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wild.blue(at)verizon.net
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 Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:04 am Post subject: unicom, er, CTAF, position reports etc. |
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The home drome, Arlington Muni (KAWO), is an uncontrolled field. Until about a year or so ago it was a nice sleepy little place where most of the time you could enjoy the flying without a continuous babble massaging your ear drums. I've been flying model airplanes, airplanes and gliders here for more than forty years and have always loved the relative tranquility, variety and creativity I think the lack of traffic or authoritarian presence fosters. We even have a lot of formation activity here--not a problem, adds to the variety and interest--though I've never understood why some folks like to yank the power to zip off a little low-inertia airplane in the middle of a low-speed, steep, descending 360, 2-G, 1.4 Vso stall turn. But what do I know? I'm just a dumb civilian trying to learn the ropes. See you next weekend at ARS for continuing education I'm sure.
Last week I was flying with a student when some guy in a 182 started blathering away at and about someone else in a Mooney (purely coincidental, I'm sure) who wasn't making radio calls in the pattern to the satisfaction of the 182 driver. Nasty. Then the 182 guy announced he was going to land against the flow, i.e., on 34 while everyone else was landing 16. OK, if that's what you want, it is an "uncontrolled" field, after all. Then he decides he's not going to land on the pavement, he'll take the grass. OK, even better. Only the grass he wanted to land on wasn't the grass runway (east of, parallel to and adjacent to 34), a nice smooth patch, it was just "grass," on the west side of 34, probably pretty rough, with a crossing taxiway to make it interesting.
Anyway, I bring this up only because the 182 guy so busily bad-mouthing the Mooney guy apparently believed it was his prerogative (and is) to make an approach against the flow to a non-existent runway. Superior airmanship sometimes has its rewards, I guess. Hey, its an uncontrolled field, have at it. Finally, when it was pointed out that he might be in for a little rougher rollout than probably expected, the frequency was blessedly liberated from his ongoing diatribe about the Mooney guy and he decided to go around and try again . . .
Rule #1: Shut up and fly, open your eyes and stop complaining about the other guy. It takes two to have an argument or a mid-air. Discretion really is the better part of valor. And, unfortunately, sometimes there are stupid and ignorant folks out and about. Occasionally I are wun. Maybe ewe R 2?
What happened about a year ago to disrupt the KAWO tranquility? An operation called Silver State Helicopters moved in. I have nothing against helicopters. I just don't like them (just kidding).
If you've ever been to the Seattle area you may have noticed that occasionally our skies are a pleasant and relaxing shade of grey and dry skin is seldom a problem for Seattle-area women, or anyone else hereabouts. In fact, grey occasionally permeates everything, maybe even most of the time--including Silver State's Robinsons, painted a nice dark hue. Yes, they have little low-wattage strobes to differentiate them from the raindrops on the glass and they recently decided to paint one rotor blade white, which helps a little, after many, many complaints that they were invisible and their continuous radio chatter didn't make them any easier to see. They are really good at it testing the observation skills of us fixed-wing types--which is probably good training for all.
Why don't I like them? They not only go against the flow with regularity, like the 182 guy, they insist on hover-taxiing the full length of active runways while fixed-wings are approaching to land or waiting to take off, hover-taxiing, landing and taking-off on taxiways in the face of oncoming fixed-wing traffic, making left traffic instead of right like everyone else, crossing active runways despite landing or taking-off traffic etc. It is an uncontrolled field. To say nothing of hovering right next to fixed-wings at the gas pump or on the ramp. Oh, well. I once had a dust devil pick me and my Pawnee right up off the ground (and a glider, too--wrecked it) while I was stationary, waiting for a tow hookup, so I've got no complaints. So it goes.
But they are really good about making position calls. Lots of them. Until Silver State showed up I never paid any attention to KAWO's taxiway ID's (my bad), but thanks to their non-stop announcements I now know the names of all of them. Thank you, Silver State. Another little quirk (to me) is they seem to spend all of their training time in the pattern, round and round, auto-rotation "emergency" approaches to a low hover over a runway or taxiway every time. I don't know anything about helicopters, but I'd never seen helicopters routinely (continuously, actually) fly a rectangular pattern followed by a hover and go at a runway or taxiway until they showed up. I always thought the great thing about helicopters was you didn't need an airport. My education continues.
Last weekend I was towing gliders and while re-entering the pattern after a tow I was chastised by one of the chopper types for failing to make a position call (actually, I had made the call, he apparently wasn't listening or was busy transmitting at the same time I was). No problem--I'm all in favor of position reports, sorry you missed it, though I've never seen a microphone that could substitute for open eyeballs.
Unfortuntely, the frequency has become thoroughly saturated with position reports. I like position reports. I like even better to look out for and see traffic, whether they're talking or not. I even like enroute, approach, tower and ground controllers, though I like quiet frequencies even better. I even like NORDO's. Better yet. Sometimes I are one. However, I'm sure I'm not alone in noting that I've had numerous seriously close calls while under the "control" and protection of ATC in "controlled" airspace, on the ground, on the runway, in the air. Likewise while enduring non-stop position reports. So it goes.
But when it gets to the point that people freely clutter an already jammed frequency griping about imagined failures to comply with non-existent rules and think non-stop chatter and complaining is a superior substitute for open eyes and flying accordingly, with discretion and harmony, something is amiss. Leave the road rage on the highway.
Rule #2: See Rule #1. Education continueth apace.
Jerry Painter
Wild Blue Aviation
425-876-0865
FlyWBA.com
PS
Ernie, I hope you find your A&P. Have you called SAR? Or did you get violated?
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MarkWDavis
Joined: 03 Jan 2007
Posts: 104
Location: Syracuse, KS
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| Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 12:58 pm Post subject: unicom, er, CTAF, position reports etc. |
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At uncontrolled fields the CURRENT dynamics, not the "normal" rules should dictate your entry procedures, whether single ship or mass formation. If no one else is around, then go for it....dealer's choice. But, when it's congested, particularly anything out of the ordinary like skydivers, balloons or sailplanes then it just makes sense to make yourself as predictable as possible and that means standard patterns at standard altitudes with "typical" distances abeam the runway downwind and final lengths and radio calls when appropriate. The average private pilot is looking for traffic where he's headed in the pattern, not for non standard entries such as pop-up breaks, particularly multi ship where he's going to have tunnel vision on the lead he sees first and will never see dash 2, 3, or 4. In the mean time, y'all come out to SW Kansas or SE Colorado. I haven't done a "standard" entry for years at home field! Talk about "uncontrolled" airspace!
Mark Davis
N44YK
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cpayne(at)joimail.com
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:01 am Post subject: unicom, er, CTAF, position reports etc. |
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Jerry,
There is a Silver State helicopter op here at Lakeland as well. Consolidation in the training industry I guess. We have a tower here and at any given time there may be a many as four R-22's in the pattern named Silver State 1 through 4. Obviously students as tower has to bust their chops every time they bust a restriction, miss calls, or overfly aircraft taxiing.
During the runup to Sun n Fun, I monitored tower while working in my hanger. Amazing the number of folks that weren't sure what their position was from the airport or the difference between Right and Left parallel runways. Throw in "Right downwind for 9R" or "Left downwind for 9L" and they are lost.
There were 2 fatals from the same crash. 2 Ohio folks stall/spun a newly completed Wheeler Express on base-to-final turn. Also a 1937 Monocoupe pancaked into the runway from 20 feet. Pilot was OK but there went another piece of history. Throw in a rash of ground loops to round out the event. As always, the incident level went up at nearby airports.
Craig Payne
cpayne(at)joimail.com (cpayne(at)joimail.com)
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