I understand what Bill is saying although have never experienced this situation. I fly frequently to the Seattle area. Paine Field in Everett is 10 miles further to the U of Washington than is Boeing Field. 10 miles in Seattle traffic can be an easy 10 minutes or a hard hour longer. I will fly to Boeing Field every time and have never had any trouble in the IVP or the Epic LT. Park at Aeroflight to avoid the $50 ramp fee at Galvin ($0 at Aeroflight). I always go in IFR and there is no hassle and no changing runways at the last moment. Even the shorter parallel runway at Boeing is 3700’.
ATC out of Seattle does hold you down and step climb you coming out of Boeing to clear SeaTac traffic if you depart at rush hour. It is never long enough to have any trouble reaching cruise altitude before the Cascade mountain range to the East. If there is a concern about icing in the climb, you can request an uninterrupted climb to cruise in your remarks section of the flight plan. This has worked the few times I have requested this safety consideration. Another option is to request a climb to the west to cruise altitude and then a turn to the East. I have never had to do this and never wished that I had done it.
In the IVP I typically filed for FL 150 to cross the Cascades to my home base in Eastern Washington. This is usually above the icing over the Cascade Mountains which is usually around FL 080 to FL 120.
IF you are arriving into the Seattle area from the East and icing is reported in the decent, you can request a Puget Sound Letdown which will hold you high until you are clear of the Cascades to the East and then have a rapid uninterrupted descent to the warm air below. I have done this once in all the years I have flown to Seattle and put on ½” ice in 2,000’ descending at 2000 fpm and then lost it about 3,000’ lower about 6,000’ AGL. Had I done the normal Chins Arrival, I would have descended into the icing layer over the Cascade Mountains and expected to hold altitude in the middle of the icing for 10 minutes. This would not have been pretty. I would have refused the descent and done a 180 if needed before I entered the reported icing altitude over the Cascades. In my experience ATC is always very accommodating.
As far as engine failure is concerned, if you are departing to the south, Renton Field and Seatac are about 5 miles and the I-5 is just off your left. Departing to the north, keep the engine operational.
Fly Safely and request the safest way.
Carl Cadwell
From: cwfmd@yahoo.com [mailto:cwfmd@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2012 6:03 AM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: Paine Field vs Boeing Re: Recommendations for airports and parking
I recommend Paine Field. It's as close to U of Washington as Boeing Field. There's lots of new airliners to look at as well as the Everett factory where they are built. Castle & Cooke was a nice FBO there with rental car. I have had bad luck with Boeing Field on several visits. The tower may try to assign the short 13L runway while you are on short final. This induced a go around, in the 4P, with high terrain just to the left. On climb out I had to turn close to 13R for comfortable terrain clearance. On another trip I had the strange and unique experience of being cleared into class B, but then "uncleared"(on left downwind for 13) when I crossed an airspace boundary into class D, then immediately back into class B. (This can happen laterally and vertically on left downwind!) I had to call approach later on the ground, to hear that this had happened, but I never could get the guy to explain how the pilot was to know the class B clearance was canceled by flightpath, without notice by radio. Many issues are induced by the simultaneous approaches by airliners into SeaTac about 4-5 nm south. Its threading a needle between the rapidly rising terrain and the often low clouds of the marine layer. On westbound departures which are away from the higher terrain, tower may assign very low altitude restrictions over the congested urban city to help avoid setting off the TCAS go around alarms on the ILS airliners into SeaTac. At least in the 4P, this sets you up with no reasonable place to land and no altitude buffer in case of single engine failure on takeoff. If you decide to take this on, file IFR and shoot the approach to the long runway. Study the terrain and nuances of the congested Class B airspace relative to the terrain. Avoid the pain-- go to Paine:) |
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