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Sedona Pilot Briefing Sedona has incredible beauty and a scenic airport with some good airmanship challenges September 16, 2018 -- Jim Hergert & Valin Thorn The Sedona airport is one of the most scenic airports in the world. It has also been judged by some aviation publications as one of the top ten most challenging airports for aviators. With a little local wisdom, though, pilots can safely fly to Sedona and enjoy the beauty and its airmanship challenges. Many aircraft and pilots of all types fly safely to Sedona every year – representing the whole gamut of aviation including training flights, high performance single and multi-engine aircraft, experimental home-built aircraft, air tour operators, business jets as large as Gulfstream G650’s, and various military aircraft. This “Sedona Pilot Briefing” is a compilation by the authors of the piloting insights and suggestions provided by many veteran Sedona pilots for newcomers to Sedona. The authors provide these insights in a spirit of assistance for fellow aviators to help them manage their aviation risks and safely fly into and out of the amazing Sedona airport. As with everything in aviation, each aviator must consider these insights and the influence on their aeronautical decision making in the context of their own experience, skills, the performance characteristics of their airplane, and the environmental conditions at any given time. The Sedona Airport Sedona is in the heart of Arizona and is known for its unique geology, natural beauty, world class hiking & biking, native American ruins, resorts, and metaphysical vortexes. There are around 10,000 year-round residents and about 3 million tourists visiting every year. The Sedona airport is located on a mesa resulting from millions of years of geological processes including plate tectonics and erosion that revealed a hill with a natural flat surface suitable for an airport. The airport rests on this mesa above the city of Sedona. The surrounding mountains and cliffs to the north and east are the exposed layers of the Colorado Plateau which ends just before Sedona, showing its colorful red, orange, and tan layers of rock created during the Paleozoic era over 250 million years ago. Here are aerial views of the Sedona area looking to the north. Sedona Area High Aerial View Looking North, Sedona Airport on Mesa In Middle Page 1 of 11 View of Sedona Airport Looking North The Sedona Airport runway 3 - 21 is at an elevation of about 4,830 ft MSL, is 5,132 ft long, 100 ft wide, sits on the mesa that ranges from 400 to 800 ft above surrounding terrain/city, and is also surrounded at a greater distance to the north and east by terrain higher than the mesa. Think of it as a very large and stationary aircraft carrier mostly surrounded by mountains and cliffs. Sedona Airport Operations – The Basics The Sedona Airport is a non-towered airport where pilots coordinate air traffic operations amongst themselves on the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) of 123.0. Automated Weather Observation Service (AWOS) is available on 118.525. • Runway 3 - 21. Asphalt surface in excellent condition, resurfaced in 2016. 1,000 ft aim point markers/blocks are now included in the runway’s markings. • Standard left-hand traffic to both runways 3 & 21 • Traffic Pattern Altitude – TPA o Low performance aircraft: 6000 ft (~1200 ft above airport) o High performance and turbine aircraft: 7000 ft (~2,200 ft above airport) • Noise abatement: o The Sedona area is a noise sensitive region and no touch and go or stop and go landings are permitted. o Soon after takeoff, please reduce your propeller rpm by at least 100 rpm as studies and testing have shown significant reductions in noise for the first 100 rpm reduction in propeller speed. • RNAV GPS Instrument Approach for Runway 3. This non-precision approach has very high Minimum Descent Altitudes (MDAs) because of the surrounding terrain’s impact on acceptable missed approach pathways. Page 2 of 11 Take notice of the non-standard “above airport” traffic pattern altitudes and note they are not “above ground level” altitudes because they are relative to the airport on the mesa that ranges from 400 to 800 ft above its surrounding terrain. For example: On a one-mile final approach to runway 3, one will be flying over terrain that is 800 ft below the height of the airport. On a one-mile final approach to runway 21, one will be flying over terrain that is 460 ft below the height of the airport. So, the normal visual cues for altitude and speed will be different than seen at typical flat land airports and one must stay aware of this difference. Sedona aviators received significant help with the potentially misleading visual cues this unusual geography can present to pilots when the Sedona Airport in 2018 installed modern Precision Approach Path Indicators (PAPI) on both runways. Runway 3’s PAPI are set to a 3 degrees approach slope where runway 21’s are set to 3.5 degrees, because of the rising and high terrain to the northeast of the airport. Runway 21’s PAPI should not be used outside 2 miles because of insufficient terrain clearance. High Density Altitude At Sedona’s high elevation there are four climate seasons though most of the year it is much warmer than the ISA standard atmospheric temperature of 42 deg F for its 4830 ft altitude/elevation. It is not unusual to have 7000 ft to 8500 ft density altitudes in the summer months. At these high density altitudes, true airspeeds can be up to 15% higher than the indicated airspeed. A 15% higher true airspeed results in about 32% more trajectory energy, 32% larger turn radius for the same bank angle, and about 32% longer landing rollouts compared to flight at near sea level density altitudes. Aviators should not rely only on the sight speed picture they are used to seeing at sea level airports to manage their airspeed and turns! As in all airport terminal operations, regardless of density altitude, check your airspeed indicator frequently in the traffic pattern, especially on the base turn to final and the final approach. Also, remember the airport mesa rests 400 to 800 ft above the surrounding terrain. So, don't just focus on the surrounding area when flying the pattern to judge your height above the runway – fly the numbers, indicated airspeed, altitudes, and the PAPI lights when on final. Note that the PAPIs are guiding to an aimpoint about 1,000 ft from the runway thresholds which may set the touchdown point too far down the runway for some high performance aircraft. Page 3 of 11 Runway 3 – The Easiest Landing Runway The approach to runway 3 is over lower elevation terrain and runway 3 is sloped uphill 1.9% which noticeably reduces runway rollout. The Sedona airport runway has a 92 ft difference in elevation from the southwest end to the northeast end -- runway 3’s threshold being the low side and runway 21’s threshold the high side. The key points -- runway 3 is significantly uphill and runway 21 is significantly downhill. In calm winds, flight operations normally use runway 3 for landings and runway 21 for departures. Pilots coordinate on the CTAF frequency to prevent collisions and it has worked effectively for many years without a collision. Given the challenges yet to be discussed in approach and landings to runway 21, local pilots will land on runway 3 even with some tail wind – as much as 5 to 10 kts depending on the type of aircraft. Sedona Runway 3 Approach View Short Final The slope of the edges of the mesa are more gradual for runway 3 than runway 21 – but, pilots can still expect a downdraft on short final with a headwind and with a tailwind they can expect an updraft. If one does not need the majority of the runway length to land their airplane, moving the touchdown point beyond the normal touchdown zone may help avoid this downdraft or updraft disturbance near the runway threshold. Regardless of the touchdown aimpoint strategy needed for one’s aircraft type and wind condition, all aviators should be prepared for some quick and correct adjustments in power and flight attitude close to the ground. Do not hesitate to abort the landing and “go around” for another pass, especially if one is unlucky enough to catch a bad gust of wind at just the wrong time. Page 4 of 11 Runway 21 – The Most Challenging Landing Runway Approach and landings to Sedona’s runway 21 are the key reasons the Sedona Airport ranks as one of the most challenging airports in the USA. The traffic pattern to runway 21 takes aircraft close to the nearby mountains and cliffs. The close proximity of the rocks often motivates aviators to fly a tighter pattern than usual, especially high performance aircraft. This often results in arriving on the final approach course high and fast. Sedona Runway 21 Approach, Looking East The close proximity of the rocks and the high density altitude provides a higher sense of speed than at a typical airport. If pilots react to this higher visual speed awareness by slowing their airplane, they may get dangerously close to stalling their airplane, especially in a turn. Fly the proper indicated airspeeds throughout the approach and landing – check the airspeed indicator or AOA indicator frequently! The typical winds that result in landing operations on runway 21 are usually from the south, providing a crosswind component and a necessary wind correction/crab angle on downwind and final.

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