- Today, we're on our way to Aspen.
It's a little bit of a tricky airport.
(upbeat music)
Rain everywhere.
- [Brett] 11,000, 14,000.
- [Tex] Yeah, right there. - Wow.
- [Tex] We got another 14,000.
- Oh my god. That scenery.
(lively upbeat music)
- [Radio] 100.
- Morning from LA right now.
I'm travelling up to Van Nuys.
My instructor Tex has called me.
He's got a job with his new jet company,
and he is going to fly me to one
of the most exciting airport in the US
to get her today.
(upbeat cheerful music)
- Good morning. How are you?
- [Sam] Good.
- Are you here for your Aspen check-in?
- Yes, ready to fly the Aspen. Yeah.
- How many personal items do you have with you today?
- [Sam] Oh, just a backpack. - Okay.
- [Sam] Going for the day and come back.
- All right. Awesome.
So you're all set here,
and here's your boarding card
with your seat number inside.
- [Sam] This is my boarding card?
- [Attendant] Yes, sir.
- This is very different.
Here I am. I'm the first one to arrive today.
I guess I arrived too early. 60 minutes.
And didn't feel like an airport here, right?
It feels like more like a lounge or a spa.
- Would you like a mimosa or any beverage to drink?
- [Sam] Yeah, I'm good today.
Thanks so much for asking.
- Awesome.
- [Sam] I haven't seen other passengers.
Where where are they? Am I the only passenger today?
- You're the only one for now,
but since we have a 20 minute check-in time,
our guests usually take advantage of that.
(lively upbeat music)
(plane whirring)
(lively upbeat music)
(propellers spinning)
(lively upbeat music)
- [Sam] Oh mighty instructor. How are you?
- Hello, Sam.
- [Sam] How are this morning?
Good you to see you, man.
- Good to see you, as well.
Finally came aboard.
- [Sam] Good to see you.
(Tex and Sam laughing)
- It's been a long time.
- [Sam] Wow. Good morning, captain.
- Welcome.
- You ready to fly to Aspen today, Sam?
- [Sam] Well, that's why I'm here,
and I'm flying there.
You invite me on this flight. (Tex laughing)
- Yeah. So today we're on our way to Aspen.
It's a little bit of a tricky airport,
but something we do pretty often here at Arrow.
Today, it's going to be pretty smooth, not a whole lot,
but one thing we normally have to worry about is going in.
It's a one way in, one way out airport.
So we have to keep our eye out for traffic.
Another big hurdle we have
to come across sometimes is weather.
A big one is wind shear.
Brett here actually has encountered wind shear there once.
Once, right?
- [Brett] Yeah, once.
- At about 100 feet. About 100 feet.
And it was decreasing, right?
- No, it was increasing performance.
- Oh, it was increasing.
- So we didn't have to go around.
It was fine, but it's something you just have
to be aware of in the mountains as the winds swirl.
Just any direction they come from,
it can create a lot of turbulence.
- So it's about 8,000 net feet MSL.
Quite a bit of traffic.
- [Sam] Wow. That's high.
8,000 feet. - Yeah. It is.
- [Sam] That's one of the highest in the US.
- Yeah. It's a big one.
- [Sam] All right.
I know you're going to take me safely there.
- Yeah. We'll get there safe.
- All right, man.
(lively upbeat music)
Look, oh my God, there's a gift.
Very nice.
Well, I thought I was special,
but every passenger got this gift
on their seats.
Of course it's expensive. It's not cheap.
The ticket is over $1000 one way to Aspen,
but Aspen's a very rich people's playground, right?
It's beautiful. It's high up there.
It's Alpine-like, right?
I'm looking forward to my flight there.
(lively upbeat music)
- Water while we wait?
- No, I'm fine right now.
- Would you like any water while we wait?
- [Sam] Okay, yeah.
- [Attendant] Here you go.
- [Sam] Thank you.
- [Attendant] Your welcome.
- So I checked out my gift.
It's actually like a cosmetic set.
It's like amenity kits.
Anti-aging, which is what I need right now.
- [Announcement On Speaker] Insert the metal bits
into the buckle and pull the loose end
to tighten above your head.
Remain seated and pull the yellow mask-
- So let's check out the recline here.
This is a pretty deep recline.
Oops. (engine roaring)
I hear they start engine.
Let me just sit forward again.
(lively upbeat music)
(engine roaring)
(propellers whirring)
(plane taking off)
(lively upbeat music)
- Would you like a hot towel?
- [Sam] Yep. Thank you.
- [Passenger] Thank you so much.
- [Attendant] Here you go.
- [Sam] Thank you so much.
- What would you like?
- There are only snacks available
on the two hour flight,
but I think they can really serve a nice meal
to enhance that premium experience.
There are just 16 seats in the cabin.
It does feel private and cosy,
and I can see the decor has stunned up nicely
on this plane.
I fell asleep fast and when I woke up,
we just started our descent,
and the landscape has completely changed.
(upbeat lively music)
I feel like I'm back to Switzerland.
This is like over the Alps. 8000 feet.
Very excited. (engine roaring)
(bright upbeat music)
(lively upbeat music)
You must have flow into Aspen before.
What is it like?
- I flew into before.
It's always a little tricky.
I believe the angle of descent is very steep.
It's something like 6.5 degrees
or something like that.
So it feels like we're coming in.
- [Sam] Nose-diving.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, but it's super nice
because you have this scenery on both sides.
You have very tall mountains,
so it's a really pretty approach.
- [Sam] We have the airport insight
on the down wind lake,
but our plane was really high.
So I expect a sharp descent to get into Aspen.
(lively upbeat music)
- [Radio] 100.
(plane impacting pavement)
(engines decreasing)
(brakes squeaking)
(propellers whirring)
(lively upbeat music)
- Oh my God.
That scenery of final approach. So enjoyable.
It really remind me not only Switzerland,
I think it's also like Bhutan.
Paro is like, you've got a flat valley
for a runway and then you have mountains
around both sides and then you're coming
in narrow passage.
It was such a good landing.
I'm going to walk up to the cock pit later
to ask Tex more about it.
Amazing landing. - Yeah.
- [Sam] Good job.
That was amazing. (Tex laughing)
- I know I could take all their credit,
but it was actually the captain.
- [Sam] Captain's landing
only here. (Tex laughing)
- Yeah. Thank you.
- [Sam] Yeah. Great shot.
- So we had about an hour and 45 minute flight today
with a tailwind.
We were doing about 470, 450 knots.
Somewhere around there.
We went to our max altitude
to 370 today.
That's the max for the 135.
Nothing too crazy coming down the way in,
except for a little bit of weather.
So today we did the visual.
There was a lot of traffic today.
So they had us kind of enter the pattern
from the east side here.
They brought us down over Loyyd, as you can see.
We started a descent and then entered the down wind of base.
And then the final.
We started descending around Loyyd.
That's where we were kind of hitting some
of that weather-
- [Sam] There's rains everywhere.
- [Tex] Yeah, it's rain everywhere.
- [Sam] 11,000. 14,000.
- [Tex] Right there. - Wow.
- [Tex] Yeah, we got another one at 14,000.
- [Sam] Yeah.
- [Tex] That one's at 12, 13,000, so-
- [Sam] Yeah.
- So there's definitely a lot of peaks around us.
And so this is the approach
which you need a specific training for here.
And then you start this DMER
around where we use GPS
and start the approach from there.
So there's some pretty drastic drops
in altitude as you can see here.
You may or may not be able to tell, but that's part
of the reason why this approach requires training
or extra training I should say.
And why we only allow captains
to land here and why the landing was so good today.
- [Sam] Well, I know you'll be a captain very soon, right?
- I'm crossing my fingers, but yes.
- [Sam] Yeah. So next time will be your landing here.
- Yeah. (Tex laughing)
(lively upbeat music)
Sam, we'll see you back (propellers whirring)
in half an hour.
- [Sam] Yeah. I'm going to explore.
See you later.
- See you later.
- Beautiful place. (propellers whirring)
Let's go and check out the airport and come back.
- All right. Well, welcome to Aspen.
We're going to take a quick drive up the road here.
There's a little hill behind the airport,
and it'll hopefully give us a nice view of the runway.
- Yeah. Let's do it.
Now this is like America's Austria or Europe,
except we have a very, really wide road here.
(lively upbeat music)
Oh yeah.
Full airport's coming to sight.
So we can see half the runway here.
This end is runway three-three.
The other end is one-five.
So I landed on runway one-five,
but a takeoff has to be
on the opposite direction.
Fly out on runway three-three.
So there's only one way in runway one-five,
and one way out runway three-three.
(lively upbeat music)
So there's a perimeter row goes all
around the airport, which is really easy access.
You can actually put your phone
through these holes.
There's big holes.
You can put your lens and everything through,
so it's very easy for plane-spotting here actually.
- So if you see that hill right
at of the runway there, (plane taking off)
you come over that and then we start our descent.
Our sharp descent down to runway one-five.
(lively upbeat music)
(propellers whirring)
(lively upbeat music)
(engine roaring)
- [Brett] Everything cleared for (indistinct)
(engine roaring)
(propellers whirring)
(lively upbeat music)
- [Sam] Another unique airport.
Another nice flight.
Another new carrier checked off my law book.
Hope you enjoyed the fly with me.
(lively upbeat music)