G3rman Aviator: October 2014

Friday, October 31, 2014

Ford Tri Motor

Saw this 1929 beauty yesterday at McGregor Executive. She'll be in Georgetown, TX next weekend for the KGTU Airfest. http://airfest.georgetown.org/ http://www.flytheford.com

KGTU (Georgetown, TX) on LiveATC

By the way, KGTU is now on LiveATC. Listen in and you just might hear yours truly going up.
http://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=kgtu

You think you're safe until ...

Here's an example of doing everything right and still almost ending up dead.

I was flying from Georgetown up to McGregor Executive for my checkride yesterday. Beautiful day and blue skies. My flight instructor was in the right seat to tag along. Once airborn I requested flight following as usual for that extra safety factor. Good thing we did because we had to divert around Salado due to parachute jumpers.

The rest of the flight was uneventful until we got to McGregor. We called the airport in sight and ATC had us switch to UNICOM for landing. Typically you might get Waco approach but not today.
I started calling out position reports about 10 miles from the airport. With the wind 170@9 we entered a left downwind for runway 17. Frequently calling out updates to my position we eventually got a call "McGregor traffic, I'm 3 miles to the east of the field". I don't exactly recall what else the update included but that put the other plane near us and we started scanning the sky primarily to our right (east). We also followed up with a call of "McGregor Traffic, Skyhawk is abeam the numbers Runway 35 on a left downwind for runway 17". We didn't get any further radio calls from the other plane but kept looking out the window for the traffic since we knew it was close.

Then just a few moments later my instructor yanked the controls hard right. At exactly the same time I saw the other plane changing course and turning right .. we were on track for a head on collision, he was headed straight for us. Wheew .. disaster averted, but only by about 200 feet.

When I reviewed the situation on the ground with my instructor it turned out that we did everything "right". We called out our positions, selected the appropriate runway based on the winds and flew the proper pattern. We weren't able find the other guy to figure out why he was flying a right downwind for runway 35 when the conditions were not appropriate to land there. Also he was flying a right downwind at an airport where both runways are designated left pattern (the default unless otherwise specified). The one thing the other pilot did right was to turn right immediately upon spotting the impending collision.

That flight was a stark reminder to never ever let your guard down when flying, even when you're communicating with other planes and you think you're safe. Always expect the unexpected and be ready to react and rely on your training. The saying goes "Live and learn", Live being the key word!!

And no, I didn't get my PPL yesterday but that's because there was apparently a miscommunication and the examiner never showed up. Will try again tomorrow :)

Update: Checkride examiner just called to reschedule. Now hoping to finally get it done on the 10th.