Advice on a Trip from San Diego to Las Vegas?

"Shane" wrote in message
...
I live in the UK and am considering a trip from the San Diego area to Las
Vegas at the end of the year.

I'm yet to get my hands on the charts, and being low on hours I was
wondering if anyone had any advice on how easy the trip would be to make.
or any other relevant advice they could share with me.

Late September through December is the best time of the
year to fly in the Vegas area. The weather will generally be
clear, the winds tame, and temperatures cool. San Diego area
is occasionally fogged in early in the am, but it isn't too bad
later in the year.

The trip is pretty easy, but you'll need to weave your way
around a few restricted areas. I usually fly via Thermal and
Twenty nine palms; pretty much a straight shot. The highest
terrain is no more than about 6000. Remember, it gets quite
cold up high in the winter, so make sure your plane has a good
heater.

It's also bleak out there in the desert, so file a flight plan and
take supplies to survive a night with temps in the 30's if you
have to put down. South of Goffs VOR, your nearest
airport will be over 50 miles away.

McCarran is a rip for small planes; use VGT or HND.

"Tony Cox" wrote in
link.net:

[snip]

McCarran is a rip for small planes; use VGT or HND.



Calling McCarran a "rip" is drastically understating the gouging you
will receive there. They gouge you on fuel, tie down, and rental cars.
(Maybe some local can identify other gouges at LAS, but I stopped looking
after I identified these three.)

I went to Las Vegas from San Jose over the July 4th weekend. In
planning where to land, I looked at AirNav for fuel prices. McCarran was
$4.35/gallon. North Las Vegas was $2.66/gallon self-serf and $2.88/gallon
full serve. (Note: These fuel prices were in effect on July 1. More
recent prices on AirNav show LAS unchanged and VGT at $2.72 self-serve,
$2.92 full serve.)

Want to tie down? Overnight at LAS for a single is $50 at one FBO,
the other charges $35 per night + $20 handling fee. Both will waive first
night fee for "quantity" fuel purchase. (I didn't even bother to call to
ask what "quantity" meant.) At VGT it is $5 per night, but no waiver for
fuel purchase. The FBO at VGT is the City of North Las Vegas and, from
what I observed, they seem to treat everyone equally well, regardless of
whether you were in a Citation or in a 172.

Want to rent a car? At LAS, you have to pay a facilities service fee
of $24 per rental, sales tax of 7.5%, government service fee of 10%, and a
recovery surcharge of 10%. At VGT, there is no facilities service fee,
sales tax is 7.25%, government service fee is 6%, and recovery surcharge is
4%.


--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)