Profile for dazuppa

Nice and quiet mountainous airport - located in a beautiful valley, with excellent runway, very well cared about, and just slightly challenging approaches due to elevated terrain surrounding the field. Nothing to be worried about if your plane can perform - and the scenery around is simply adorable! Note that you can easily barge into US airspace flying southbound, so keep your eyes open unless that was your plan...

Been there a couple of weeks ago, mid-May '13, passed low and over. Fairly easy to find, though not many landmark features around. Looks like a private airstrip, currently not quite taken care of. It is listed in CFS, though without a chart - unusual! There was an empty hangar at the end of the airstrip, and southbound approach was almost over the rooftops of the farmers' house. I refrained from landing there due to a visibly rough and deteriorated surface - and that's a pity, as location is pretty neat. Hope this strip will recover at some point, heard rumors about that, but please check with the owner before arriving!

Been there yesterday, and man, wasn't that an example of mechanical turbulence... Brutal! My poor 172 was tossed around like a paper plane, yoke hitting the stops and ASI jumping from 60 to 100 in a blink of an eye. Twice got sucked down in a wind shear while on short final, adding full power to arrest the descent... Overall - three awesomely challenging circuits, totally worth visiting the place. And no one around that wonderful day (wondering why?)

Initially I thought that horrible turbulence was a result of the crosswind blasting over the airport buildings, but no - it was as "bumpy" all around, low and high, thanks to a bunch of irregularly-shaped hills just west of the airport, with a lee wave stuck aside of a mountain ridge nearby.

Besides that, a very nice aerodrome - easy to find, with clean approaches and lots of space around in case your engine decides to quit. Runway is in the good shape, and airport name is written on a main taxiway - very welcoming and friendly.

Vulcan is a bit of challenge to discover, sitting "in the middle of nowhere", close to a little town next to a railroad. When approaching from the West, main runway looks as long as the town itself!

There is no doubt when you find Vulcan, as its name is written in huge white letters on the ramp. I haven't stop there yet, just touch and go's - but the place looks clean, nice, and well maintained. Reasonably wide, long, asphalt runway in a very good condition, easy approaches.

NDB sitting next to the runway is... well... not really useful. I mean, when you finally get a steady signal, it means that you are just a couple of miles from the field. Should be interesting to shoot some training approaches, though.

I have been to High River twice, always in winter, and found it hibernated. Looks like there is a community somewhere, but I wasn't able to catch up with them.

Runway is huge, long, clean and well maintained. Note the long displaced thresholds, though. And caution with crosswinds, these can be quite intense as the prairie around is flat for miles and miles around!

Easy to find, with clean approaches and light traffic - though somehow there was always someone on the frequency (or in the circuit) when I was flying there.