Category: Flying

How not to arrive at Oshkosh.

I was going to blog about this, but Mark beat me to it: Information Echo : How not to arrive at Oshkosh. Go there, and especially listen to the audio.

The important things to remember are this:

  • The NOTAM is 32 pages long, with detailed diagrams and photographs of the all the arrival routes and runway layouts and radio frequencies and the like. It is available on the FAA web site, on the EAA web site, and on the Airventure web site, or you can phone the EAA and they’ll mail you a paper copy. It’s not exactly hard to find.
  • Because of the huge volume of aircraft arriving and departing, the entire process is supposed to be “listen-only” with only air traffic controllers talking and pilots acknowledging by rocking their wings. Trying to talk to tower ties up the frequency and causes other aircraft to have to go-around because they won’t get their landing clearances.
  • The airport is totally reconfigured for this event – several runways are closed, one of the taxiways has been converted to a runway, the open runways have dots painted on them and there will be simultaneous landings going on to different dots on the same runway, and you are expected to pull off the runway onto the grass, hold up a sign saying where you are going, and follow the flagmen directing you on taxi routes in the grass.
  • Most of us planning to fly to Oshkosh downloaded the NOTAM the day it became available (sometime in April I think) and studied it intently since then – and even so I wouldn’t want to do it without a second pilot on board: one to fly and look for traffic, the other to pull out the appropriate arrival page once it has been assigned, guide the pilot flying along the arrival, and tune the radios.

With all that information, it’s tempting to say “see how many mistakes you can spot”, but frankly I’d be more interested to see if anybody out there can spot a single thing this guy did right from the moment the controller suggested that he go back and get the NOTAM. It’s obvious to me that while he claims he had the NOTAM and left it at home, he never actually read it.

BTW: In order that this guy’s stupidity gets enshired forever, I would like to mention that his aircraft ident was N9553A, a Cessna 172R registered to “Airview Inc, 1360 Queens Dr, Moon Township, PA, 15108-1379”. I just wish we had the pilot’s name. It is my fervent hope that for the rest of this guy’s life, no matter where he flies, somebody will say “aren’t you the idiot who flew into Oshkosh without the NOTAM?”

Four Seats Four Weeks

Back when I first starting looking at the Glastar/Glasair Sportman 2+2 and their “Two Weeks to Taxi” program, I predicted that other kit builders would do something similar as soon as they figured out whether it was legal or not. Today I found this one on the web: US Jabiru’s Four Seats Four Weeks program. It’s very similar, except because it’s 4 weeks long it gets a lot more done, including painting, and starting the flight test program. Looks like a nice little plane too – I wish I’d visited their booth at Oshkosh.

Coincidence

At the Seaplane Pilots Association corn roast at Oshkosh, I spent a lot of time talking to a guy who had built and owned a Murphy Rebel on amphibious floats down in Florida. I didn’t catch his last name, but I think his first name was Jack. He almost had me convinced that I should get a Rebel, but I don’t think I’m the kit plane type.

So today after work I come home and fire up the TiVo, and there is about the only good General Aviation tv show, Wings to Adventure. And there, complete with Murphy Rebel and his flying-crazy dog, is Jack. Cool.

Sometimes you get a winner, and sometimes you get a loser

While I was away at Oshkosh, I got two emails from users of my Waypoint Generators. The first was from a loser:

Wow,

What a disappointment. Even though I have donated before, I see that you require a donation now for the waypoint generator. I made another donation (see below) and when I am halfway though the waypoint generation process, I get redirected back to the paypal screen. I have a trip to Canada in the morning and I guess I won’t be using Copilot…

First of all, everything he says is a total lie. I have never required a donation, and I never will. There is nothing that will “redirect…back to the paypal screen” other than user stupidity. Second of all, if you think you’re going to get me scrambling to help you, neither your lies nor your generous $1.00 donation (of which Paypal takes $0.33 in fees) is really going to do it. I wrote to him back and said that I was refunding his $1.00, but only on the condition that he never use any free software or free web services ever again, because the thousands of people who provide free software and free web services don’t need his kind of abuse.

The second email I got was much more welcome. It was from a man who had a commercial product on display at Oshkosh that is using my waypoint generator’s waypoints in it. He had some small suggestions for improvements, and he also offered to provide some improved data for South Africa. He is located in South Africa, so unfortunately he wasn’t at Oshkosh himself. I got the name of the company representing him on Thursday, but I never got to their booth on Friday, which is too bad. It sure is nice to see people using and appreciating what I do.

Wrapping up, taking stock

Mark is preparing our last Oshkosh 2006 breakfast (if the propane holds
out) and then we’re going to start packing. It’s been a great Oshkosh and
the weather has been unbelievable. But last night it hit me all the things
I did in 2003 when I only had 3 full days versus this year when I had 5.

In 2003 I walked through all the ‘special’ airplane parking and camping
areas like warbirds, homebuilt, vintage and amphib. I also went down to
the seaplane base. But on the other side of the coin, this year I saw full
airshows, spent more time sitting in airplanes and talking to their sales
people, and more time in the constantly changing display in Aeroshell
Square.

One of the reasons for the difference is that last time I was on the North
40, where the highly efficient shuttle bus dumps you out right at the
warbird parking. It’s easy to get sucked into walking through there taking
pictures, and then before you know it you’ve walked the entire length of
the airfield in various parking areas. By contrast the Camp Scholler
shuttle is horribly inefficient and most days we skipped it and walked in.
And the gate you get to from here is right by the vendor exhibits and
Aeroshell Square.

I’m not complaining, but i’m even more determined to fly in next time.