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
