Hailey, Idaho

Milen and I are running out of (interesting) destinations nearby, so most of our trips lately have been taking a bit longer. This weekend, we went to Hailey, Idaho (aka. Sun Valley). I've always wanted to go to Sun Valley to go skiing, so going there in the summer to check the place out seemed like an excellent idea.

Going into Hailey in a small plane during the summer requires some advance preparation... First and foremost, density altitude. At Hailey there is a 7,000 foot runway, so takeoff and landing distances are not a problem. However, what happens after takeoff? Your climb performance will be reduced. Second, how's your crosswind technique? Or, have you landed with a tailwind? But more on that later...

I may be tempted to say that some things didn't go our way on this flight. Let's list some:

• First, equipment change at Paine Field. The attitude indicator decided to fail - fortunately on the ground. Time to go swap our 180hp Skyhawk for a 160hp, since that's the only one that was left. Hmm, even less climb performance than I previously thought. Quick weight and balance said we're still OK, but we decided to load as much as possible into Baggage Area #2 to get the center of gravity further aft.
• Density altitude... The IFR report "Salt Lake Center, Cessna 863CP, 6,900 for 9,000, 300 feet per minute" says it all.
• Turbulence on approach and wind shear. "Attention all aircraft inbound to Sun Valley, a Hawker jet reported windshear on approach, loss of 20 kts passing thru 100 feet AGL" also says a lot. We decided to fly the final approach at 80 knots instead of the usual 65 to provide for a more adequate stall margin. Since I didn't actually get any windshear during landing, I reported "negative windshear" to Hailey Tower for the benefit of the Cirrus landing behind me.
• Possibility of a tailwind landing - Hailey seems to always land on Runway 31, even when winds are 170 at 10. Fortunately, when I landed, the winds were a very nice 280 at 4.
• Headwinds when coming back... We barely got 95 knots ground speed - and that was at 1000 feet above ground level. Needless to say, we decided to come back VFR, at least to our refueling stop at Pendelton. We got beat up with continuous light chop during that leg of the trip...
• Lower than expected freezing level, plus a somewhat worse weather picture than actual painted by a FSS briefer forced us to go through Portland on the way back, adding 1 hour to the flight.

Hey, you might say - what's this about crosswind landings then? Well, the next day, when we departed, winds were in general about 220 at 10 gusting 15 knots. Hailey has a single runway 13-31, with runway 13 used for departures and 31 for landings. If you look at this photo, you can see why: Hailey is surrounded by mountains to the north, west, and east, and there is an open valley to the south. In fact, the mountains are so close to the airport that the valley in which the airport is located is only about a mile wide, and pilots are warned not to use the airport at night unless they are familiar with the area.

So, while we were number one for departure at runway 13, there was a small plane landing on runway 31... After I hear "cleared to land" over the radio, the next thing I hear is "sir, do you need any emergency equipment out there?" I looked up, and sure enough, there was a lot of dust at the other end of the runway. Hmm... Turns out the guy ground-looped because of the strong crosswind (although it probably wasn't too bad, since he was able to taxi to parking on his own)! The crews took about 30 minutes to inspect the runway, and during that time, it got crowded with a line of airplanes waiting for takeoff. Inbound aircraft were stacked up over the Hailey radio beacon while waiting for the airport to reopen. [We took off without incident].

And, that wasn't the only incident at Hailey that day! While in contact with Boise Approach, we overhead the following exchange:

• Controller: Cessna 123, be advised, the Sun Valley airport is now closed, say intentions.
• Pilot: Hmm, that's probably because of the winds out there... We might go to Twin Falls. Let me talk to my passenger and see what she wants to do.
• Controller: Roger, I can find out for you exactly why it's closed if you'd like.
• Pilot: That would be great, thanks.
• [Pause]
• Controller: Cessna 123, it appears they've had a couple of aircraft groundloop at Hailey today, and the second one will take a while to get cleaned up. The airport right now is closed, and they don't know when they're going to reopen.
• Pilot: Uh, in that case, we'd like to return to Boise and go shopping instead.

So, the lesson is: be careful out there during crosswinds, especially in taildraggers!

Anyways, 11.9 hours on the airplane and we were back at Paine. Those were some strong headwinds on the way back! More photos from the trip can be found here.