Here's a noggin scratcher

[Palmpilot]

The OP's point is readily apparent from looking at a chart. The 152 was two miles from Marana (AVQ), a good full-service GA facility, and four miles from Pinal (MZJ) -- both with runways nearly 7,000' long. Instead of heading there or one of the other nearby GA airports, he was making noises about going into an active military base (DMA) or a busy airline terminal (TUS) much further away.

View attachment 81701

Seeing the proximity of TUS to the Air Force base, it's really hard to see how there could be a case for landing at the latter.

 

[Geosync]

Sounds like a vendetta. A little “well here’s a 152 for ya, now we’re even!”

 

[Lindberg]

Yeah, I had a controller that called out a mooney passing me the opposite direction 10 miles away at closest point every 30 seconds and sounded annoyed that I never saw it.

I'm my limited experience, in that situation, if you ask for a vector to avoid traffic, youv may just hear that it's not a factor.

 

[Tarheelpilot]

Not my point at all.

Don’t you just love it when communication occurs at such a level...

 

[N747JB]

My goal is to look better than I sound.

It ain't workin'.

I’ve been road that I have a great face for radio, I think that’s a compliment!

 

[Jeff767]

TUS is not what I would call a busy airline terminal.

 

[N1120A]

So @Timbeck2 - did you ever find out what happened?

The OP's point is readily apparent from looking at a chart. The 152 was two miles from Marana (AVQ), a good full-service GA facility, and four miles from Pinal (MZJ) -- both with runways nearly 7,000' long. Instead of heading there or one of the other nearby GA airports, he was making noises about going into an active military base (DMA) or a busy airline terminal (TUS) much further away.

View attachment 81701

TUS is not a particularly busy airline terminal and is very accustomed to light GA traffic, like basically any other Class C airport (BUR doesn't get much light traffic, due to nearby options, but still).

What I don't get is why the guy would say they would fly 25 miles to get into either of DMA or TUS, if it was really an emergency. Marana or Pinal would be excellent options.

Seeing the proximity of TUS to the Air Force base, it's really hard to see how there could be a case for landing at the latter.

Yeah, unless it was essentially a low level catastrophic emergency requiring landing at DMA to not cross the freeway or whatever, TUS has 3 long runways and one of them is a 90 degree crosswind. No directional issues. Plus, who would want to dump their plane at an Air Force base that has no services for them and would require mounds of paperwork, unless it was truly a life or death situation? That is brutally inconvenient.

 

[Timbeck2]

So @Timbeck2 - did you ever find out what happened?

I didn't hear of any 152 going down so I assume he made it to his destination which was more than 50 miles from where he allegedly started experiencing engine roughness.