gmcjetpilot
Well Known Member
For Fly-In's, my suggestion is a glorified temporary UNICOM, watching and listening for traffic, making "advisories", winds, airplane positions. This is not new or an original idea, but may good for smaller fly-ins.
In light of recent events, I was thinking (be scared) when we have a fly-in, homecoming, breakfast whatever, it would be nice to have one or two guys watching the pattern with a radio. Even a big red spotlight might be good as well. We all know what flashing red means, go away come back and try again.
It's not official but a guy can call out traffic advisories like, "white LongEz on short final, Blue RV still on runway". Ideally a current or former FAA tower guy / EAA'er would be nice, but any pilot with some training and good eyes could do it.
Legally, FAA and FCC wise? You have Multi-Com and Unicom.
I was at a fly-in and almost saw a plane land on another (yes a Piper landing on a Cessna). I was helpless to do anything about it. They missed, but not by much. Just one guy watching the final with a radio or red spotlight might have avoided this near miss. It was close. Both planes where oblivious till they came with in inches on the runway. The departing plane probably never saw it. It was almost no ones fault. A radio is not required.
Even if you just repeated a standard warning: "Fly-in progress, heavy traffic, currently X planes in the pattern, runway X in use, winds, temp". If I heard that, I would turn away for the airport and leave the area for 5-10 minutes. Some times the pattern is full; you have to go away and wait a little while. In a perfect world, all the pilots should make calls, listen and watch out, following the standard pattern. However even when things are done procedurally correct, STUFF happens.
WHAT YA THINK?
In light of recent events, I was thinking (be scared) when we have a fly-in, homecoming, breakfast whatever, it would be nice to have one or two guys watching the pattern with a radio. Even a big red spotlight might be good as well. We all know what flashing red means, go away come back and try again.
It's not official but a guy can call out traffic advisories like, "white LongEz on short final, Blue RV still on runway". Ideally a current or former FAA tower guy / EAA'er would be nice, but any pilot with some training and good eyes could do it.
Legally, FAA and FCC wise? You have Multi-Com and Unicom.
Multi-com is usually an unmonitored party-line used by many airports in an area. I would think a low power ground transmitter would not bleed over to other multi-com airports.
Unicom bases are usually run by the local FBO. I'm sure if you went to the FBO or local FISDO and told them you wanted to have a ground observer/UNICOM giving advisories for 6 or 7 hours on Saturday, they would not protest. You could have volunteers in hour or two shifts from 9-4. May be you only need it for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon? I'd feel better flying into a busy uncontrolled airport with extra eyes watching my tail.
Unicom bases are usually run by the local FBO. I'm sure if you went to the FBO or local FISDO and told them you wanted to have a ground observer/UNICOM giving advisories for 6 or 7 hours on Saturday, they would not protest. You could have volunteers in hour or two shifts from 9-4. May be you only need it for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon? I'd feel better flying into a busy uncontrolled airport with extra eyes watching my tail.
I was at a fly-in and almost saw a plane land on another (yes a Piper landing on a Cessna). I was helpless to do anything about it. They missed, but not by much. Just one guy watching the final with a radio or red spotlight might have avoided this near miss. It was close. Both planes where oblivious till they came with in inches on the runway. The departing plane probably never saw it. It was almost no ones fault. A radio is not required.
Even if you just repeated a standard warning: "Fly-in progress, heavy traffic, currently X planes in the pattern, runway X in use, winds, temp". If I heard that, I would turn away for the airport and leave the area for 5-10 minutes. Some times the pattern is full; you have to go away and wait a little while. In a perfect world, all the pilots should make calls, listen and watch out, following the standard pattern. However even when things are done procedurally correct, STUFF happens.
WHAT YA THINK?
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