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From: jlo@elan.Elan.COM (Jeff Lo)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: Carmel Valley (O62)
Message-ID: <916@elan.Elan.COM>
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 91 18:45:05 PST
Reply-To: jlo@enzo.elan.com (Jeff Lo)
Organization: Elan Computer Group, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 59

I just posted this to the aviation mailing list as part of a discussion
of fun places to fly and thought it might be of general interest so...

Christopher Pettus says:

> -- Carmel Valley is supposed to be a nice place to walk around for a
> day, but the airport is definitely not for the faint-of-heart.

I happened to go to O62 (Carmel Valley) with a friend on my third flight
after passing my checkride.  The rwy is listed as 2475x35 asphalt/dirt,
with 1825 of it being asphalt.  I fly out of PAO (Palo Alto) which is
2500x65, so I figure OK, it's long enough and a bit narrower, shouldn't be
too big of a problem.  Well, as it turns out, the asphalt part appears
to be about 20 feet wide, with that last 625 feet and the outer 7-10 feet
on each side being dirt.  And the part that is asphalt looks to be about
20 years old or so and is kinda run down with patched spots, cracks and
weeds coming up through it.  While overflying the airport to find the
windsock and check the winds I realized that the valley is kinda tight
for turning out and coming in on the 45.  So I end up going up one of the
little side valleys and coming down another.  Since the paved part of the
runway that I see is actually 1825x20 or so, not 2475x35, I misjudge my
distances to the field and end up way high on final and end up going
around.  Next time around I judged it better and made a decent approach
and landing.  After landing I realize that the taxiway is dirt, and with
as little traffic as there was there, perhaps I should have taxied back
down the runway as another aircraft did later.

The walk into town takes about three minutes.  Just south of the field is
the Carmel Valley post office, and down the hill and around the corner to
the right is the town.  There are a number of restaurants and delis, etc.
to get lunch.  No night ops. allowed at O62, so you'll have to go for
breakfast or lunch instead of dinner unless you are staying the night.

Having done all of my training out of PAO, the short, narrow runway didn't
bother me too much, just remember your instructor saying "Keep it on the
centerline!" (thanks, Bruce :-) when you are on the runway.  Had I trained
at a bigger airport and been accustomed to having 8000x150 runways, I don't
know if I would have been as comfortable (I still think any airport with
more than one runway or more than 4000 feet of runway is huge :-).  I think
the biggest thing to keep in mind is that the valley is narrow and there's
not a lot of room to maneuver around the airport.

Something else to think about, especially after all of the discussion lately
on the sailplane hitting people on the runway; the A/FD lists in the remarks
section for O62: "CAUTION - Dogs, horses, joggers and cars on rwy".  Sure
enough, people, animals, etc., were out on the runway at various times,
apparently without really looking for aircraft.  Maybe I should start
carrying an airhorn.  I wonder what effect that will have on the noise
abatement procedures :-)

Glossary:
O62	Carmel Valley airport: tiny airport next to quaint little town
PAO	Palo Alto airport
A/FD	Airport/Facility Directory
-- 
Jeff Lo - PP-ASEL & Amateur Triumph (TR6) Mechanic
Elan Computer Group, Inc.
jlo@elan.com, ..!{ames,uunet}!elan!jlo
888 Villa Street, Third Floor, Mountain View, CA 94041, 415-964-2200