Post by Tom Goodrick on Nov 13, 2008 21:25:04 GMT -5
I happened to find a pretty neat little airport. I found it because a friend has a retirement house near it. The airport is Gnoss Field (KDVO) in Novato, CA. It can serve as a nice "gateway" to the San Francisco Bay Area for peopl flying small aircraft. It has one runway, 31/13 that is 3300 ft long and 75 ft wide. It is used by many types of aircraft up to small jets. Indeed, based at the airport are 184 single engine, 25 multi-engine, 4 jets and 4 helicopters.
The terrain is interesting. Just west of the runway about a mile and extending to three miles is a hill that reaches about 2500 ft. The terrain from the northwest slopes down to the runway. You can stay 800 feet above the terrain from 2000 ft MSL to the runway at 2 ft MSL. This gives you visual problems flying down to runway 13. The approach to runway 31 is perfectly flat. But noise abatement rules forbid straight-in approaches to 31 in piston planes and forbid ANY approach to 31 in jets. In jets you must land on 13 and take off on 31 regardless of wind. Piston aircraft must fly a tight right base leg to 31 to avoid overflight of homes. The hill forces a right pattern for 31.
I planned a flight there today using RW. The morning weather had ground fog to 800 ft totally obscuring the airport. I wanted to do a practice landing but had to go to Buchanan (KCCR) which was free of fog. By the afternoon when I arrived after a flight from Huntsville it was very clear but the wind was blowing at 13 knots around the hill. The landing went okay but the touchdown was fast (110 KIAS) for a jet with no reverse thrust. I was bounced pretty well on approach.
The nice thing in general for this airport is that it is out of the SFO and OAK combined TCA. There is a restricted area 15 nm to the northeast for Travis AFB but that needn't interfere. I found an unobstructed direct GPS path from Pueblo, CO to the CCR VOR near Buchanan that set me up great for a low-altitude approach to KDVO. Pueblo is a good refueling airport for flights from the east. You miss all the big MOA's and restricted zones over Nevada. An alternative for non-pressurized aircraft would be to fly the southern route from Albuquerque to Palmdale and then up the San Joaquin Valley to the same CCR VOR for a turn toward KDVO.
The terrain is interesting. Just west of the runway about a mile and extending to three miles is a hill that reaches about 2500 ft. The terrain from the northwest slopes down to the runway. You can stay 800 feet above the terrain from 2000 ft MSL to the runway at 2 ft MSL. This gives you visual problems flying down to runway 13. The approach to runway 31 is perfectly flat. But noise abatement rules forbid straight-in approaches to 31 in piston planes and forbid ANY approach to 31 in jets. In jets you must land on 13 and take off on 31 regardless of wind. Piston aircraft must fly a tight right base leg to 31 to avoid overflight of homes. The hill forces a right pattern for 31.
I planned a flight there today using RW. The morning weather had ground fog to 800 ft totally obscuring the airport. I wanted to do a practice landing but had to go to Buchanan (KCCR) which was free of fog. By the afternoon when I arrived after a flight from Huntsville it was very clear but the wind was blowing at 13 knots around the hill. The landing went okay but the touchdown was fast (110 KIAS) for a jet with no reverse thrust. I was bounced pretty well on approach.
The nice thing in general for this airport is that it is out of the SFO and OAK combined TCA. There is a restricted area 15 nm to the northeast for Travis AFB but that needn't interfere. I found an unobstructed direct GPS path from Pueblo, CO to the CCR VOR near Buchanan that set me up great for a low-altitude approach to KDVO. Pueblo is a good refueling airport for flights from the east. You miss all the big MOA's and restricted zones over Nevada. An alternative for non-pressurized aircraft would be to fly the southern route from Albuquerque to Palmdale and then up the San Joaquin Valley to the same CCR VOR for a turn toward KDVO.