As an aircraft owner, part owner or fleet manager, your primary concern is usually getting where you want to go efficiently. You probably leave decisions and calculations about weather and density altitude to your pilots. There is a point where such decisions and calculations do need to be considered, so that you don’t encounter unnecessary delay or expense. If your business or vacations take you frequently to places that are considered “hot and high,” it’s important to factor that into your aircraft choice and management.
Dallas Jet International has an extensive process that we use every time we acquire an aircraft for a client. During the first two steps of that process, we become acquainted with your transportation needs and expectations. Do your itineraries include Denver, Calgary, or Las Vegas, or other hot and/or high destinations? Will you want to take off from these airports in the middle of the day?
Based on your responses, we select the aircraft type that will provide the most reliable, efficient transportation to the places you need to go.
Temperatures are frequently over 100 degrees during a Denver summer day.
It requires more power to take off – engine performance suffers due to the high density altitude.
Some of the considerations we need to make for “hot and high” flying conditions include the following:
- Airplanes require a longer takeoff run, potentially exceeding the amount of available runway. (This may impact your ability to land and take off from some smaller, more remote airports.)
- Low air density hampers an aircraft’s ability to climb. In some cases, an aircraft may be unable to climb rapidly enough to clear terrain surrounding a mountain airport.
- In some cases, aircraft have landed at high-altitude airports by taking advantage of cold temperatures only to become stranded as temperatures warmed and air density decreased.
- At many airports and locations, there are other specific FAA regulations and guidelines that impact the ability to take off or land at specific times.
FAA regulations require that planes departing Aspen during inclement weather have the ability to clear nearby mountain tops with one engine inoperative.
This leaves some private planes grounded.
Photo by Mark Fox, The Aspen Times
As an example, a client who has business or home in Aspen Colorado has a unique issue – FAA regulations require that departures during inclement weather (instrument flying conditions) the aircraft must be able to clear nearby mountaintops with one inoperative engine. This requirement keeps many private jets grounded at Aspen during cloudy weather. There are several aircraft that are better suited to perform out of high and hot airports. We at Dallas Jet International try to analyze our clients’ needs before deciding on a certain model of aircraft.
Hot and high airports
Notable examples of hot and high airports include:
- Aspen, Colorado – Aspen-Pitkin County Airport
- Addis Ababa – Bole Airport
- Brasília – Brasília Airport
- Bogotá – El Dorado Airport
- Calgary – Calgary International Airport, especially from late spring to early autumn
- Denver – Denver International Airport, especially from late spring to early autumn
- Edwards Air Force Base
- Harare – Harare Airport
- Johannesburg – OR Tambo International Airport
- Kabul – Kabul Airport
- La Paz – El Alto International Airport (not generally a “hot” airport, as average high temperatures are never more than 15 °C (59 °F) throughout the year, but one of the world’s highest commercial airports at 13,325 feet (4,061.5 m))
- Madrid – Madrid-Barajas International Airport
- Mexico City – Mexico City International Airport
- Phoenix – Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (altitude of 1,135 feet (346 m) is not extreme, but the area’s hot desert climate gives it “hot and high” characteristics for most of the year)
- Quito – Mariscal Sucre Airport
- Salt Lake City – Salt Lake City International Airport, especially from late spring to early autumn
- Telluride– Telluride Regional Airport
- Yerevan – Zvartnots International Airport
Your Situation, DJI’s Experience
DJI understands that our success in this business depends on trusted long-term and newly created relationships. Those come from listening carefully to our customers’ needs, asking questions to ensure we understand their situation and priorities, and judiciously applying our experience to ensure that every customer is completely satisfied the aircraft we collectively choose and the aircraft best suited to their needs.
