Foggy days made for a sluggish week at Chandler Airport Southwest Fresno

Dale Yurong Image
Friday, January 16, 2015
Foggy days made for a sluggish week at Chandler Airport Southwest Fresno
The foggy days have made for a sluggish week at Chandler but pilots say they've kept busy working inside on their planes.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Chandler Airport in Southwest Fresno was shrouded in thick fog throughout the morning. Not much activity here since pilots couldn't even see the runway.

Planes and pilots like Mike Romano were grounded until the skies started to clear in the afternoon.

Romano said, "Nothing. Nothing. Everybody does ground training, everything is done inside until we get enough visibility."

Three miles visibility is what they were waiting for. Less activity at the airport meant less people were eating at Tailspin Tommy's Aerodome eatery. The lunch-time crowd though did start to trickle in.

Joseph Oldham, a Fresno pilot, said, "Folks will come out at lunch time and do what we call hangar flying which is basically you sit around with your buddies and talk about experiences and it's cool."

Oldham says Chandler gets awfully quiet when the fog rolls in. These Valley pilots aren't about to take any chances.

"To fly around in the fog is like flying in a cow," said Oldham. "You can't see. It's not much fun."

But Romano says when the visibility improves and you do get some flight time, you are quickly rewarded.

Romano explained, "Well once you break to the top of the clouds it's like a white layer of fluff and it's just absolutely beautiful and you can see things just sticking through like you'd see some of the buildings."

The foggy days have made for a sluggish week at Chandler but pilots say they've kept busy working inside on their planes.

Related Topics