Wow! How did I miss all the fun??

[Bo Gercke 845743]

Ah, Williams... I was working on my multi certificate doing an IFR (actual that is flyable in the SW USA, rare!) XC into Willaims and got cleared for an ILS. I wasn't used to the twin yet so I blew through the signal and had to yank it back to keep from losing it, zipping past the signal once more before getting it locked on. As I settled it out my MEI buddy in the right seat looked at me and said, "What the heck was that!?!?", to which I replied firmly, "A clearing turn." He was still laughing while we chocked it up on the ramp.

 

That's what you have to look forward to at Williams!

 

Ahhhhh, you seem to forget that once upon a time, there was this place called Meridian. It was a sporty place filled with hurricanes, 5 of them in fact, one in particular named "Katrina"... A nasty, fickle woman she was; wholly committed to stealing the roof off of my house. Dude named Ivan stopped by, also. Thought he was a tough cat until Katrina came into the hood'.

 

And then there were the student pilots: Early twenties guys and gals, fresh out of college, with a little bit of single engine prop time underneath them "given the keys" to an 18 million dollar tactical jet trainer. Those people could do the most amazing things with those little aircraft, including killing themselves in them. Throw in the frequent F-5/T-38/F-18/F-14 gas stop-over doing 500 knots into the break, and you have the recipe for a varsity level get-together. Ever seen the wings flex on an F-14 in the break? An F-18E take of in 1500 feet? Very cool stuff.... But we also saw the dumb stuff student pilots do, also. The great thing about it was that the small, confined flying environment allowed us to let a whole lot of stuff go that otherwise wouldn't fly (pun intended) elsewhere. In two years there, we never violated a military pilot... But we did violate a civilian helo EVAC pilot.

A word of caution to pilots: DO NOT EVER cop attitude to a controller when you are clearly wrong and have made the mistake. Just fess up, and play nice. We had a pilot, on an EVAC mission, transponder securely in the "OFF" position, fly through not just the airspace, but right down the middle of our PAR final approach course with aircraft conducting PAR's. No comms with us, no clearance, nothing. Gets on the ground at Key Field (MEI), and over the phone tells us how he initiated comms, but we didn't respond, had his transponder tunrned on, yada yada yada... We pulled the tapes, and the radar, after the Final Controller bugged out after seeing an aircraft fly through his PAR scope, and after a pilot bailed out of the approach because of the unseen, and unreported traffic (all done over UHF freq's which the helo pilot didn't hear ... Well, he got violated.

 

And here I am at North Island.. Complex, but everything is slowed, quieted, and dumbed WAY down. It seems as though the citizens of Coronado don't like noise. A whole lotta NIMBY going on here.

 

Good job on that clearing turn... If it doesn't interfere with other traffic we're just going to call you a bad pilot, laugh at you, and clear you. And watch you VERY closely...

[Garry Morris 920567]

The "West Coast" ARTCC thing was what threw me off. I don't count ZAB as a West Coast ARTCC, just ZLA, ZOA and ZSE.

 

Any thoughts as to which you might accept? Or are you waiting for more offers?

[John Binner]

I guess this is what I get for being a RADAR weenie and not a tower guy, no contract towers for me. Good luck Bo, give em hell!

[Bo Gercke 845743]

The "West Coast" ARTCC thing was what threw me off. I don't count ZAB as a West Coast ARTCC, just ZLA, ZOA and ZSE.

 

Any thoughts as to which you might accept? Or are you waiting for more offers?

 

Going up to Salinas this weekend. I'll let you know how that goes. Gateway. Goodyear, Glendale and Falcon are all in my backyard. There's a couple others that I've considered, but nothing real seriously. Arizona IS West Coast. Don't you dare call us mid-west.... Southwest? Yeah... Sure, I guess, but that would have REALLY given it away.

[Bo Gercke 845743]

So since this is my thread, and I can threadjack accordingly, I shall.

 

So....

 

What did you guys do on Thursday?

 

Wanna see what I did? (Yes, I'm gloating, bragging, and rubbing a great time in your face.... Sorry.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And than on Friday, we left for Monterey, and Salinas. Not real impressed. At the meeting with Salinas tower, got some news about San Luis Obispo and headed down there. VERY impressed, and think I found where I want to set up shop. That the quick and dirty.

[Bryan Wollenberg 810243]

Nice! Controlled them into March a few weeks ago when they were down for the air show. Great bunch of pilots...obviously.

[Stephen Sculley-Beaman]

DAYUM.

Wanna trade jobs?

You go and do 4 AP Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es a day this upcoming year at Alonso High, I go play with planes and control towers? Please? Seriously?

[John Binner]

Damn air force pukes.

 

Ok, ok, now for some REAL planes....

 

http://www.binnerfamily.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1437

 

Sorry my photos aren't as clear quality, they are a bit OLDER then Bo's

[Bo Gercke 845743]

DAYUM.

Wanna trade jobs?

You go and do 4 AP Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]es a day this upcoming year at Alonso High, I go play with planes and control towers? Please? Seriously?

 

Um.....

 

No thanks. I'll p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] (more likely flunk, really.) but no thanks. Let me know how that works out for you.

[Bo Gercke 845743]

Damn air force pukes.

 

Ok, ok, now for some REAL planes....

 

 

Do you need a sippy cup for your Hateraide?

 

[Pete Holske 833650]

Court threats? The only way to handle those is tell them to join the line. Seems to work for me now.

[Stephen Sculley-Beaman]

I just tell them to call my parole officer

lol. That scares them off pretty quickly