Flying, Camping and Stargazing - Red Creek Airstrip

http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/e/3/1/e/event_94258142.jpegHere’s an opportunity to do some backcountry flying, camping, and stargazing. The plan is to fly up to the Red Creek strip located 36 NM north of Scottsdale on Saturday, April 21. The new moon guarantees a dark sky, which is further darkened due to our remote location. We’ll set up camp, cook some good food and as the night falls, we can check out the Lyrid meteor shower. I’ll have my telescope set up and we’ll be able to take a close look at the planets you can see with the naked eye: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. With the aid of the telescope we’ll find Uranus and Neptune, two planets that you can’t see with the naked eye. Seeing these six planets leaves us only two others, Mercury, which might be visible just after sunset, but the mountains in our location may prevent it, and Pluto, which is now categorized as a dwarf planet, and is too faint to be seen even with the telescope.

Okay, to do all this you need to be able to find and land at Red Creek. Now finding it isn’t difficult and landing there isn’t either, but the strip is a backcountry dirt strip, 1500 feet long. Now, 1500 feet is plenty of room for the typical airplane we fly, but… you need to be prepared for it. Most of us are use to landing at runways that are 6000 feet or more in length and with that much runway we don’t really pay much attention to where we touchdown, however, with only 1500 feet you need to be able to put the airplane were you want it and this can take a little practice. A plus for Red Creek is the runway slopes up from east to west at about 3 percent, so landing to the west gives you the benefit of the uphill to help shorten your landing roll. The rule of thumb is for each percent of incline the “effective” runway length is increased by 10%. So, a 3% grade gives you an effective 30% increase in runway length. The 1500 foot Red Creek strip behaves like it’s 1950 feet, but it still looks like 1500 feet on final. One way to practice is to land on any runway with instrument markings. The large white markers start at 1000’ down the runway, so land just past the threshold and see if you can stop your plane either on or just past the fixed distance markers.

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So, where exactly is the Red Creek Airstrip? You’ll find the airstrip at N34:09.6 W111:43.6, however it is not shown on the sectional chart. Consult this handy table for the course and distance from some of the local airports:

AIRPORT Mag Crs Distance

KCHD 004 54
KDVT 020 33
KFFZ 360 42
KGEU 024 47
KIWA 343 51
KPAN 241 20
KRYN 335 124
KSDL 004 36
KTUS 330 129

The airstrip is located along the Red Creek tributary of the Verde River. Come on out and have a good time flying, camping and stargazing. The temperature should be perfect for it. I have more information about the strip for anyone who would like it.

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Bill Hunt
520-628-8399
wrhunt@cox.net