Double Circle Ranch is now AZ66! 

By Mark Spencer 

If you would have asked any of the backcountry team 4 years ago about the Double Circle Ranch, we would have shared our hopes and dreams for this incredible site, its history and its preservation, but would we have ever thought it would become a formally identified public airstrip? No, probably not, but thanks to the insight of District Ranger, Carol Telles, and in the interest of safety, we were allowed to complete the FAA paperwork on behalf of the USFS and request a formal airport identifier for the Double Circle airstrip. Why is this important for safety? Have you tried to file a flight plan to an unidentified airport? How about just flight following? Without an identifier, I am always forced to state an identifier of an airport nearby or beyond my backcountry destination, and then cancel my flight following prior to landing at the unidentified airstrip. This of course has, at times, brought the question from ATC, “Are you having an issue sir, do you need to declare an emergency?” Leaving me to explain that my intent never was to reach the identified airstrip, but that I had no choice if I wanted flight following. This shouldn’t be the way we have to operate just because we enjoy the backcountry, and for one of our backcountry airstrips in FS Region 3, we will no longer have to! On September 15th, the Double Circle Ranch airstrip officially became AZ66! FAA Dropped the A, so we are now Z66! Go figure!

Not only does a formal identifier allow you to now plan to that airstrip, but it also moves the pertinent safety information from an informal brief (available here), such as the APA has taken up through their own efforts, and moves this information to the formal FAA database to be shared through formal channels.

It will take some time for AZ66 to show up in the AFD, on charts, and Airnav,com, but keep an eye out for it, and in the meantime use the information provided by the APA.

Double Circle Ranch Safety Pamphlet

Please login to add a comment.