Moab Airport - Best Little Airport in the Four Corners
While visiting Moab, Utah in September 2008 I had many great experiences. One of the best was a visit to Canyonlands Field,
better known as the Moab Airport. That the regional airport serves Moab
and all of Southeastern Utah. With its internationally assigned
airport code of “CNY”,
one might think it was the “City of New York” airport, but the acronym
is equally descriptive of CaNYonlands. The more logical “CAN”
designation disappeared early on to the Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou, PR China. Does the acronym “CAN” stand for “Canton”?
Regardless of its moniker, CNY is a rare hybrid
airport, serving both general and commercial aviation on the same
field. As long as there is no commercial flight in the vicinity,
citizens may visit the hangers and the open tie-down area. Throughout
normal business hours, the terminal is open to all.
On the day I visited, I met first with my friend and Great Lakes Airlines
employee, Ms. Tiger Keogh. Great Lakes Airlines holds the contract for
daily passenger service both “To” and “From” Denver, Colorado. Because
of CNY’s relatively low passenger volume, Tiger and her counterparts
must wear several hats.
That day, I found Tiger checking in two passengers
who were heading for the Upper Midwest. Once they received their
tickets, they proceeded to the U.S. Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) area, where they received a security screening identical to what one finds in larger airports.
Mr. Terry Carlson, Manager for TSA at Moab told me
that with the help of a federal government grant, his department
operates a full security screening facility in Moab. If every “earmark”
that the U.S. Congress passed was as worthy as this one, it might
restore our faith in government. Terry went on to say that if you check
in through TSA at Canyonlands Field, you can fly from Moab, through
Denver and on to destinations that are as far away as Dusseldorf,
Germany, all without any further security screening.
Next, Terry offered me a walking tour of the
airfield, including a close-up look at the airplanes parked on the
tarmac. As soon as we walked on to the field, I spotted a bright red
and white Cessna 182,
parked in the front row. Beyond its eye-dazzling paint job, there was
something different about this Cessna 182. With its high stance and
longer wings, I would say, “it had attitude”.
Standing beneath the wing of this beautiful aircraft
was its engineer, manufacturer and owner, Todd Peterson. Todd is a
principal at Peterson’s Performance Plus, based in El Dorado, Kansas, not far from Cessna’s home in Wichita, Kansas. You can read all about Todd’s company at the company website. Todd has experience as both a back country pilot and an aeronautical engineer. This rare combination of 
experience allows him to create unique and functional “off-road airplanes”.
Southwestern Utah is peppered with old airstrips,
most of which date back to the uranium boom of the 1950s. When
prospecting and mining folded in the late 1950s, so too did maintenance
on most of these airstrips. Today these fields often receive their
maintenance from volunteers, if there is any at all. With the area’s
extreme variability of wind, weather and terrain, it takes a plane as
capable as Todd Peterson’s King Katmai 300 SE/STOL to utilize these
fields.
When we expressed interest, Todd offered to take
Terry and me on a guided tour of his exceptional aircraft. As you might
expect Todd’s personal plane is an experimental model, featuring a 300
horsepower turbocharged engine. As Todd spoke, I realized that this red
and white beauty looked brand new.
Todd’s version of alchemy is to take a small
airplane originally manufactured thirty years ago, and then completely
transform it. The result is an aircraft featuring safety and
performance that were unimagined in the past. To do 
this,
Todd and his team start with the best airframes available, and then
accomplish a complete “frame-up” restoration. A peek through the open
door to the instrument panel shows that the panel and all of its
components are brand new. The details include Katmai’s trademark bear
paw logo in the center of the wheel.
Since continued use is all that keeps some remote
airstrips open, strong landing gear is essential for “ironing out the
rough spots”. In the late spring, it is common to make a final approach
on a one-way airfield, only to find tumbleweeds encroaching on to the
edges of the airstrip.
A look at the Katmai’s main landing gear strut shows
how “beefy” it is, when compared to original equipment. The stainless
steel leading edge acts as a brush-cutter, should errant foliage make
its way on to a landing strip. To create an extra safety margin on
rough fields, the King Katmai also features oversized balloon tires,
designed for rocky or rough terrain.
In order to create additional lift and increased
airworthiness on short fields and hot days, the King Katmai features
beautifully integrated wing-extensions. The extra wing surface and
their flared tips help to create a slower stall speed and greater
overall lifting capacity.
Up front, the King Katmai sports two airfoils known
as canards. Sprouting from the belt-line of the engine cowling, these
mini-wings add lift at the front of the plane, where one often needs it
most. By adjusting the canards’ angle of attack, the pilot can trim the
plane for slow speeds and level flight, thus providing better
forward-vision during a landing approach.
After our visit, Todd graciously offered me a DVD,
which shows takeoffs and landings at many remote airstrips in
Southeastern Utah. For a novice flier, an airstrip with a steep
drop-off or a cliff-face at the end of the runway might seem daunting.
For Todd, it is all in an afternoon’s fun. 
Utilizing a dashboard-mounted camera, the viewer
sees exactly what the pilot sees as he maneuvers the airplane. Todd
offers live narration on approach, landing and takeoff at each field.
If there is a nearby archeological point of interest, Todd takes you on a
tour of that, as well. On his website, both the Utah DVD and a new Idaho DVD are for sale at a reasonable price.
For most Americans, the archetype of a bush pilot is
a man flying a float-plane, somewhere in the wilds of Alaska. Now
there is a new breed, using wheeled aircraft to access remote and exotic
sites. Although the price tag for this back country access by air is
not low, an expenditure of less than $400,000 gives any intrepid pilot
the best “off-road airplane” in the sky.
Immediately, my daydreams went to a seldom-seen
airstrip in Canyonlands. There, the love of my life sits to my left and
my King Katmai sits a little farther away to my right. Alone together,
my love and I toast the sunset with chilled champagne in crystal.
After dinner fresh from our grill, we stop to view the night sky, and
then retire to our tent. Our accommodations include a queen-sized
airbed, with luxury bedding. There is a hot water, enclosed shower just
outside our door.
Respecting the peace and quiet of our unique campground, we use battery
power for lights and refrigeration. With the huge cargo carrying
capacity of our King Katmai, we can “pack in” almost anything that we
want and still not exceed our aircraft’s safety margins. Before turning
in, we plan a day hike up an untracked canyon. To keep the terrain
untracked, we will use its dry stream bed as our trail. When the
planning is done, we slip between clean sheets and dream about this
little adventure that we are living. What is it that “they” say? “If
you can dream it, you can do it”.
As
I returned from my reverie, activities picked up elsewhere at CNY. The
afternoon flight from Denver was about to arrive. When a commercial
aircraft is approaching, the public must leave the field. Thus I missed
getting a picture of Tiger out on the tarmac, as she provided ground
and parking control for the pressurized sixteen-passenger, twin-engine
turboprop.
In 2007, I had flown from Moab to Burbank,
California. In order to do so, I first flew on a smaller turboprop to
Salt Lake City, Utah, then another flight to Phoenix, Arizona and then a
final flight to Burbank. At the time, the only way to fly to Denver
was first to drive ninety miles to Grand Junction, Colorado and then
take a flight from there. Last year, it took me over eight hours to
reach my destination. Since then, Moab’s air service has markedly
improved.
Great Lakes Airlines, a well-recognized regional
carrier, with an excellent safety and maintenance record, took over the
Moab scheduled-service contract in 2008. The new twice-a-day flights to
Denver improve convenience, since Denver is the largest hub in the
Mountain West Region. The Moab to Denver service allows one-stop
service to Burbank and many other regional airports.
Additionally, each Great Lakes Airlines flight out
of Moab Airport shares flight codes with the regional carrier, Frontier
Airlines and with United Airlines, which is the largest carrier serving Denver International Airport.
This new service is another great example of U.S. federal grant money
going for the public good. Now, Moab and the fast-growing Southeastern
Utah area can enjoy the highest quality service and security available,
right there at Canyonlands Field, just a few miles north of town”.
On that September afternoon, the Great Lakes
Airlines Pilot finished his post-flight checklist and then came out to
enjoy the fresh air at Canyonlands Field. Having helped remove the
checked baggage from the plane, Tiger could once again go inside and
resume her ticket counter duties. Ever vigilant, one of Terry Carlson’s
TSA staff members entered the airliner cabin to conduct a routine
check. At the same time, Tiger’s smile tells us how much she enjoys her
job.
Tiger, a native of Moab, grew up believing that a
woman could do any job, if given the opportunity. These days Tiger
works four days each week in downtown Moab, where she handles
administrative duties for Cloudrock.
Author's Note - Cloudrock was a luxury residential development that
received first-phase approval by Grand County, Utah in 2008. Located
at Johnson’s Up-On-Top Mesa the company pledged to respect the environment as it developed $million homes, almost in the shadows of the La Sal Mountains.
With the economy for luxury second homes drying up like the aquifer it
might someday straddle, Cloudrock closed their website and their office
on Main Street, Moab, Utah in early 2010.
As a break from the land development business, one
day each week Tiger enjoys the physical and intellectual challenge of
balancing ticket agent, ground crew and baggage-handling duties for
Great Lakes Airlines.
After my visit to Canyonlands Field that day, I had
to tell the world that this is one of America’s great places. If you
think that all government projects are a waste of money, come to
Canyonlands Field and experience the excellent services available to
Moab residents and visitors alike. Now that more corporate executives
and government officials will be “flying coach” to their second homes or
vacations in Moab, we are sure that they too will appreciate the new
amenities. Rather than driving to Moab the next time I visit, I plan to
fly.
In
black lettering on the engine cowling was the single word, “Kodiak”.
With its compact size and under-fuselage baggage module, it would take a
superior power plant to lift this ten-place aircraft on hot days and
the high altitude (4557 ft. elevation) of Canyonlands Field. Later, I discovered that the Kodiak 100 utilized a Pratt & Whitney PT6-34 turbine engine with 750 horsepower at takeoff. That amount of power provides the safety margin required to access gravel strips and unimproved airfields throughout the Canyonlands area.
lightweight
materials utilized in construction kept takeoff weight to less than
7,300 pounds. With only moderate loading and two passengers, my Nissan
Titan pickup truck weighs over 6,000 pounds. Built for high altitude,
rough terrain takeoffs and landings, the Kodiak appeared to be a cut
above any other airplane of its type.
only
a few minutes the ground crew had secured the Kodiak, unloaded the
baggage and helped a full load of passengers disembark in preparation
for their own personal Moab adventures.
specifically for the conditions at Moab and all around Canyonlands.
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