Airport at Prescott

Roads of the Southwest, is destined always to be a leader in the volume of air travel.

Weather is the answer . . . good flying weather.

In fact, Sky Harbor last December handled more air traffic than any other airport in the nation.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration says that in the 31 days which closed out 1946, a total of 31,733 aircraftcraft of all types landed or took off from the Phoenix airfield.

LaGuardia Field in New York handled only 14,613, Chicago Municipal Airport, 15,209; Detroit, 16,368; Denver, 19,240, and Cleveland, 22,738. Atlanta, Ga., held second place with 30,066 landings and takeoffs, and Long Beach in California was third with 29,983.

Making the Phoenix record all the more impressive was the fact that a handful of CAA employes who around the clock man a glass-walled control tower atop the airport's main hangar brought those ships in or sent them on their way without an accident of any kind causing injury or death at the field.

In fact, Sky Harbor boasted that kind of safety throughout 1946.

Weather helped Sky Harbor, long one of the top half-dozen airports in the nation from the standpoint of air traffic volume, move into the enviable top position during December. Generally the port ranked second or third through most of 1946.

Unexcelled for flying in the Valley of the Sun, the December weather was so bad at many of the nation's major airports that it grounded or kept hundreds of planes away. But in achieving its impressive month-by-month record, Phoenix has more advantages in its favor.

For instance, the 31,733 landings and takeoffs Sky Harbor achieved in December include every type of plane arriving at or departing the field. Thousands of landings and takeoffs are made each month by private and student fliers visiting or based at the port-traffic not ordinarily found at the nation's great air centers.

In their glass-walled domain overlooking the port, CAA workers virtually are rulers of all they survey.

They control the movements of every person on the flight strip or in the landing area, whether on foot, in a motor vehicle or plane, and they control all air traffic within a three-mile radius of their tower, up to a height of 1,500 feet.

Such import has the Phoenix field achieved that the CAA now plans to extend its safety camp campaign to the Arizona capitol with installation of "localizers," radio beams that direct pilots to the center of a runway; "glide paths," beams which give a pilot his elevation and direct him downward to the runway; markers which tell a pilot his exact distance from the airfield; compass locators, which allow a pilot to determine the exact direction to a field, and approach lights, which lead to the runway.

Now, rapidly as the winds through which they soar are wont to change, so, too, is aircraft design changing. And with these changes comes the vital need of larger, ever larger, landing fields.

Sky Harbor will not be found wanting.

For the Phoenix men who pioneered aviation in this desert oasis wrote well their chapters of its flying history. Even if they did start from a cow pasture.

Ernest A. Love Field, one of the best equipped airports in Arizona, with a reputation for friendly and courteous personal service to fliers, is municipally maintained by the City of Prescott, Yavapai County. This airport is in north-central Arizona with Sky Harbor (Phoenix) 87 air miles to the south the nearest comparable field.

This is a CAA class 4 airport located on the Los Angeles, Amarillo airway (east-west sector) and U. S. Range Station SBRAZ is located just five miles northwest of the field. It is also on the north-south airway from Phoenix to Grand Canyon and Flagstaff and is thus an important point of intersection for the air routes of the Southwest.

The airport is equipped with a NE/SW paved runway 150 feet by 6000 feet, and a NW/SE runway 100 feet by 4400 feet (this is to be lengthened to 5200 feet), with the necessary taxi strips and apron. Boundary lights mark the field and the NE/SW runway is marked with contact lights that are available by request without fee, permitting full night operations. Three large hangars afford ample storage space; there is no tie down fee. Daylight mechanical service is always available and emergency night service can be obtained. Fuel storage at the airport is 31,000 gallons. Two major brands of 80, 91, and 100 octane are always available and the latest type dispensing or fueling equipment was installed during August of 1946, making it possible to fuel ships of every size.

A U. S. Airways Communication Station and U. S. Weather Bureau Station are at the airport to assist fliers in procuring weather data and other navigation information, rendering 24 hour service.

And mentioning weather, the U. S. Weather Bureau furnishes the data based on a three year hourly record (1943-1945 inclusive) the following averages: 302 days per year without precipitation; 173 days clear; 102 days partly cloudy; 91 cloudy; only 7 days per year with fog and then only of short duration. The prevailing winds are SW/NE; secondary winds are SE/NW and the prevailing high velocity winds are S/N and SW/NE and thus coincide almost absolutely with the longer NE/SW runway. The average wind velocity is 8-1 mph and only 3 days per year is gale velocity recorded. Upon the basis of records available this airport one mile high is a year round port of call.

Airport at

Average flying weather at Prescott Airport, based upon records of the U. S. Weather Bureau for ceiling and visibility, is shown as follows: "Contact" conditions require a visibility of not less than three miles and a ceiling of not less than one thousand feet. "Instrument" conditions are when either visibility or ceiling is below these values. Complete tabulations of frequencies of "Contact" and "Instrument" flight conditions are available only since January 1, 1946. During the first seven months of 1946, conditions were "Instrument" for only 34 hours, or less than one percent of the time. Records for the three years, 1943 to 1945 inclusive, show that there are an average of 342 days per year during which the flying conditions are entirely "Contact." During the remaining 23 days of the year, conditions are "Instrument" for a portion of the day. No day ever on record shows "Instrument" conditions for the entire 24 hours. In other words, "Contact" conditions may be found at Prescott at some time of the day 365 days per year, while conditions are entirely "Contact" all day for 342 days per year.

Sky Village consisting of Coffee Shop and overnight cabins for fliers is unique at Prescott. Few other airports render this service. The coffee shop is open for regular