Private Jet Charter

Van Nuys California KVNY Las Vegas KLAS

Van Nuys is one of the most popular airports in the Los Angeles area for general aviation. It is located north of Los Angeles International Airport just over the hill. The weather is typically excellent in southern California, with good visibility, stable air, and comfortable temperatures. Although a relatively small airport, it can be surprisingly busy on days with planes anxious to get fueled and turned. There are several FBO's on the field, but on this particular day, we were flying out of Signature flight support.

Piloting a Hawker 800XP carrying two passengers and minimum luggage, we loaded up the required fuel to cover our 230 n.m. trip to Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport, KLAS. We loaded up our passengers, completed the startup, and received clearance to taxi to runway 16R where we would climb to 2500 feet on a heading and wait until we received radar vectors to the first fix on our filed flight plan.

We received our clearance for takeoff, spooled up the engines to takeoff N1 settings, and performed a rolling takeoff, nice and smooth for the passengers. Because KVNY is under Los Angeles Class B airspace, we had to pull back the power climbing through 1000 feet for a nice smooth level off at 2500' doing 200 kts., the maximum legal speed allowed flying under class B. As usual there was a great deal of traffic showing on the TCAS, so we maintained due vigilance to visually spot all nearby traffic. In a very busy few minutes, we received vectors to our initial waypoint, and slowly received step-ups to our filed altitude of 22,000'.

After leaving the Los Angeles airspace and clearing 10,000', we accelerated to 280 kts. indicated airspeed as we continued the climb. 230 n.m is a short trip for a jet, so once we reached our cruising altitude we prepared for the Kepec 2 arrival into KLAS. We loaded up the FMS, planned the descent, made our necessary calls, and checked the local weather once again to keep ourselves ready.

Flying into KLAS, we usually use Signature as our FBO which is located on the southwest side of the field near the departure end of 1L. Today we planned on landing on 25R, which provides 14,500 of runway, so as we were cleared to land and in the flare, I milked the Hawker just a bit to grease the landing. We taxied off to the right, and received clearance to taxi across 1L and 1R to the FBO. Another great day of flying in the southwest. Beautiful weather, clear skies, and uneventful flying.