re: Cross currents make landing difficult
Hi,
KSEZ was landing number 4 on my long solo cross-country flight during my flight training (my "3 towered landings" x-c: The first 3 ldgs were at Flagstaff, another bumpy, cross-windy airport!)
Most of Arizona's airfields, especially those in the more northern parts, can be windy, gusty, and bumpy - that's just Arizona flying... but if the air was always smooth and always straight down the runway, everyone would want to live here!
Don't let the "SS Sedona" spook you - it just looks scary since it is up on a teeny, tiny looking mesa. But it just ~looks~ that way. (That's how it got the nickname "SS Sedona" - it kinda looks like an aircraft carrier landing...)
Here's the trick to landing there - NEVER try to put it down on the numbers! Land a little long - there will almost always be turbulence and even downdrafts at the ends of the runway - since the runway ends at the edge of the mesa which falls off rather abruptly to the valley floor below...
Come in high, maybe a few knots fast, with a good sink rate and make it a short-field landing. Even though the runway looks small (since it looks like it's all alone up there, perched on a mesa) it really is plenty long and wide. It will probably be windy, so just keep flying the airplane all the way to the tie-downs.
Get it tied-down and visit the FBO - get yourself a "SS Sedona" souvenir ballcap so you'll have braggin' rights. Then visit the new restaurant there - I hear they have good food!
When you are done, go out and make a short field take-off so that you've got a little altitude under your butt before you pass over the far end of the runway - you'll be fine!
Have fun!
Mark
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