Here's a document Aeronautics Division of Idaho Transportation Department ginned up to address the killer (literally) congestion that happens at Johnson Creek.
http://idahoaviation.com/images/news/JC SOP Revision 14-01.pdf
It's helpful in many ways, but few pilots will even know of its non-regulatory, no NOTAM existence. It does, unfortunately, bloviate what could be simple. You'll read about the "GAP" reporting point. It's utter nonsense since it's inches from Yellow Pine on an aeronautical scale. Yellow Pine is charted, it's commonly known and referenced, so just say you're at Yellow Pine or three miles downstream or north of Johnson Creek. Reporting "GAP" will lead to all sorts of head-scratching wonderment. Confusingly, Profile Gap is a well-known, frequently used reporting point only six miles north.
Since the milk-crate's out, ITD's reporting phraseology examples are excessively wordy. 122.9 is badly congested so make your position report brief, concise, accurate. Shouldn't take more than three seconds, and don't say "approximately" or "about"; are you lost?
And for us RVers, cease using "experimental". (Anywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know about ATC.) "Experimental" is as useless and bone-headed as saying "standard" when you're piloting a spam can. Say your type, and maybe a color. That's useful.
Consider also, or instead, Garden Valley, Smiley Creek, and Cavanaugh Bay. Same amenities and RV-friendly surface as JC but without the hoards of bucket-listers.
John Siebold
Boise, ID
http://idahoaviation.com/images/news/JC SOP Revision 14-01.pdf
It's helpful in many ways, but few pilots will even know of its non-regulatory, no NOTAM existence. It does, unfortunately, bloviate what could be simple. You'll read about the "GAP" reporting point. It's utter nonsense since it's inches from Yellow Pine on an aeronautical scale. Yellow Pine is charted, it's commonly known and referenced, so just say you're at Yellow Pine or three miles downstream or north of Johnson Creek. Reporting "GAP" will lead to all sorts of head-scratching wonderment. Confusingly, Profile Gap is a well-known, frequently used reporting point only six miles north.
Since the milk-crate's out, ITD's reporting phraseology examples are excessively wordy. 122.9 is badly congested so make your position report brief, concise, accurate. Shouldn't take more than three seconds, and don't say "approximately" or "about"; are you lost?
And for us RVers, cease using "experimental". (Anywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know about ATC.) "Experimental" is as useless and bone-headed as saying "standard" when you're piloting a spam can. Say your type, and maybe a color. That's useful.
Consider also, or instead, Garden Valley, Smiley Creek, and Cavanaugh Bay. Same amenities and RV-friendly surface as JC but without the hoards of bucket-listers.
John Siebold
Boise, ID