On Thursday, I had to go to Phoenix for company business. My 6:30pm flight coming home was full, so I was forced to fly in the cockpit jump seat. When we taxied out, we found that we had a 30-45 minute hold due to traffic jams in the air. So we sat near the end of the runway and watched a 30 minute air show as planes came and went.

When we finally got up, the flight was smooth and the sun was setting on the west horizon. The colors of the horizon were great, with reds and oranges near the horizon, yellow in the middle, with blues and black going on up. The ground was solid black due to the bright horizon and the fact it was nighttime below us. There was no terrain contrast so the only way you could see a mountain was if it was on the horizon.

As we came up on Las Vegas, we could see the bright lights of the city on that solid black ground. We could see Mt Charleston and a few others as they peaked out above the horizon. Interesting to me was that I could not see the Luxor light. Perhaps the sky was too bright at altitude to see it.

When we descended in for approach, we heading towards the dam. We were gradually turned west and slowed down. It gave me a lot of time to map out the city. I was trying to take in all the main streets that I knew plus the streets that I thought I had learned since moving here. I was trying to find my house or neighborhood, trying to find stores and restaurants I knew, plus try to identify items that lit up bright. Not all the things that light up bright on the ground are bright in the air...and vice versa.

I was starting to become concerned as we kept going west and descending. I knew there were mountains out there and they just weren't visable. There are a lot of parts of this city that have the characteristic that when the housing developments stop, the mountains start. Fortuantely, this was one high tech airplane with great terrain maps, plus we had some of the best air traffic controllers in the businesss. And we were following two other planes, so if we did whatever they did, it would be okay. Still, I knew we were below mountain height by the horizon, and I knew we were beyond civilization.

Finally, we stopped going west and were slowly turned north. Great, now we are heading for the Spring Mountians by Red Rock. Travelling at 3 miles per minute, the terrain closing rate is pretty fast.

The fun really began at the end of the north turn when we lined up with runway 1 right. The airport is just a dark hole in a sea of lights until you get close. Farther away, we were much lower, I could see the Luxor light beam, and the streets and buildings began to come into view.

The part that inspired this trip report was just seconds from touchdown as we crossed Las Vegas Blvd. In full night time, at an elevated view, I looked right down the strip at the Welcome To Las Vegas sign, Mandalay Bay, MGM, Excalibur, and own down. I'm sure many passengers caught a glimpse too. What they didn't get is to see it coming from the semi-panoramic view I had.

I guess I still don't feel like a local if I get excited about views like that. I just wish there were words to describe the whole approach. The radios were extremely busy, we were constantly getting speed, altitude and heading changes, the pilots were busy setting spoilers, flaps, slats, gear, and other checklist items. We were watching for other air traffic. I was in full situational awareness of what was going on the cockpit, and still took time to take in the scenery.

JMT, wow what a great description! This last trip was the first time we flew in at night and it was exciting to see the city that way. We've flown out at night but its not the same as when you arrive with all that anticipation.

I bet it be great to see from the cockpit.

Thanks again,
Karen

Joe, I'd say you did a pretty good job finding the words.
You can have no idea of how much you r post was a gift to me today. We are in the middle of a sad event in our lives, and your report lifted me out of that, even if only for a few minutes. Thank you.


But - I was surprised to read about an airline employee getting nervous about the mountains out there. Should we all be nervous?

Kes

I remember you posting about a jump-seat trip years ago, but the timing had to make this one special. Thanks for sharing the view.

Phoenix for company business? Just a hop, skip and a jump away. Go ahead....rub it in! LOL

I'm sure you had the best seat in the house for the approach and landing. WOW!

Thanks for the trip report, it's one of the few I've ever read where the flight home was eventful and it was still "a good thing".

I fly in the jumpseat quite often. I flew it a few weeks ago when I visited the capital city of California...for company business. Not much of a trip report there.

The airport in Las Vegas is a very complex machine that has overgrown it's boundaries and keeps on growing. It is very small for the amount of traffic it handles. It is relatively complex just to taxi around on the ground. The approaches into the area are limited by military restricted areas and terrain. It is "the bottleneck" for some airlines, including the one I work for. Even the radio communication is quick, precise, complex yet efficient, and too busy. I spent many years at DFW, which handles more traffic, has 8 runways, 4 bridges over the highway and countless taxi ways. It is not near as complex as McCarran because it sits on much more real estate and has more airspace to work with. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Las Vegas air travel.

Because of the complexity in approaches, there isn't a lot of room for error. Especially in prime times. Not only do they have to get a long line of planes in, they have to get many other planes out. If one plane blows it's altitude or speed restrictions, there often isn't a lot of room to get it back on track. So maybe you can appreciate our concern when a plane is told to "follow the Boeing at 12 o'clock, 3 miles out", and he replies in foreign accent, "OK, I follow the Boeing at 3 o'clock, descending to 3 thousand." It got worse and I think they ended up sending him to the back of the conga line.

Soooooo, with no depth percption to the mountains, and the horizon above us, I didn't know if we were 3 miles or 30 miles from the mountains. And each altitude change put that horizon a little higher up.

I wasn't really scared. I was just flying into the unknown. Maybe someday I will become familiar with this approach and get a daylight view and laugh at myself. Or I might get a daylight view and appreciate why they made that flight from Mexico change his radio frequency.

I remember flying into Vegas back in the Braniff days. We'd be over 100 miles out, call the runway in sight, and get a "cleared to land". Of course, we didn't really see the runway. We barely saw the city, and saw where the airport was, and knew where the runway was on the airport. In todays approaches, you don't get "cleared to land" until about a minute or so from touchdown.

I found an approach plate for LAS online and studied it. I don't know exactly which approach we used so I can't vouch for exactly where we were at any given moment. It does show the mountains and gives elevations. From what I can tell, we weren't in any danger although my concerns were legitimate. Our guidance instructions needed to be accurate and we had to follow them closely. It's not an area that you want to mess around in.

I typicall get a seat on the right side of the plane to get the best view of Vegas on approach. I'd say 90+% of my landings have been to the West.

One time a year or so ago, we were approaching Vegas and I couldn't make out any landmarks. Started to wonder if we were actually in Vegas? About that time I saw the outlet mall and a few seconds later we were on the ground, landing to the NE.

I was in the outlet mall's parking lot about a year ago with someone (can't remember who), I pointed out a jet on a REAL steep approach headed for that NE runway and said, he ain't gonna get it down. The words no more than got out of my mouth when the nose came up followed by the landing gear and around he went.

I've got a feeling that those steep approaches combined with the heat rising off that pavement can be kind of tough some times.

Thanks for sharing the view from the front of the plane, JMT.........I could almost see it.
Of course the "invisible" mountains are rather a concern tonight, as I sit and wait for Toby's 2 hour delayed plane from DFW..........which is supposed to land in about fifteen minutes!

I'd love to do the same approach tonight. There is a full moon or most of one tonight and very few clouds. It should be an awesome view.