Pinal Air Park

MikeD said:
Funny you mention, but there are no RJ-type planes stored at Pinal. At IGM, there are a bunch of turboprop regional planes.....J31/41s, some BAe ATPs, a number of 1900C/Ds, and a few others. Goodyear doesn't have any RJ either. Only ones I've seen are at TUS at the Bombardier facility. They appear stored but I can't tell, and seem to have Skywest colors.
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You'll see them parked in VCV. We have several out there. Most have gone back to Bombardier in Montreal and Toronto.
 
sdfcvoh said:
The same day that pic was taken, I watched a 747 de-fuel at TUS and then make its final hop over to Pinal for storage.

Probably the strangest radio call I've ever heard followed when TUS departure said "Heavy XXX, squawk VFR, Frequency changed approved." Just not the sort of thing you hear every day!
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TUS does get some strange traffic. Remember that Continental jet that was parked on the far north end of the GA ramp? It went by "Winglet XX" so I'm assuming they were doing flight testing for their winglet mod. I just wonder, why Tucson? Good weather and relatively open airspace?
 
The Fez said:
TUS does get some strange traffic. Remember that Continental jet that was parked on the far north end of the GA ramp? It went by "Winglet XX" so I'm assuming they were doing flight testing for their winglet mod. I just wonder, why Tucson? Good weather and relatively open airspace?
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Yep! Relatively quiet and long long runways.

I believe that was the first 76-400 with winglets. I got to know some of the mechs/techs and they were enjoying the "winter" timing of their trip.

Have you noticed how many strange heavy aircraft show up when we have forecast steady but strong x-winds on 11L? I love the place.
 
sdfcvoh said:
Yep! Relatively quiet and long long runways.

I believe that was the first 76-400 with winglets. I got to know some of the mechs/techs and they were enjoying the "winter" timing of their trip.

Have you noticed how many strange heavy aircraft show up when we have forecast steady but strong x-winds on 11L? I love the place.
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It does get its strange transients for sure. A lot of military a/c too, and not just the Guard base traffic. Random 2 and 4-ships of T-6's, T-2's, the all black T-38 with the Beale tailflash today... :rawk:

...makes it really enjoyable to fly a bug smasher at the homedrome...
 
A great place to land.

I'd purposely land really long and taxi slowly back for take off, I enjoyed the typical truck that would fallow me back to the departure end.

Just watch out for those 737's in the pattern, they come up on you fast.
 
Champcar said:
A great place to land.

I'd purposely land really long and taxi slowly back for take off, I enjoyed the typical truck that would fallow me back to the departure end.

Just watch out for those 737's in the pattern, they come up on you fast.
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When I was doing my training, we would do touch and goes and sometimes full stops over at Marana.

My CFI told me that we wouldn't land at Pinal, and that we could only do touch and goes.
 
MZJ is a public airport. The runways and taxiways are not on private property.... but intimidation tends to be the name of the game run by private security there.
 

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sdfcvoh said:
MZJ is a public airport. The runways and taxiways are not on private property.... but intimidation tends to be the name of the game run by private security there.
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Whats weird about MZJ is that its public in the sense of being able to land and taxi, but the airfield side is official business only, and you can taxi there with a PPR by calling the number listed for Evergreen support. On the airfield/airport side everything is Evergreen related, as they lease the field from Pinal County......hence the name Pinal County Airpark, even though you can't just drive onto it unless having business with Evergreen or going to/from Silverbell AHP. The drop zone and adjacent facility noted in the southwest corner of the field and the notation in the A/FD of "military parachute training high and low alts at all hours" is no BS.
 
sdfcvoh said:
The same day that pic was taken, I watched a 747 de-fuel at TUS and then make its final hop over to Pinal for storage.

Probably the strangest radio call I've ever heard followed when TUS departure said "Heavy XXX, squawk VFR, Frequency changed approved." Just not the sort of thing you hear every day!
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Did you take a picture? I've always wanted to see a 747 at TUS.
~D
 
TUCRACEMAN said:
Did you take a picture? I've always wanted to see a 747 at TUS.
~D
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For the longest time, when the large hangar on the west side of the field was still Lockheed Aerospace, the original first-built L-1011 was parked there. Was a neat sight to see. Now the only L-1011 still at TUS is the Flying Hospital craft parked on the northwest ramp....near the old Sud Caravelle that used to be in the fire pit for CFR training for the past 30 years and is now donated to Pima Community College Aviation Tech program (along with the old NASA Gulfstream I and the FEDEX 727). It's got interesting history...N777VV was formerly N1002U and operated by United Airlines.
 
I checked it out last Thursday. Looked all sad just sitting there and with the wind blowing down the S-duct and spinning the blades (at least that's what I think the sound was).
 

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MikeD said:
Whats weird about MZJ is that its public in the sense of being able to land and taxi, but the airfield side is official business only, and you can taxi there with a PPR by calling the number listed for Evergreen support. On the airfield/airport side everything is Evergreen related, as they lease the field from Pinal County......hence the name Pinal County Airpark, even though you can't just drive onto it unless having business with Evergreen or going to/from Silverbell AHP. The drop zone and adjacent facility noted in the southwest corner of the field and the notation in the A/FD of "military parachute training high and low alts at all hours" is no BS.
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I never had a problem taxing, just made sure I kept moving (slowly).

I herd the jumpers all the time and always made sure I stay East of the field at all times.
 
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