Anyone have any info on this Catalina crash?

Hippike said:
Wish them speedy recovery!


Flew there as recent as last month.
At 1:56 you can see a little the condition of the rwy
and again for a few more seconds at 2:55
Video is not 4K but the asphalt does look as bad in real life as on the low quality vid, unfortunately :(
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Holy cow, I’ve flown that SNJ in the video! In fact it’s the first Texan I ever flew. Have 8 hours in it when it was based in New England.
 
Seems like every couple years I read about a wreck there. I don't get it, seems like a nice long runway.
 
Palmpilot said:
Dangerous to whom? The airport is not in a populated area.
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Oh I totally agree. I'm just thinking there must be some reason why it hasn't been repaved. In the last couple years it has gotten noticeably worse, and the landing fees alone ought to see about $400K of $$ going to the trustees who own the land there
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
Flew in there a couple weeks ago.
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Did you land 4 or 22? Could be in my head but I feel like the 4 side is in much worse shape than the 22 side

steingar said:
Seems like every couple years I read about a wreck there. I don't get it, seems like a nice long runway.
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Allegedly there's a crash there every year typically..
It's a long-ish runway but with the visual illusions perched atop a hill people tend to come in high, fast, and steep. It's also a fun novelty destination for many socal pilots so I think it has a tendency to attract some lower time people. But you're right, at 3,000 feet and no real obstacles off either 22 or 4 on face value it should be a straightforward enough place
 
donjohnston said:
I'm pretty sure you completely missed the sarcasm.
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I assumed that he was talking about the attitudes of the non-flying public. However I'm not sure that the airport owner or the residents of the island would be concerned about danger to folks on the ground from an airport in such a sparsely populated area.
 
Tantalum said:
Oh I totally agree. I'm just thinking there must be some reason why it hasn't been repaved. In the last couple years it has gotten noticeably worse, and the landing fees alone ought to see about $400K of $$ going to the trustees who own the land there
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It occurs to me to wonder how much of it is going for the airport operator's liability insurance premiums.
 
So I did some research... and it looks like apparently in May of 1998 it was resurfaced?! https://cpmamerica.com/santa-catalina-airport/ that site only opens in Microsoft EDGE for me, doesn't load in Chrome. If people are interested I can post the whole write up below, let me know. It is pretty comprehensive

The runway looks much worse than 20 years old.. at any rate, that made for some interesting reading
 
Tantalum said:
The runway looks much worse than 20 years old.. at any rate, that made for some interesting reading
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Depends a lot on what they did to ‘resurface’ it. If it was just a chip seal coat, that wouldn’t last very long.
 
I used to drop some kids off there after school got out for the year. In 2010 and 2011 it was pretty bad. They resurfaced it in June of 2013 so I dropped the kids off in Long Beach and they took the ferry. When I landed there in 2014 it was bumpy, but sealed. It looked like it was just a slurry seal—not a complete repaving.
 
^Makes you think then that just doing it right once may be cheaper than sending a ton of materials out there every 5-10 years....
 
Yep, really wish they would improve the runway. They did do a slurry coat over it a few years ago, but that didn't really do enough for it. I guess logistically, it is a challenge as well as financial challenge. It is not a hard airport to land and depart if you pay attention. Been there dozens of times. Usually buy the annual pass.
 
We have been there two years ago. ‘Airport in the sky’ describes it well - be aware of the illusion, your altitude and speed and you are fine.

DE891F59-30DA-4CFB-850A-9148AFBB8656.jpeg
 
I did two go arounds at Catalina and finally had the CFI show me how to land. This is after the CFI pointed out the existing wreckage at the bottom of the mountain, right before the threshold. And then departing, he reminded me of the hump in the middle which makes it look like half the length. Well, actually reminded me by jokingly yelling we are out of runway ! Great learning experience in the 172 and great CFI but going to be more stressful in the SR22.
 
James331 said:
Lol!

You must not be to CA or NY, so here how it works, first you need to pay off law-enforcement brass so you don’t go to jail, next is your drug or young boy habit, after that you have your condos, Mercedes, re election funds, nannies for all the legitimate and other wise kids, dry cleaning, etc

aaaaand after that we have like $100 a year to fix a runway.
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Yeah, ny and ca. I guess you think the rest of the states are so pure.
 
Skywalker said:
We have been there two years ago.
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Wow that grass is green! I was just there last weekend and it was definitely NOT green like that! Still an awesome place to visit

Jason608 said:
going to be more stressful in the SR22
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I've been in there a couple times with an SR22. I was coming from 22 and told myself if I wasn't firmly on the ground by the first taxiway (leaving me about 1,500 feet) then I was going around. In fact, when I was there last there were two Caravans and a King Air there also. But yeah, if you don't feel totally write about it go around. Heck, do a touch and go first if you have to just to acclimate to the pattern and what you can expect for winds and float
 
Paulie said:
Yeah, ny and ca. I guess you think the rest of the states are so pure.
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Compared to those two, yes.

Not many places where the average home is in the million but humans still poo on the sidewalk.
 
I usually defend CA and much prefer it to my time growing up in Mass and take many of the frustrations as a "nice weather tax"

But the recent straw ban in many cities is absurd. The new plastic sippy cup lids in Starbucks use MORE plastic and most are not recycled. Plus there are plenty of nature friendly actual *straw* straws and other recyclables that can be used as opposed to just banning. The fact that you pretty much can't walk into a building here without a sign warning you that you may get cancer from certain chemicals known to the state to be carcinogenic is comical

Anyway...
 
James331 said:
Not many places where the average home is in the million but humans still poo on the sidewalk.
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No Sh$t. It is disgusting to walk around a once beautiful city and all you smell is urine. Watch where you step there are plenty of needles to dodge too.
 
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James331 said:
Not many places where the average home is in the million but humans still poo on the sidewalk.
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Try visiting South OC sometime. It's a beautiful place to live. No poo on the sidewalk to speak of.
I've lived here my whole life (well, not yet. :))

James, maybe just once try to say something positive about your own state, instead of bashing someone else's.
 
Hi.
SoCal RV Flyer said:
Try visiting South OC sometime. It's a beautiful place to live. No poo on the sidewalk to speak of.
I've lived here my whole life (well, not yet. :))

James, maybe just once try to say something positive about your own state, instead of bashing someone else's.
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Do you want him to lie? Isn't OC / SoCal in another state, or so do the NorCal wants, that may be a good think for OC, at least they would not be associated with that area.
 
SoCal RV Flyer said:
Try visiting South OC sometime. It's a beautiful place to live. No poo on the sidewalk to speak of.
I've lived here my whole life (well, not yet. :))

James, maybe just once try to say something positive about your own state, instead of bashing someone else's.
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Hey, I’m a California guy, I was born there and grew up there, lots of friends and family, and it’s sad to see that beautiful state, probably the most beautiful of all, go down the sad path it’s heading.
 
James331 said:
Hey, I’m a California guy, I was born there and grew up there, lots of friends and family, and it’s sad to see that beautiful state, probably the most beautiful of all, go down the sad path it’s heading.
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:p
 
I grew up in Hollywood and the neighborhoods were very safe and neighbors all knew each other. But since the late 90’s, it’s gone downhill and I moved to coastal Orange County. It was great for 15 years with a distinctly small town beach feel where I live, but now there’s a large influx of people including lots of homeless and I’m not liking where it’s going.

In terms of the pilot, he was very active with a SoCal pilots group. I hope he will fully recover and can rejoin all the work he did with that group. I suppose eventually we’ll see a report on the accident and what may caused him to go off the end of the runway.
 
SoCal RV Flyer said:
James, maybe just once try to say something positive about your own state, instead of bashing someone else's.
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Ooh. Ooh. Me first. I have something very positive to say about my home State!

It’s not California! :)

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

Catalina looks awful compared to when I flew out there in the early 90s. Seriously. It was nice back then. Went out with another pilot since I was a newbie pilot and SoCal newbie and VNY seemed pretty busy to me back then. Eventually flew around a little more that summer, but was glad to escape LA.

Not quite as happy as I was to escape Chicago but the big 7.2 earthquake in Landers even though it was a long way away, sealed the sentiment for me. No more of that crap. I’ll take tornadoes over that, any day.

Anyway...

Y’all need to fire some politicians and their appointees out there once in a while, it would appear. That airport looks terrible.
 
in one of the previous Catalina threads there was a local dude who chimed in and said chill, it's not that bad. I don't recall who it was and don't feel like searching, but I wonder if his opinion is "it's still the same" or if it actually has gotten worse.
 
denverpilot said:
Y’all need to fire some politicians and their appointees out there once in a while, it would appear. That airport looks terrible.
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What good would that do? The airport is owned by a private land trust, not the government.

Besides, the state instituted term limits in 1990, and it did NOT improve the quality of the state's governments that I could see. I agree with the author of this article when he says, "In a free society, voters should be free to stick with what they like."
 
Just moved out of So. California 18 mos. ago. It was the traffic, mostly. Politics was also annoying, but you'll get that in every state and they will ultimately move closer to California politics as time goes forward. California is a beautiful state, no doubt about it.
Last time I flew to Catalina was 1993 and the runway was decent. Didn't care for the landing fee, but the Buffalo Burger was tasty. I trained out of SNA/LGB so Catalina was a natural destination for us southlanders.
Unless you've landed there with a Catalina experienced pilot, you're going to be apprehensive and the possibility of screwing up will be high. I remember years ago a Lear(?) ended up crashing there so even a professional with good equipment can mess up on the island.
 
Interestingly enough... AVX is going to be resurfaced.

My actual brother (same parents and everything) filed the plans and permits. He said it's planned for two months and the work is going to be done by the corp of engineers as somewhat of an exercise on how to go in and git er done.

I'm sure there are many details and inaccuracies on this, but the surprising thing for me was that HE mentioned it first, only days after this thread about the poor condition of the runway.
 
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