C-172 Crash at Catalina

People seem to bend up planes there pretty often. There was a wadded up 172 sitting in the dirt alongside the taxiway last time I was there a few months ago. Guess now there will be 2. With 3000' of runway nobody should be going long in a 172, but the various optical illusions there often put people high on final. Guess these guys didn't wanna go around.
 
Our flight school required checkout flights to Catalina when I lived in SoCal. I suppose this validates that activity a bit. Hope everyone is OK.


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I found landing there to be rather fun. The bison burgers are good. It's a pretty cool place to go. Saw whales in the channel a couple of times.
 
StinkBug said:
With 3000' of runway nobody should be going long in a 172
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Agreed. I'm a low hours pilot and haven't had any problems when I've been out. And it's not like there's a shortage of information about the condition of the runway and the "optical illusion" of the hump in the middle. I did see at least one report that this aircraft hit short of the runway, so it may have been something else altogether.
 
StinkBug said:
People seem to bend up planes there pretty often. There was a wadded up 172 sitting in the dirt alongside the taxiway last time I was there a few months ago. Guess now there will be 2. With 3000' of runway nobody should be going long in a 172, but the various optical illusions there often put people high on final. Guess these guys didn't wanna go around.
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Is 3,000 feet short for a 172 ? I figured that would be one to carry power and announce long landing.
 
No, it's not short, which is why I said they shouldn't be running off the end. Visually the runway messes with people though. It's not uncommon for people to be high on final because of it. Usually what happens is they either go around, or they force it down then lock up the brakes around the 2000' mark where it APPEARS they are running out of runway due to the hump. If these guys did come in too high and too fast I suppose they could have floated 2/3 of the runway then went off the cliff at the far end, but they would have made a number of mistakes along the way to that spot.

EDIT, just reread and saw how we're talking about landing long differently. There's no good reason to purposely land long at catalina as the parking is mid-field. I was referring to landing long because you botched the approach.
 
StinkBug said:
No, it's not short, which is why I said they shouldn't be running off the end. Visually the runway messes with people though. It's not uncommon for people to be high on final because of it. Usually what happens is they either go around, or they force it down then lock up the brakes around the 2000' mark where it APPEARS they are running out of runway due to the hump.
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I always check shortish runways for number of taxiway turn offs .... probably save a lot of tires at Catalina
 
The runway is so rough there, soon they'll be having accidents due to undercarriage ripping off... :)
 
Meh. The landing gear on my Mooney is about as stiff and rough a ride as they come and I don't have any trouble landing there. It's far from perfect, but people make way too big a deal out of it.
 
Conditions there deteriorate over time. Very pricey hauling materials out to keep it up.
 
flyingriki said:
Conditions there deteriorate over time. Very pricey hauling materials out to keep it up.
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Plus the airport there has to support itself on landing fees. It's not governent supported.

It takes a lot of $25 landings to pay for a runway resurface.
 
RalphInCA said:
It takes a lot of $25 landings to pay for a runway resurface.
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And, if you join the Island Conservancy you pay once per year and the airport gets the least of your money.

I'm curious if anyone has ever done the math on hauling off what's left of the asphalt and focusing on having the nicest 3000' turf runway in Cali.
 
Could they apply for govt funding for the airport? I assume there is a reason they don't want to do so.
 
If they take government funding that money comes with a lot of strings attached and requirements they would have to meet. I'd bet they simply don't want to be required to do anything.
 
rolivi said:
And, if you join the Island Conservancy you pay once per year and the airport gets the least of your money.

I'm curious if anyone has ever done the math on hauling off what's left of the asphalt and focusing on having the nicest 3000' turf runway in Cali.
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Turf at a place that gets its water exclusively from rain water? In a dry climate? If there's no grass strips in So Cal on the mainland there's certainly not going to be one on at AVX.
 
You've got a point there. Maybe the guys at UC Davis can develop a strain of grass that thrives on salt water and is durable enough to land on and good feed for the Wrigley Bison.
 
rolivi said:
And, if you join the Island Conservancy you pay once per year and the airport gets the least of your money.

I'm curious if anyone has ever done the math on hauling off what's left of the asphalt and focusing on having the nicest 3000' turf runway in Cali.
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I joined the Conservancy when I was flying there on a regular basis. It was a great deal.

I love the idea of a turf runway but as mentioned in another reply, the water situation might preclude it or maybe not. Here is a snippet on the water supply there.

All of Avalon’s drinkable water comes from three shallow (less than 100 foot deep) wells in Middle Canyon, or the ocean via the desalination plant. These wells draw water from a thick layer of deposited soil (called alluvium) in the area of Middle Canyon around Thompson Reservoir. This underground water source is often called the "alluvial aquifer” and the wells “alluvial ground water wells.”
The desalination plant, which was built as a requirement of the Hamilton Cove development, can provide nearly 85 acre feet of water per year, according to SCE’s filings with the CPUC. An acre-foot is a volume of water 1 foot deep spread over 1 acre, or 325,851 gallons.
Contrary to popular belief, water is not pumped from Thompson Reservoir. Instead, the reservoir is used to store surface water that then helps recharge (replace) the groundwater in the aquifer.
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rolivi said:
You've got a point there. Maybe the guys at UC Davis can develop a strain of grass that thrives on salt water and is durable enough to land on and good feed for the Wrigley Bison.
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How long will it be before some pilot hits a bison on the runway?
 
Skip Miller said:
How long will it be before some pilot hits a bison on the runway?
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Bison have been on the island long enough that if it were going to happen, I would expect it to have happened already.
 
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I flew in there on Saturday and talked to the guys in the tower about this... evidently, they were low on approach, possibly a bit slow, the wind was 230 at 16kts or so... which creates a downdraft at then end of the runway... put all that together and they never made the runway at all.
 
The initial reports were saying they went off the end, which didn't make sense. Coming in low, catching the downdraft and ending up short makes much more sense.
 
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