California pilot goes on mission to find out why you have to pay $3K to land anywhere in Las Vegas while F1 is on

This California pilot had heard a rumor that it would cost $3,000 to land anywhere in Las Vegas while F1 was in town and decided to investigate.

YouTuber SoCal Flying Monkey frequently flies his plane to Las Vegas from his home base in Los Angeles, and admitted the news had left him a bit ‘flustered’.

There are three airports in the Nevada city – Harry Reid International, North Las Vegas, and Henderson Executive.

So were these pricey landing fees a reality for pilots now? And if so, what was the logic behind them?

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Why have landing fees gone up at these Las Vegas airports?

SoCal Flying Monkey has been flying his Piper Cherokee Six into Las Vegas airports frequently for a while now.

But after catching word of rising landing fees, he decided to investigate.

He called up Harry Reid International, North Las Vegas, and Henderson Executive to get to the bottom of things.

Each airport had a normal baseline fee before event sub-charges kicked in.

For North Las Vegas and Henderson Executive, that would be $20 a night, waived with the purchase of fuel.

At Harry Reid International, it’s a $40 ramp fee, waived with the purchase of 15 gallons of fuel.

But all of that was set to change with an F1 event taking place in the city.

Prices shot up faster than Lewis Hamilton’s car.

In North Las Vegas, it’d cost a pilot $3,000 to land on top of the $20 parking fee per night.

“It seems like a drop in the bucket compared to $3,000 to land,” SoCal Flying Monkey said.

This charge also applies if you’re dropping somebody off instead of landing.

It was $3,000 over at Henderson Executive, too.

At Harry Red International, it’d cost $3,500 for jets and $1,500 for single-engine craft.

The justification given by the airports is that it’s done to accommodate the surge in air traffic and the limitation of ramp/parking capacity during a high-profile event.

And if any event fits the bill of being ‘high-profile’, it’d be an F1 race.

The ins and outs of the aviation world

Believe it or not, flying a plane isn’t a simple process.

We really hope you were sitting down when you read that news.

Yes, flying a huge metal contraption through the air at thousands of feet takes a lot of skill and training.

Boeing pilots aren’t even allowed to fly Airbus jets unless they’re retrained.

And it’s not cheap either, as this Texas man discovered after he quit a six-figure job to become a pilot.

That’s not forgetting how terrifying the prospect of flying a plane is to the average person.

Yet some people make it look so easy, like this guy that Pilot Pete challenged to get behind the controls.

To see SoCal Flying Monkey go into more detail on the landing fees, visit his YouTube channel.

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