aviation life in ABQ area?

[RONSIM]

And the Southwest. I was based at Double Eagle (KAEG) for the 10 yrs I worked at Dept. of Energy and Sandia National Laboratories. I would still be there if the wife had not insisted we be closer to kids and grandkids "back East". I had a Cessna 182 while in Albuquerque and did not get the "RV bug" until coming back to Florida.

Bottom line, even brown (many shades) can be beautiful when flying over the mesas, volcanic formations, and, in the mountainous areas, huge forests.

Have fun!

Ron

[zaitcev]

ABQ has the following airports:

- The International Sunport (KABQ) - close to downtown for historic reasons
- Double Eagle (KAEG) - the official GA ghetto
- Mid-Valley Airpark (E98)
- Sandia Airpark (1N1)

Some folks get displaced as far as Belen (E80) and Moriarty (0E0).

The International is the best place for flight training, especially initial training and multi-engine and commercial. Not much use to an RV driver otherwise, unless you want to have an emergency, in which case it's the best place.

Double Eagle has a bunch of RV-ers, although I'm not in a good contact with them. The airport is expensive and a typical city-run affair in many respects. Good luck with that hangar waiting list.

Mid-Valley is my home base. It's about 30 minute drive from the middle-class subdivisions that Mayor Marty's corrupt developer friends built in 2000s, god bless their hearts. It's very, very nice. I pay $50/mo for a covered parking. I bet you can can find a hangar for $250/mo there, but getting in contact with the right people takes time. Just finding out who owns what hangars is a challenge. On the other hand, you can often sub from house owners. Mid-Valley doesn't have many RVs, however. It's mostly the old retired people with their Cubs and Bonanzas. RV-12 is disproportionally represented at Mid-Valley, because LSA LOL.

Sandia is the best for rich RV owners, IMHO. You're going to live in a $250k house in Eastern Heights area anyway, so it's 20-30 minute drive. Sandia is our liveliest hub of aviation, with all sort of ex-USAF, businessmen, endowment hippies, and other happy people roosting there and flying all sorts of machinery, from twins to gyrocopters. If I was serious about RV building, I would base there for sure. Their runway kinda sucks, but it's not too bad.

Moriarty is the best if you want to buy a hangar, rather than rent. Also, it's a famous glider capital. Otherwise it's not much (AFAIK) and it's a bit too remote. I'm still shocked that they built the crosswind runway in 2013. Belen wanted one for years to no awail, and now this. It was so sudden. BTW they can be snowed in and then they put a notice on AWOS 'only 3000 ft cleared'. It basically never snows at Mid-Valley, and maybe sprinkles a little at KAEG.

Belen is too far down south, but a lot of people I know partner on a hangar there. They still pay like everywhere else, but with partnerships it's palatable. I heard about deals as low as $150/mo ($75/mo with a friend). It's basically the place in case you really want a hangar and have no money. Probably not the case for an RV builder, I imagine.

[ajay]

I flew into Sandia airpark last year on my
Way through the area on a trip to PHX. just
Looking for cheap gas lazily performing
A very long final on the west runway. My
GPS track took me right into a nice landing
On a parallel street to the airport. Fortunately
No cars on the road. After finding and
Landing on the true runway, the street was
A far better runway. Learned my lesson,
However, to always fly the pattern at an
Unfamiliar airport.

Ajay

[GLPalinkas]

Originally Posted by ajay

I flew into Sandia airpark last year on my
Way through the area on a trip to PHX. just
Looking for cheap gas lazily performing
A very long final on the west runway. My
GPS track took me right into a nice landing
On a parallel street to the airport. Fortunately
No cars on the road. After finding and
Landing on the true runway, the street was
A far better runway. Learned my lesson,
However, to always fly the pattern at an
Unfamiliar airport.

Ajay

Ok that woke me up this morning laughing. I have friends there so I visited and you are 100% correct.