Class Bravo, Here We Come

This is a fourth post in the series of the longest trip I took in a small airplane to date. If you're just coming across this post, you should probably start your reading here to get the full context.

After our "detour" to Sedona, it was time to start heading home to Paine Field so we could be back on Sunday afternoon. The weather for going to Aspen was still not very good, so we decided to go to Salt Lake City. We figured that SLC was a good overnight stop, given that it was an airport that we haven't landed at before, and that it was a Class Bravo airport -- landing at a Class B primary airport would be the first for both Milen and I. So, after a quick lunch stop at the Sedona Airport Restaurant -- which, by the way, has an excellent view of the runway -- we were off to Utah.

By far, this leg provided probably the best aerial views of the entire trip. We again saw the Red Rocks near Sedona, and we flew directly over the Grand Canyon at 14,500 feet. Fortunately, the skies were clear over Northern Arizona, which greatly facilitated picture taking!

For a Class Bravo airport, SLC is extremely accommodating to GA. Much like Metro Oakland International, it's almost two airports in one. Airline operators use runways 34L and 34R, while general aviation uses runway 35. This is a very good arrangement, IMO: it saves GA pilots taxi time, since runway 35 is located next to the FBO's on the field, and it also reduces problems created by wake turbulence from large jet aircraft. Runway 35 is not a little runway - in fact, it's almost the same size as the other two. And, like 34L/R, it is served by an ILS approach. Salt Lake approach controllers seem to know GA as well: initially, we were asked to join the localizer for runway 34R, but the controller quickly offered us the localizer for runway 35 instead, which we gladly accepted. In short, landing at SLC was comparable to landing at a smaller Class C or D airport. And, SLC has no landing or ramp handling fees! Other large airports should definitely take note of this arrangement.

A useful note for those landing at Salt Lake: there are two FBO's on the field - Salt Lake jetCenter and Million Air. If you choose jetCenter (which we had to - Million Air does not offer portable oxygen services), make sure to taxi to the correct building. The northernmost building with a "jetCenter" sign on it is not actually the FBO... That is located a couple of buildings down. No wonder that no lineman met our aircraft to direct it to a parking spot -- we were at the wrong location. Fortunately, the mistake was easily corrected by the jetCenter staff; they came out to the aircraft with an airport vehicle, collected our luggage, and gave us a ride to the FBO! Overall, it was first-rate service. Although we were crewing a small piston single, they treated us as if we were corporate jet pilots.

Coming up next - the final two legs home.