Glendale Regional Airport Aircraft Operations

This video is part of a series that provides an overview of airport operations in the Phoenix area. Let's look at how aircraft operate at Glendale Regional Airport. Glendale Regional Airport serves the general aviation and corporate jet community as a general aviation reliever airport for Phoenix Sky Harbor and has been owned and operated by the City of Glendale since 1971. The activity at the airport supports over 400 jobs and has a direct economic impact of nearly $55 million. The airport is located on the west side of the valley, 8 miles north of Goodyear Airport and 5 miles east of Luke Air Force Base. The airport has one runway, oriented northeast to southwest, runway 119. In the west side of valley, winds generally favor aircraft landing and departing on runway 19, which is the predominant wind direction. It is safest for aircraft to take off and land into the wind. When winds are from the north, aircraft land and depart on runway 1. Glendale Regional Airport plans to redesignate runways 119 to 220 when the airfield lighting and signage is upgraded in the near future. While there is a diverse mix of aircraft operating at Glendale Regional, the majority of operations are by small single-engine propeller aircraft. Many of these operations are training aircraft. There are numerous flight schools at the airport conducting pilot trainings from primary single-engine training up to complex multi-engine aircraft. These aircraft may stay within the airport environment, conducting numerous takeoffs and landings, called touch-and-goes, or fly to a practice area and then back to Glendale. Most of these operations are conducted using visual flight rules, called VFR. Aircraft flying VFR use ground-based landmarks and onboard instruments for navigation. The airport's Voluntary Noise Abatement Program includes measures for VFR operations. Three of those measures are 1. Aircraft staying in the traffic pattern that depart on runway 1, turn right to a 040 heading at the end of the runway, fly a short crosswind leg, and turn to the downwind leg west of 99th Avenue. 2. Aircraft that are leaving the traffic pattern departing from runway 1, turn right to a heading of 040 at the end of the runway, then maintain this heading until over the curve in the expressway south of Olive Avenue. 3. For VFR departures on runway 19, aircraft maintain runway heading until reaching Indian School Road before turning east or northeast. Then, aircraft make a turn shortly after passing Indian School Road to avoid potential conflicts with traffic at Phoenix Goodyear Airport. Safety is the priority of pilots and air traffic controllers. Unless there is a safety or operational need, pilots and air traffic controllers voluntarily observe these procedures. A pilot may deviate from a procedure to maintain a safe course, avoid terrain or another aircraft, or to comply with directions from air traffic control. As you can see, Glendale Regional plays an important role as a reliever airport in the This is one video in a series that discusses aircraft operations in the Phoenix region. To see more, please visit the FAA's YouTube channel.