Las Vegas
 

Hi,

My wife and I are considering a move to Vegas in a few years. What's the GA scene like out there? What airports would you recommend? Any advise is appreciated.

paul

Good folks & nice hangars at Boulder City (61B). Worth looking into.

With the exception of very limited hangar space it's a great area to base out of. Make sure your density altitude calcs are up to speed, we are at 117 degrees here today, field elevations avg. around 2500. Boulder City is very nice but it's a 60 mile drive from my home in the NW part of the Valley. I co-own a 3500 sf hangar at VGT (N. Las Vegas) which we rent out half to another pilot. Henderson has two new runways and a new completed hangar project with one more to come but be VERY prepared for sticker shock on those and any other hangar facilities. Henderson has pretty much run out smaller GA ops so they can brag about their new "executive" services.

VGT has tie down space (covered and open) but I'm not sure of the waiting list. Weather is great most of the year, getting out of the valley in an RV is no problem, I have circled it before several times in the summer to clear the mountains depending on my destination, of course that was in a tired 172 in June temps.

Housing used to be pretty affordable, the average home price now for a 3 BR 2000-3000sf is getting close to 400K. If you can stand the "brown" of everything in the desert it's a nice place to live. If your used to lakes and greenery it takes some getting used to.

I arrived in 1979 in the USAF, if I could have left once I saw the place I would have, it's changed a bunch since then and I really like living here now.

I lived in Vegas for 2 years while building my RV.
Forget about getting a hangar in North Town VGT, Henderson or Boulder City. The waiting list is very long unless you can partner with someone. I was on the list in Henderson for 3 years and wasn't in the top ten. I added my name to the list a year before moving out there. You should be able to get a shade hangar at VGT. They are reasonable priced for the area.
Both EAA groups are great with many builders. Phase 1 is prohibited.

Hi,

Sounds good except for the no hangar part. I consider hangaring my RV to be very important. I'm not sure I go go somewhere where I couldn't get it inside. We are looking at a couple of years until my son gets out of school. I wonder if I should/could get on a list. Hangar space at my current field in not a prob.

Moving to Las Vegas
 

Hey Guys, we are looking to buy a house in the valley this summer and I'm curious about the how things generally work aviation wise out here.

I've been out of the aviation loop since I moved here in 07, I just started my emp again and I hope to be getting the wings late this summer.

Its a ways off but what can be expected out here for phase 1 testing areas and available airports to operate out of? Since it sounds like getting a hangar is impossible where the heck does everyone do their final assembly around here? First flight? Do you have to go to Jean or is it doable from HND?

We are currently in Centennial hills because my wife teaches up here. She wants to quit when we have a kid, in the next year hopefully, so we can move pretty much wherever we need too. I work on the strip so its not a big deal for me to commute from pretty much anywhere in the valley beside Boulder city.

I'm looking for a 3 car garage so I can do as much as possible at home before moving to the airport for testing. I'm worried about having too long of a commute to get to my plane though. I do like it up here, is VGT really that bad?

VGT
 

I keep my airplane at VGT. Yes, it can get busy but the controllers here are great to work with. I have a J-3 and as you can imagine I can get things backed up quite a bit but the controllers always get me in and out. As far as testing an experimental. We had a bad crash a couple years ago with a Velocity I think it was. Anyway, it was my understanding that the airport was not allowing experimental first flights and testing. I'm not sure if that was just a proposal or if it was actually passed. I do want to say that even EAA was onboard with this and asking that experimental test flights be done elsewhere. Hope this helps, Artie.

HND or Boulder City
 

Have had a couple of first flights with our EAA Chapter 1300 out of HND. No restrictions out of Boulder City (BVU). Lots of hangars available for rent or sale in BVU. I live in Green Valley and it's about the same time to HND or BVU. I like BVU because it's more open and the Class B is well above the airport. Nothing against towers, but I like to have a bit more freedom on my days off flying rather than work flying.
There are hangars and shade tiedowns at available at HND, I think.
I second the idea of doing as much work as possible at home. Much easier to walk out into the garage to do a bit of work than drive to the airport. My wife liked it, too. She could hang out for a while without making a commitment to coming to the airport.
If you like, come meet us at EAA 1300. We meet at HND terminal the 2nd Wed of the month. We also get together for breakfast Sat mornings at the restaurant upstairs in the terminal at 8 (yes, it's early for me, too!).
www.eaa1300.org

Seb Trost
RV-7A
Boulder City
EAA 1300 Chapter Secretary

No Phase I at VGT
 

I can confirm that without a doubt, they will not allow you to do any Phase I testing at VGT. A couple of years ago I had a prop strike there. After being assured that I would be able to fly out there in Phase I after putting a new Catto prop on (vs. the Sensenich wood that was struck), and after about eight months of back and forth with the FSDO, I was ultimately denied phase I at VGT.

Which means I had to order a brand-new Sensenich to put back on the airplane and move her to Jean where there were no restrictions and I was able to fly off my five hours with the Catto.

But other than that, VGT is a great airport. Busy, but they never had a problem accomodating every type of GA aircraft. And the gas was not outrageous. FYI: it took me about a year on the waiting list to get a sunshade.

-Matt
N402BD

No problems a Sandy Valley 3L2. There are hangers for sale here. Drive time from VGT is 1hr in good traffic or 40 min from Henderson. Been here building RV's since 2000. 4 RV's on the field now.