Bart, Thanks for your account of the arrival and departure procedures at Sun 'n Fun. Being a freshly minted (almost) Sport Pilot, I am apprehensive of these big gatherings. Your description helped me understand how it works.
Thanks. Frank Nelson N51DV - 415C TOA --- In [email protected], "robertbartunek" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I mentioned in a previous note describing arrival procedures at Sun-n > Fun that I would also describe the departure out of there. My > reasoning is there may be some people who do not attend this event and > Oshkosh because they are intimidated by what seem to be complex > procedures. Not so. Everything is predicated on Keeping It Simple and > safe. > The Departures on Friday were to commence at 5:30 PM after the Air > Show. During the air show the field is closed and there is a red flag > flying above the control tower, a procedure I might add that dates way > back probably into the 40's or 50's or earlier. Well, the Thunderbirds > were late, screwed up there grand finale bomburst so went back to try > it again and screwed it up even worse (I am a critical retired Air > Force pilot so I can say these things). > The Marines had to have a go at showing their stuff so they got an F-18 > and a WWII Corsair airborne to fly some formation over the field and > they made a couple of passes over the field in formation. Then another > couple of passes. Then another. Each time they went a few miles away > from the field to line up there next pass and 5:30 came and went, then > 6:00 and finally about 6:15 the Marines landed and the red flag came > down. It was now "gentleman, start your engines" time. On engine > start, one of the marshallers rode his 4 wheeler over to your position > to excort you from the grass parking area to a taxiway where you fell > in line, a long, long line of other airplanes taxiing for takeoff. > Everyone was on a published ground controll frequency but all control > was exercised by ground marshallers with signs. Guys on motorcycles > rode on the side for wingtip clearance and by this time, you were going > to take off if you wanted to or not. I had to get back down to Naples > before sunset flying LSA rules so I was really getting antsy about > taking off and arriving before sunset. > Approaching the active parallel runways, a big sign intructed us to > change from the taxi frequency to tower frequency. You initiated no > calls during taxi or takeoff, only listened and followed instructions > using Mafia radio rules, i.e., "Everybody a shut up". > Some aircraft were directed to cross the inside runway to the outside > runway so 5 of us booked on across. The controllers were standing on > the back of flat-bed trailers with their radios and would clear about 6 > airplanes on the runway at a time then pulse them off one at a time. > Now, I had spent a lot of time polishing my coupe before I went up but > it was nowhere near a pretty as Syd's coupe. However, when it was my > turn my clearance went like this. "The CHROME aircoupe is cleared for > takeoff". Yay! It was a straight out departure then turn on > course and I made it home with 10 minutes to spare. > Moral to the story is don't be afraid to go to these events because > everything runs smoothly and if you screw up, you won't be the only one > to do so, and as long as no one crashes, nobody really cares. > Bart >
