Page 14 - Volume 18 Number 8

Flying into Los InternationalBy Kevin WareSometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don’tCorporate Air’s chief pilot R.C. and I are on a three-day trip in the Lear 35 that wanders around the western U.S. for a couple of days, ending with a passenger pick-up at LAX on day three. Most of the airports we land at are small and familiar. But LAX is huge, and it’s not a place we commonly visit. It’s the sixth-busiest airport in the world, covering five square miles, with four east/west two- mile-long runways, divided by the airline terminal complex. Prevailing winds are generally off the Pacific, resulting in continuous heavy jet traffic landing to the west. Yet, the12 • TWIN & TURBINEFBOs are located in the far southeast corner. Yes, you can already see the problem that’s coming, but there’s more to it.A Lear 35 burns $1,600 of fuel per hour at low altitudes, and $800 per hour taxiing. At airports like LAX, if the runway assigned is not close to the FBO, the additional taxiing could easily cost a day’s pay in extra fuel. To further complicate matters, the pilot seats are 48 inches off the ground, making long taxiways disappear over the horizon and into the hazy distance. Even for professional pilots, getting lost while taxiing on an airport likeLAX is an embarrassing possibility. For more reasons than one, wise pilots try to avoid prolonged taxiing whenever possible.We leave Burlington, WA (BVS) early in the morning of day one to arrive in Salt Lake City (SLC) by 10 AM, pick up some passengers, then back-track to Hermiston, OR (HRI), arriving there by lunch time. On the next leg, we go to Wenatchee, WA (EAT), and by mid-afternoon the passengers are back and we are airborne for Santa Maria, CA (SMX).Two hours later, we land in sunny California. The passengersAUGUST 2014