Heat wave can impact C.O. airport operations

Heat can affect how planes and helicopters operate in Central Oregon. Pilots at both the Redmond and Bend municipal airports pay close attention to operations in hot weather.

Heat can damage the interior of a plane and make it harder for large jets to get off the ground.

According to Redmond Airport Director Zachary Bass, the hotter it gets, the less lift a plane has. That means a plane needs more runway to take off in hotter weather

RDM sits at 3,000 feet elevation, but since the air is lighter, airports and airlines will tell pilots to calculate for landing at 5,000 to 6,000 feet.

“Let’s say it’s really hot, like 110 degrees, so what might occur is that a plane might not be able to take off fully fueled and fully loaded with people,” Bass said. “There might actually be some situations where they have to reduce the amount of fuel they’re carrying, or they might have to reduce some passengers, although we don’t really see that here very often.”

It has to be extremely hot for planes to not be able to take off at all.

Pilots of smaller aircraft that use the Bend Municipal Airport also have to be cautious in the hot weather.

According to Bend Airport Manager Gary Judd, when it gets hotter, the air gets less dense and planes have less horsepower. Pilots have to have more speed to generate the same amount of pressure over the wings, and if the air is super-thin, an aircraft cannot take off.

Student instruction can also slow down when temperatures are extremely high, because safety becomes a concern.

“Normally you can climb up to 7,000 or 8,000 feet, and you can only get up to 5,000 or 6,000 and it starts to affect temperatures on the engines,” Judd said. “Most small aircraft are air-cooled, and so with not enough air flow over the pistons, you are talking 100-degree temperatures, not taking away very much heat. You want to keep your ground times shorter, you want to keep your takeoff rolls quick, and when you climb out, you have more trouble keeping the engine cool.”

Also, pilots have to calculate what planes “think” the altitude is. Bend sits at 3,500 feet elevation, but an airplane currently believes it’s taking off and landing at about 6,500 feet.

Helicopters are also affected by heat. Since the air is thinner, a helicopter will act like it is flying at a higher elevation than what Bend is at.

That can limit a helicopter’s ability to do high-performance maneuvers and emergency procedures off of airports.

But there is a positive side.

“We can continue to fly — as long as our instruments and our gauges stay out of the red, so as long as the engine stays cool, we can continue to fly,” said Nicole Orlich, assistant chief flight instructor for Leading Edge Aviation. “On the positive side, that is what makes Central Oregon one of the best places to learn how to fly, because you are always operating at your limits and you are operating at what they call mountainous terrain. It definitely aids in (training) all of our students.”