Craziest Lesson Ever

Having only flown once in the last month, I really didn't "feel" like doing my long solo cross country today.
I did the flight plan anyway, just in case my instructor said, you're ready so off you go...... but true to form he was cool.
New plan, fly out to Oxnard, drop him off at the passenger terminal, then off I go and build some local solo time (still need about 3 hours of that).

Land at OXR, looking at a bank of cloud right at the shore line at pattern alt, (it was supposed to come in at midnight, we where there at 15.30 !) did one left circuit and then the tower gave us the right pattern to try to avoid the clouds...no avail... so off we go to Camarillo......weather no problem there.

We did 1 full stop, and 1 touch and go, then everything got so busy (I've never been following someone turning base/final with someone else 800ft above doing the overfly) the tower could not give us touches any more only full stop.. ( I've never heard a controller sound out of breath before )
so on final we did as the Cessna in front did and told tower we are going to Santa Paula.....

First time there (and last)...now I know the correct term is "non towered airport", but let me tell you that is an uncontrolled airport..

Overly cautious going in, overfly the airport, enter pattern with plenty of space, when turning down wind, I get cut off by someone coming out, guess he was more important than me, when my instructor questioned his actions on the radio his reply was, "looked like you where following the pattern procedures to the letter, so I knew I had space to sneak in".

It gets better, landed ok, taxi back, wait in line, one goes off in front, I announce intentions, line up for short field take off, let the brakes go, half way down the runway a Robinson Helicopter goes off in between me and the bloke in front with no communication... then cuts off the guy in the pattern ahead....I'm done with this place...back to the safety of the busiest GA airport in the world...or so I thought..

Instructor tells me lets get back there and you can go off on your own for an hour or so.. No problem, doing my thing, call the tower, get a squark code, then hear communication, "disabled aircraft on 16R"...oh brother...a couple of 360's and vectors to and from the airport to avoid traffic and finally on the ground, I told my instructor " I don't care what you say I'm not going out on my own today" holy crap.

Not sure what happened to the damaged aircraft that blocked 16R, N2690C got cleared for landing, don't know if the nose gear collapsed or what, front end was bent up but other than that looked ok. Here's hoping no one got hurt.

ATC feed from Van Nuys is on liveatc.net, apr 21st 2330Z, at about 15 min's in you here 690C call in and get cleared, no announcement of an issue other than "disabled aircraft" and I'm in 889LB a few minutes later... All that going on so glad I was not solo today.... Its days like today that reaffirm in me the attitude I don't care how long it takes, I want to be safe...

 

Day or so after each lesson, my instructor e-mails me the invoice and there is always comments regarding the flight/lesson. This is word for word what I got on this one.

Lessons
"Pattern ops, crosswind take off and landings. Short field approach and landings. Short field takeoff. Non-tower ops, entry procedures and coms."

Comments
"KOXR-approaching weather, diverted to KCMA-craziest traffic day of the year, divert KSZP- wild west non-tower procedures and how to stay alive with idiots in the pattern, Back to KVNY-runway closed due to disabled aircraft"

 

are you sure there wasn't a fly-in or show going on... :=)

it reminds me of the first one I flew into was my last... uncontrolled field ahow ...old planes without coms, or vintage coms that weren't used, didn't care about listening to unicom, slow moving and flying, their high speed was below my stall speed, didn't care if they cut anyone off, didn't look, etc...
it took a couple of go arounds... nearly landing on couple as they were taking off... going to a fly in or show at an uncontrolled field is very dangerous... then they cop an arrogant attiude when confronted about their dangerous behavior... as I said never again... and that was in the 80's

it is very hard to fly at a busy uncontrolled field, the slow planes hold close and tight, while the better performing planes need to keep a greater separation, staying further away because of the extra speed... the focus goes to the in close planes that can be seen and the further out planes are overlooked... causing a confrontation... the unicom traffic should be recorded and can be used against the dangerous pilots... there is recourse if there is a need for some attitude adjustment about creating a dangerous situation and get the FAA to have a talk about respect with the offenders... just get the tail number and time, then report it as soon as you land... the FAA will review the traffic calls

 

"May you live in exciting times". Old curse for when too many things are happening that you would just as soon not see as a participant.

 

The fact you were able to take in and comprehend all that was going on means your ability to fly the airplane has become second nature.

When is your checkride planned? May sometime?

 

I surprise myself nearly every flight now, with some small thing that I used to worry or think about or needed a nudge from my instructor to perform, now all I get is "good timing" or "nice reaction" stuff like that. They are both still full of instruction and advise but we are now having conversations during the flights.

They are trying to book the test now, so I guess as soon as the FAA examiner is available, they estimate within a month to 6 weeks depending on scheduling I guess...hope I'm ready.

 

Sounds like a great lesson! That's the kind of thing that sticks with you and makes you a safer and more intuitive pilot, IMO. The airspace over here is relatively uncrowded, so I missed a lot of that kind of stuff in my private training. One trip to Teterboro and another to FXE en route to Marathon in the keys took care of that, but I was sweating through it. OK, FXE wasn't that bad...

Good stuff! My private check ride was very enjoyable. Of course I had to demonstrate that I could fly safely, but it really just turned into two guys having fun in an airplane! I was a little worried-the guy right before me failed but, by his own admission, head tripped himself into blowing it. Just try to have a good time. You WILL know your stuff, so just relax and make sure not to overlook anything. I also started taking acro lessons before my check ride, which may or may not be an option for you, but it sure made me more comfortable.

 

I got to thinking about the sequestration stuff cutting out the tower operators and making airports " uncontrolled". I flew in to and out of many uncontrolled airports years ago and I put a sketch together of what we did then without too much trouble. I will comment on each numbered point because they recapture incidents that I actually encountered.
1.-Determine pattern orientation (perhaps non existent now).
2.-Determine wind direction by observing the wind tee, sock, or tetrahedron.
3.-First turn is into the wind and scan for the guy who is making an extra wide 707 style pattern. I met a guy one day almost one mile west of the field "on his downwind." He and I had a heated confrontation after we landed when he accused me of going the wrong way in the pattern. He paid no attention to the pattern plan on the wall in the office when I showed it to him.
4.-Scan for someone making a straight in to the downwind. Happened all the time.
5.-Scan for those who will make a 90 deg. entrance into the downwind. Happened all the time.
6.- Scan for someone making an entry onto the base from upwind.
7.-Scan for the guy who is hard wired to pay absolutely no attention to the rules and is coming straight in.
8.-Scan for someone who is coming from the wrong side and will make a left (wrong) turn onto final. I saw a fatal crash when a jerk did this and killed an instructor and student (who were following correct pattern procedures) as well as himself. Both were banked to present their bellies to each other and they never saw what was going to happen.
I was always taught to make rectangular patterns so that you could make these scans and to exercise control of your approach to landing.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I forgot to mention that while on final , scan for someone making a downwind landing. That actually happened to me and I passed the oncoming traffic while I was on the right hand shoulder and he was on his right hand shoulder. As Taz said, " We live in exciting times."

 

omitted one item in check list...

radio tuned to unicom or field frequency, call out intentions and turns, generally reporting your progress in the pattern to a landing, include that you are clear of the runway...

FAA monitors radio traffic at uncontrolled fields, using the radio alerts your progress to other possible traffic not immediately visible or missed, IFR traffic can be inbound to the field

 

Good points made. I guess that I was going too far back in time when there wasn't any unicom or radios and one had to follow proper pattern etiquette.

 

consistantly the worst traffic ( potentially dangerous ) I have encountered at uncontrolled fields are the crop dusters... they rarely use their radios or even have them on... they will land any which way on anything that suits them from any direction with total disregard for any traffic pattern protocol... runway, downwind, taxi way, ramps, grass, nearby roads, etc... I understand their need to reduce their time to "reload"... they have a near total disregard for other traffic... if there are crop dusters operating be aware and extra careful... the FAA usually is aware of crop dusting in an area, ask if any is going on

 

That's a great diagram Mr Parks, thanks for sharing. Your stories sound like my instructor's and his obvious distaste for certain "uncontrolled" fields.
Your tale of the fatal crash makes me realize why he had me make very sharp, quick 90° turns and get back to wings level asap to scan for the cowboys !!

Hope you don't mind but im going to print your diagram and use it.

 

Thanks, I'm glad that you can use it. Re rectangular patterns, the guy that caused the collision had been warned numerous times to stop his dangerous behavior in traffic but disregarded it. He was making a wide turn coming into the pattern and was in a bank all the time until they came together.

 

Bob- Do civilians ever use overhead patterns? Made it pretty easy to keep track of where everyone was and the only conflict was usually during the turn to final. Good chance to look around on the downwind leg to avoid that conflict.

 

The only time that I have seen the circular overhead pattern used was when I was...get this one...in the military. I don't remember ever seeing it used at a civilian airport. It was great entertainment at Hondo when everybody returned at night at the same time, maybe 25-30 airplanes wrestling each other to enter the " race track" that formed a circle of nav lights that lasted for quite a while. Langley Field was the same but not as many airplanes.

 

Thinking about the circular overhead descending pattern. I think that it was ubiquitous in the military from early in the war. Everybody had to enter at a higher altitude, get in line, and follow the plane ahead in the race track until your turn came up to break away into final. The only touchy point was making your entry when the round about was crowded without near misses and cut-offs...and that was dicey at night. The radios were crackling with expletives at times. What a sight it was to see a flight of P-51's ( or any other fighter) coming in an echelon to do the fighter break up into their circular pattern. Marvelous memories.

 

Yep. I've had a few run ins with some of those guys after they nearly clipped me on final doing unannounced straights ins from 500ft. Some really seem to be clueless as to why that simply isn't cool. How can you come far enough to have a commercial license and not get that???

 

Flight training sometimes doesn't change the mindset of some people. They are just too important.

 

Bob- Unless things have changed, overhead patterns were always in day, VFR conditions. The advantage being you could check the condition of the runway for bomb craters, crashed aircraft, etc, while keeping up speed until committed to land. On an F-111, overheads were flown at 350 KCAS until pitch out. Luckily, never saw any bomb craters.

 

Thanks for the info, Taz, something that few of us know about. Three hundred and fifty knots entering the pattern! Good stuff! I can't help but think back of when I was working in the Boeing's proposal team for the TFX that became the F-111. So long ago. It's nice to chat with someone who flew them. When I talk about AT-7's and C-60's and I realize how long in the tooth that I am getting.

 

Bob- I think we would have been better off with Boeing's design, but LBJ was president, and the F-111 was built in Ft Worth, TX.....

Great airplane nonetheless and we lost none in Desert Storm, compared to heavy losses by the Tornado and even some F-15Es.

Sorry for the OT, just curious about patterns, since all my flying was military.

 

The TFX debacle will always stick in my craw. The air force reps told us that our airplane was much better than the competition but as you said, LBJ was from Texas and he made certain that the competition went the way HE wanted it to go. To rub salt in our wound, Convair/GD turned around and hired a lot of our engineers to bale them out on the design. We always called it the LBJ after that. Those were the baddest times at Boeing then. We lost the TFX,SST, and C-5 and then the economy collapsed and I got caught in the massive layoff that followed. Anyway, the technical transfusion into GD's airplane was a good thing and I'm glad that it did a decent job for you guys. The Tornado's had a dangerous type of mission from what I have read...lots of brave men in both air forces.