Q: Flying in and out daily

[Jeff Point]

This year's 2011 convention was unprecedented (for me, at least) in that one night after the airshow had been delayed and put things behind schedule, they actually extended the closing to 8:15, but that almost took an act of Congress!

I'm afraid I might have started that. A guy in homebuilt parking fired up on his own at about 7:58PM and started taxiing out. By the time I caught up to him and explained the error of his ways it was 7:59PM. He didn't believe me (I'm just an EAA volunteer after all) so I advised him to call the tower and get it from them. Well, I didn't hear the other side of that conversation, but the tower allowed him to go. Problem is, after that it became monkey see, monkey do. "Hey, that RV just took off, so I can to!"

The next day we got a small earful from the tower guys and the message in no uncertain terms that this would be the first and last time for this!

(Good thing we get paid time and 1/2 after 8PM.)

[Bill Greenwood]

Jeff, stand up for yourself; after all how athoratative can a guy in a light pink shirt be?
Seriously 99% of the controllers at EAA as well as FLD seem like normal folks. Ok, I said seem like.
I just wish they were like that in the rest of the country.
I saw one near thing where the controller did a good job. A Baron was cleared to take off on rwy 27 Mon eve. Just as he began to roll a small homebuilt, ,maybe an RV came in to land. The controller told the Baron to stop. If the Baron had continued the smaller plane would have landed right over him and collided. The controller had to say stop, abort several times, and he stayed cool and did it right. Fortunaly the Baron pilot was good and he pulled off power before he had gone far. the RV? landed ok. It was close, not too much said on the radio, but you could hear it in his voice and the controller thanked him. I don't know who if any was at fault. Maybe the RV was cleared to land too soon, or more likely he cut the corner and instead of a base leg he got there sooner than the controller expected.

[Jason Alexander]

Jeff, Papa Doug cited that there were some arrivals coming in late that night, causing the delayed closing, so it shouldn't have been blamed on you! But hey, like you said, we're volunteers! What do we know? Personally, I wouldn't mind flicking a pilot or two from time to time. Not in the eye or anything, just in the forehead to get their attention! lol

[jhausch]

Great additional info. Thanks, all.

It sounds like it might work, but we want to be calling "clear" by 7:30pm at the latest...

[Bob Meder]

On Sunday night, I stopped at the volunteer wind down for a minute to say "bye". That's when the warning of inbound severe weather was announced. I got over to Baslers and got a briefing by about 7:15 and started to hustle to preflight the Seminole, parked at GAP, and beat the 8:00 shutdown and the incoming line. Then something clicked and I "heard" a voice say "OK, genius, you've been working in a hot hangar all week, you feel dehydrated, you're rushing through a preflight, you still have to file a flight plan from over MSN to KSUS, the radar picture to the west looked pretty ugly, the visual of of the clouds out here on the ramp looks pretty gnarly, you only have XM radio with NEXRAD and no radar or Strikefinder, and you and the briefer were impressed with how fast the weather blew up. What would you be saying to one of your students at this point?"

That's when I found out that the AmericInn has pretty reasonable rates...

[Chad Jensen]

On Sunday night, I stopped at the volunteer wind down for a minute to say "bye". That's when the warning of inbound severe weather was announced. I got over to Baslers and got a briefing by about 7:15 and started to hustle to preflight the Seminole, parked at GAP, and beat the 8:00 shutdown and the incoming line. Then something clicked and I "heard" a voice say "OK, genius, you've been working in a hot hangar all week, you feel dehydrated, you're rushing through a preflight, you still have to file a flight plan from over MSN to KSUS, the radar picture to the west looked pretty ugly, the visual of of the clouds out here on the ramp looks pretty gnarly, you only have XM radio with NEXRAD and no radar or Strikefinder, and you and the briefer were impressed with how fast the weather blew up. What would you be saying to one of your students at this point?"

That's when I found out that the AmericInn has pretty reasonable rates...

That's a GREAT post Bob!! Well done...

[Bob Meder]

Thanks, Chad. Long ago, I made a promise to my wife and myself to always try to exercise good judgement. I had been working for a major railroad for 14 years when I started learning to fly. The first rule in every carrier's rule book is "When in doubt, take the safest course". 18 years later as a pilot and now a CFI, along with that many more years in the railroad business, that rule continues to be a touchstone for me.

Besides, how would it look if I'd been in an accident after being a Young Eagles Flight Education volunteer all week, asking kids to be safe when they became pilots?

[Dave Stadt]

Thanks, Chad. Long ago, I made a promise to my wife and myself to always try to exercise good judgement. I had been working for a major railroad for 14 years when I started learning to fly. The first rule in every carrier's rule book is "When in doubt, take the safest course". 18 years later as a pilot and now a CFI, along with that many more years in the railroad business, that rule continues to be a touchstone for me.

Besides, how would it look if I'd been in an accident after being a Young Eagles Flight Education volunteer all week, asking kids to be safe when they became pilots?

Good decision...we need you back at Kidventure next year!