Category: Aviation News Page 1 of 45

The Truckee Airport had their Airshow last weekend. It would have been nice to fly over and take in the festivities but the timing/temperatures were not something I wanted to endure. The airshow portion of the events restricted fly-ins to arriving before 9 am (acceptable) and then not leaving until after 3 pm (not good). The Reno forecast predicted a high for the day of 100 deg F. The temperature usually peaks around 4 -5 pm.

So, I drove over to Truckee for a few hours. I had been to the event in past years so I knew what to expect. They have lots of ramp space there and most of it was covered with airplanes. Display and airshow planes started at the south-east end of the main ramp and continued to well past the terminal building. Transient parking was northwest of that area.

The crowds filled the area for the entire time I was there (10 am – 2:30 pm). Lots and lots of families and kids all over the place. The event organizers made sure that there were several ‘kid friendly’ areas with fun things to do in shaded areas while learning about aviation and airplanes.

They had a nice Food Court area and a large open-sided tent filled with tables and chairs so you could sit and eat in the shade. Maybe next time they will include a way to provide shade for the ever-present line into the food vendor section.

Here are a few of the photos I took as I was walking around. [Click on each to see a larger version.]

At the end of the last article I was returning from the practice area to land at the Stead Airport (KRTS).

The winds on departure, according to the AWOS, were 110/8 and I had selected Runway 08 as my departure runway. At that time there was no other traffic operating at the airport.

Since I had only been gone from the airport for about a half hour I was expecting not much change in the weather conditions. Aah, but this is Reno, NV.

The AWOS now was reporting winds at 130/12 so Runway 14 was the clear choice.I figured I’d do a few touch and go landings for practice.

As I was north of the airport and maneuvering toward a point where I could execute a 45 degree downwind entry to Runway 14 I heard other traffic call entering downwind for the same runway.  Normally this wouldn’t be much of a factor – just find the traffic visually and take the necessary spacing to safely share the traffic pattern.

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I managed to get a short flight in over the weekend – only about 45 minutes but that was enough.

I wanted to fly on Saturday because a weak cold front was forecast to pass through on Sunday and to pick up the winds a bit (it did). A series of circumstances resulted in not getting into the air until about 2 pm.

There were no aircraft in the traffic pattern by that time of day so I listened to the AWOS to help in the runway choice decision. The winds as I taxied out were from 110 degrees at 9 knots. Hmm.

My airport has two runways 14-32 and 8-26. So, using runway 8 would have the wind 30 degrees right of the runway heading and using runway 14 would out it 30 degrees to the left. So, which would be better?

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