Whiskey Creek, or My Last Great Bad Idea

As can be inferred from my last post, I flew a cross-country last Friday morning. I have a list of 5 or 6 cross-countries that I have to complete for my commercial certificate, and I get to pick which one I want to go on, each time I get the chance to make a flight. Well, on Friday I chose the Silver City-Safford-Willcox trip. It seemed like a pretty straightforward trip to knock off the list, except Grant County (the Silver City airport for that trip) had been closing their runway at odd times, seemingly at random. I certainly didn't want to spend time planning a cross-country, only to find I couldn't complete it because of a runway closure. So I had Erin fill out the necessary paperwork that would allow me to do a touch-and-go at Whiskey Creek (the other airport in Silver City) instead. I knew nothing about Whiskey Creek, save that it was on the school's list of approved airports, and Erin was no help as she'd never been there. So I set out on my trip.

As I approached Silver City, I began looking around for Whiskey Creek and monitoring the traffic frequency. I wanted to know if anyone else was taking off or landing there and, if so, which runway was active. All standard stuff. I also had the plane's GPS set to Whiskey Creek, to make it a little easier to find. Everything was going well, except the GPS said I was only a mile away from the airport, and I couldn't see it! Then another plane called in to say they were about to enter the traffic pattern. And then I saw it, and instantly realized why I hadn't seen it sooner. It was a single, narrow asphalt runway on a hill, with no markings whatsoever. So I muddled my way into the traffic pattern behind the other plane. When I was about 20 feet over the end of the runway, I noticed that there were, in fact, runway markings, but they were so old and faded they weren't visible from the air. I made my landing and took back off... only the plane got about 15 feet off the runway surface and seemed to stop climbing. I pitched up some more, but then my stall horn went off, so I was out of options. I couldn't pitch any further without dropping like a rock, and I wasn't gaining any altitude. After I passed the end of the runway, though, I started climbing again. I don't have documentation proving it, but I'm pretty sure the runway is on a slope. That's the only explanation I can come up with for why I was staying 15 feet over the asphalt. Anyhow, once the ground started getting smaller, I breathed a sigh of relief and then realized I was still in bad shape. There's a mountain range off the departure end of the runway I used, so I had to turn left a little early, which meant I was flying over Silver City at an uncomfortably low altitude (I think the regs require at least 1,000 feet over populated areas). And then I noticed that the mountains curled around to the left of the airport, too, so I had to swing well off my intended heading to avoid what we in the aviation world call an "accident." In the end, I made it away from Silver City and got back on my heading once I'd climbed up to a reasonable altitude. But I spent the rest of the flight convinced I'd be hearing from the FAA for swooping the good citizens of Silver City. Fortunately, it hasn't happened.

Here are 2 pictures of the airport. I strongly suggest clicking on them so you can get the bigger picture (literally).

This is what it looked like to be on final approach. Notice how you can't see the runway number or any other markings on the asphalt. Also notice how the land falls away to either side of the runway.

And this is a shot that I frantically clicked off as I was working to climb and turn and not hit a mountain. The airport is the dark horizontal stripe in the center of the picture. If you're wondering where the city is, it's right below me.