. The program is just a little bit more solid academically, and maybe I could have better prepared myself for some graduate work in an aviation-related technical area. In a lot of ways, UVSC is just a glorified, degree-granting FBO. Flying should be taught as a craft, not just "quick-and-dirty" to get a rating.
Dang, I miss all the cool mountain waves back there. Timp fires off a sweet wave complex pretty often in the winter--it's breathtaking. We get a little bit out here, but O2 is definitely not required wave equipment in New England. Is Tom Jense still around? He probably doesn't remember me at all, but I had a heck of a time hanging out in his hangar. I was just a high schooler/student pilot though. That was a while ago.
-Goose
Edit: Maybe after the Super Bowl is overwith, I'll fly the Utah Soaring Association avatar again.
