Santa Fe and "mountain flying"?

oldShar said:
Does sound like a great trip.
Only one question?
What did you find to do that took multiple days in Santa Fe?
I figure that you can see all there is to see in a single day (unless you park inside The Roundhouse and watch the politicians grow)
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Well, I suppose it's all about who you are and what you like to do. My companion enjoyed visiting all the clothes and jewelry stores. I enjoyed browsing some of the used book stores. We both enjoyed visiting the O'Keeffe museum, the churches and missions, and the art galleries downtown and along Canyon Road.

And I like to eat, so I could have spent another couple of weeks there working my way through all the great restaurants and everything on their menus! :)

Since we didn't rent a car, we did everything by foot, and even though the footprint of downtown is small, if you walk back and forth across it enough times and go up and down every street, you'll spend a fair bit of your time there just in locomotion from one place to another.

But if you're a "you've seen one church/store/art gallery/green&red enchilada, you've seen 'em all" kinda person, then yeah, a walk down one block in Santa Fe will check all those boxes and you can be outta there pretty quick...

Edit: Fixed spelling of Georgia's name.
 
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Jim_R said:
Well, I suppose it's all about who you are and what you like to do. My companion enjoyed visiting all the clothes and jewelry stores. I enjoyed browsing some of the used book stores. We both enjoyed visiting the O'Keeffe museum, the churches and missions, and the art galleries downtown and along Canyon Road.

And I like to eat, so I could have spent another couple of weeks there working my way through all the great restaurants and everything on their menus! :)

Since we didn't rent a car, we did everything by foot, and even though the footprint of downtown is small, if you walk back and forth across it enough times and go up and down every street, you'll spend a fair bit of your time there just in locomotion from one place to another.

But if you're a "you've seen one church/store/art gallery/green&red enchilada, you've seen 'em all" kinda person, then yeah, a walk down one block in Santa Fe will check all those boxes and you can be outta there pretty quick...

Edit: Fixed spelling of Georgia's name.
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We are the same Jim. Museums, bookstores, yarn shops, historical sights or anything educational. We always do something that the kids will like too. Yes, restaurants are a favorite, only on trips. We rarely eat out in our local area.

Nice writeup! We are looking forward to a visit out there in the next year or two.
 
Very nice description of your trip. I fly to Midland fairly often to see my dad, and now I know to check out the catfish restaurant!
 
Jim_R said:
And I like to eat, so I could have spent another couple of weeks there working my way through all the great restaurants and everything on their menus! :)
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Yeah, well... The only restaurant in Santa Fe that ever impressed me was The Compound. I suppose Kohnami is ok, but it's not much better than what we have in ABQ. I keep thinking about giving the Bull Ring a chance, because I heard all the corruption workers frequent it, but its hours are not convenient. So these days I ever go to Santa Fe when there's some kind of special event in Lensic.
 
zaitcev said:
Yeah, well... The only restaurant in Santa Fe that ever impressed me was The Compound. I suppose Kohnami is ok, but it's not much better than what we have in ABQ. I keep thinking about giving the Bull Ring a chance, because I heard all the corruption workers frequent it, but its hours are not convenient. So these days I ever go to Santa Fe when there's some kind of special event in Lensic.
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Yeah, well...if I lived in NM maybe I wouldn't be so interested in the food. I don't, though, so it's different and I've not formerly been introduced to the question "Green or red?" before, so it was a novel experience for me.

That said, I enjoy visiting mom & pop diners as much as (or moreso) than fancy white-tablecloth places. Doesn't take a lot to impress me: Just tasty food. Santa Fe seems to have that in spades.
 
Jim_R said:
Yeah, well...if I lived in NM maybe I wouldn't be so interested in the food. I don't, though, so it's different and I've not formerly been introduced to the question "Green or red?" before, so it was a novel experience for me.

That said, I enjoy visiting mom & pop diners as much as (or moreso) than fancy white-tablecloth places. Doesn't take a lot to impress me: Just tasty food. Santa Fe seems to have that in spades.
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Green. Always green. :)
 
Jim_R said:
Yeah, well...if I lived in NM maybe I wouldn't be so interested in the food. I don't, though, so it's different and I've not formerly been introduced to the question "Green or red?" before, so it was a novel experience for me.

That said, I enjoy visiting mom & pop diners as much as (or moreso) than fancy white-tablecloth places. Doesn't take a lot to impress me: Just tasty food. Santa Fe seems to have that in spades.
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Btw, if you like mom and pop diners, fly into GNT, grab a crew car, and head over to the WoW diner.
 
zaitcev said:
Yeah, well... The only restaurant in Santa Fe that ever impressed me was The Compound. I suppose Kohnami is ok, but it's not much better than what we have in ABQ. I keep thinking about giving the Bull Ring a chance, because I heard all the corruption workers frequent it, but its hours are not convenient. So these days I ever go to Santa Fe when there's some kind of special event in Lensic.
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Head to the bar at Rio Chama during legislature if you want to see "corruption" workers.
 
GCA319 said:
Minor correction. There is no SAF approach, just tower. ZAB provides app/dep services and flight following with them is usually doable at or above 10,000 out to the southeast. Also, I wouldn't assume 33 as the runway he'd get, so I think it's more prudent to consider overflying the VOR and from that point you can go straight in for 33, proceed on a right (or left) downwind for 15, right base for 2, or a left downwind for 20 (Not including 10/28 since it's closed and I forget when they plan to re-open it).
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I see that the OP has already made the trip but just letting people know that KSAF tower is closing May 5. While there are airports that might not miss having a tower so much, Santa Fe is not one of them. It's crossing runways an a fair amount of mixed-speed traffic. We landed behind a C-210 (we were asked to slow) and ahead of a King Air. I can see where there would be potential conflict with slower airplanes wanting to use the runway more aligned with the wind while faster traffic might use the longer runway.

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The message about the tower closure is on ATIS in addition to a request to contact your government officials. A tower guy even came and visited us in the FBO to ask for our support.
 
Everskyward said:
I see that the OP has already made the trip but just letting people know that KSAF tower is closing May 5. While there are airports that might not miss having a tower so much, Santa Fe is not one of them. It's crossing runways an a fair amount of mixed-speed traffic. We landed behind a C-210 (we were asked to slow) and ahead of a King Air. I can see where there would be potential conflict with slower airplanes wanting to use the runway more aligned with the wind while faster traffic might use the longer runway.

The message about the tower closure is on ATIS in addition to a request to contact your government officials. A tower guy even came and visited us in the FBO to ask for our support.
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Tagging on: Seems like every time I go there someone lines up on the wrong runway. That will be crazy without a tower. Not to mention fire season.
 
Everskyward said:
I see that the OP has already made the trip but just letting people know that KSAF tower is closing May 5. While there are airports that might not miss having a tower so much, Santa Fe is not one of them. It's crossing runways an a fair amount of mixed-speed traffic. We landed behind a C-210 (we were asked to slow) and ahead of a King Air. I can see where there would be potential conflict with slower airplanes wanting to use the runway more aligned with the wind while faster traffic might use the longer runway.

03478.gif


The message about the tower closure is on ATIS in addition to a request to contact your government officials. A tower guy even came and visited us in the FBO to ask for our support.
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That's my chief concern, too, along with all the students training out of SAF (and AEG, which is losing its tower April 21) who have never known a busy airport environment without the benefit of a tower.

Alexb2000 said:
Tagging on: Seems like every time I go there someone lines up on the wrong runway. That will be crazy without a tower. Not to mention fire season.
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Definitely not looking forward to it.
 
Everskyward said:
I see that the OP has already made the trip but just letting people know that KSAF tower is closing May 5. While there are airports that might not miss having a tower so much, Santa Fe is not one of them. It's crossing runways an a fair amount of mixed-speed traffic. We landed behind a C-210 (we were asked to slow) and ahead of a King Air. I can see where there would be potential conflict with slower airplanes wanting to use the runway more aligned with the wind while faster traffic might use the longer runway.

03478.gif


The message about the tower closure is on ATIS in addition to a request to contact your government officials. A tower guy even came and visited us in the FBO to ask for our support.
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Things will get interesting to say the least....
 
Alexb2000 said:
Tagging on: Seems like every time I go there someone lines up on the wrong runway. That will be crazy without a tower. Not to mention fire season.
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Happens quite a bit. Some days this summer are going to be outright dangerous without the tower.
 
Loved flying into KSAF! Looking to head back sometime in the near future! Some of the friendliest people at the FBO and in the (soon to close) tower I've ever dealt with
 
Everskyward said:
The message about the tower closure is on ATIS in addition to a request to contact your government officials. A tower guy even came and visited us in the FBO to ask for our support.
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I would totally ask him if he recalls putting me into run-up pocket to teach me a lesson. And it wasn't the only instance. Every other time I'm at SAF there's some kind of altercation with them. Some of them were unable to deal with the traffic, forgetting where I or other airplanes were despite position reports, and this kind of thing (before they got their radar last year). I even got to trying to take off before 7 a.m. in order not to deal with them. Funny thing -- it never happens at KABQ and KAEG, so I'm a little sad for Double Eagle people who're going on furlough.

I think I can easily give way to the American's Embraer, and the rest will be able to cope just fine. Even the jet jockeys from the warbird school will. Although I would feel super bad to impede them, considering they burn $1000 every hour, but on the whole I'm not even convinced they'll lose when compared to traffic organization SAF tower did.

And another thing, basically the only hot time at SAF is Saturday afternoon. The airport is often deserted, or nearly so.
 
zaitcev said:
And another thing, basically the only hot time at SAF is Saturday afternoon. The airport is often deserted, or nearly so.
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It was pretty busy yesterday and it was a Wednesday.
 
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