ONTario approach paths
by Dan DeWeese, 2018/3/3.
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I took the time to create a kmz file depicting the 2 approach paths into ONTario airport that overfly the site. Check it out. GPS navigation can place planes within feet of the approach waypoints. One of the waypoints (RAAFI 34.24080,-117.33178) is between billboard and pine at 8000 ft. If you are at this approximate altitude, you are going to be virtually invisible against the terrain backdrop. Their speed at this point is about 250 mph. Not a lot of time to be seen or avoided. They are 14 minutes from landing and running through their checklist and might not even be looking out the window. Week and a half ago I was setting up at Crestline and an airliner crossed this point at approx. 7000 ft. East winds aloft that day put the climb at billboard drifting right into that spot in space. Unnerving given that 30 tons of aluminum just cut through that spot 30 minutes previous. Our slow flying speeds and the prevailing wind direction has us facing south the majority of the time we fly. The approaching jets are coming from the NW, in line with El Mirage dry lake. The other approach path crosses right over Rim Forest at a similar altitude from a point over Lake Arrowhead. The path crosses over the Red Rock Wall turnout and resident thermal. Realistically, we can expect them crossing the area between the high school and Strawberry Peak at altitudes from 7k plus. When I attended the town meeting in Lake Arrowhead with the FAA, they mentioned moving EAGLZ (the approach path over Lake Arrowhead) to the east a couple miles for night flights only.
How often? Today between noon and 515pm there be 7 passenger flights from the NW and 3 from the NE. Not a lot, but more than none. I don’t have any count on cargo flights. There might be just as many of those or more.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/21wnk3pbtq3kuhm/EAGLZandGLRNO.kmz?dl=0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=11dPR-B6Xv61I97c0wCLrnZh0WHUuuXf4
