My final flying days were at the Roswell International Air Center after I retired to Roswell New Mexico.  I found a flying partner who was in my age group (60s) at the time and a couple times a month we would split the cost of renting a C152 and fly to some location a half hour or so away and land.  Then we would switch seats.  One of us would fly the airplane out and the other would fly the airplane back.  He is now in his mid 90s and I have past my mid 80s an neither of us is able to fly anymore.

RIAC, as it is locally known, used to be Walker Air Force Base.  The 509th Bomb Group went there from Tinian after WW2.  You may recall the 509th was home to the Enola Gay which dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima.  Roswell is also where the alleged victims of the alleged UFO crash were taken.

Walker Air Force Base, later to become Roswell's municipal airport, has a field elevation of about 3600 feet.  And after the wing acquired the B-36 bombers the main runway (21-3) was lengthened to over 13,000 feet to accommodate that huge, heavy airplane.

Which brings me to the point of this story.  Have you ever landed a Cessna 152 on a 13,000 foot runway?  Oh, where to touch down?  If you don't pick the right spot you might have to taxi a half mile to the next turnoff.

I usually chose the second turnoff which was the shortest taxi distance to the FBO.  Some would choose the third turnoff for the hangars further west.

So you didn't land on the numbers.  You chose a spot further down to exit at the turnoff you wanted.

Roswell also has quite a bit of military traffic.  T-38s and C-130s from Texas and, during the times I was flying, F-117 Stealth fighters from Holloman Air Force Base on the other side of the mountain.   Some landed and some just flew low approaches.

I recall one time I was number 2 behind a C-130 which screwed up my intended landing spot.  I had to fly my final higher than his and land beyond his touchdown point to avoid the wake turbulence.

Roswell is also a bone yard for retired and cycled out Boeings and Air Busses.  We have a forest of them out there.  Several years ago they sut down the third runway to use as parking spots for these big birds.

And if 17 was the active runway you would taxi past an old JetStar hulk that has been sitting there for over 30 years.  It was last owned by Elvis Presley.

My final days of flying out of Roswell were some of my most memorable.  It was seldom routine.

Noel

Had the same problem landing a C-141B at the Cape Canaveral shuttle landing facility.  It's 15,000 ft long and 500 ft wide...that makes for a heck of a landing picture illusion...you have to keep one eye on the radar altimeter and fight the urge to start the flare 200 ft in the air.

 

I’ve never landed on any particularly long or wide runways but landed a C152 a few times on Lucerne dry lake bed when I was doing my flight training out at KAPV (Apple Valley airport) which is in the high desert of California.

My IP was an F-4 pilot based across town at George AFB prior to its closure. On day prior to us flying I asked him if he had ever landed at Edward on the dry lake or any dry lake for that matter. He had not landed a jet on a dry lake but had landed numerous prop planes on the many dry lake beds in the high desert and said we could try it next time we were up.

So one Sat morning we were up flying around and were over Lucerne Valley and he said let’s give it a shot putting it down on the lake bed. I remeber it being a lot harder with no visual ques that you have with a runway to help judge how high you are off the ground. We did a few touch and goes but my first touch down being a little hard as I flaired a little too early with the stall buzzer beginning to whine. After about 4 tries I did alright but it’s definitely a lot different feeling that landing on a runway.

The biggest runway I've ever landed and took off from in a C150 was Muskoka Airport, that runway is 6000 x 150 feet. This airport was part of the 'Milk Run' for our flight school and all students had to do a solo flight there for cross country. The runway was a former military training base so this is why it is a larger size but today it's a public airport, it is out in the most beautiful country with thousands of lakes and a very large runway surrounded by forest and lakes.

I first learned to fly in a Luscombe on floats off Richardson Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay.

I know what you mean about judging your height when landing.  Choppy water isn't so bad but glassy water makes landing a challenge.  I was instructed to maintain my final approach attitude and a bit of power until the floats touched the water.  In effect a power on landing.

I cam imagine a huge expanse of concrete runway or a dry lake bed without any references can make landings difficult.  If I were to land on a dry lake bed I think I would use my float plane tactic of a power on landing.

Noel 

 

I love interesting tales like these - Than you!

Best

Phil

I was an F-106 crew chief stationed at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.  One night a 6 was landing and the pilot misjudged his height above the runway because it was a different width than the one he was used to.  He was TDY there at the time.  Anyway, he was lower than he thought, hit the approach lights, sheared his gear and skidded right into a hanger.  Burned the whole  hanger down.   He jumped out of the plane unhurt after it stopped sliding.  Talk about a bad day.  He admitted that he misjudged the height.  He was even a squadron commander at the base he was TDY from.  I think this was in 1964.

Jim