Runway incursions

[molson309]

Hi Mark:
Hey, give me a ride sometime, willya!

I got the impression from the FAA guy (Andy Lott), that he wasn't that thrilled with the situation either. In fact, it wasn't until I was talking to him that I realized the hold short line for 28R is now at taxiway alpha.

I know they did some construction out there this summer. Did they widen the runways? Is that why they've moved the hold-short lines?

28L was lengthened (5500ft?) and widened (from 75 ft to 100ft) to accommodate larger jet aircraft. The powers-that-be (FAA, MAC?) then decided to reclassify 28R for the same larger/heavier aircraft, which meant all the hold short lines for 28R had to be moved further from its centerline.

This also had the side effect of removing almost all of the run-up areas for 28R on the north side. One has to do their run-ups on taxiway alpha, which is, needless to say, inconvenient for other airplanes taxiing there. Come summer the problems will intensify.

I don't know of anyone who is happy with this change. I've heard speculation that they might revert 28R back to its old status, but that would mean repainting all the hold short lines and moving the flashing lights to the old position. Personally, I don't believe they are considering changing it back, it seems to me they want to make this change permanent - regardless of the inconvenience and potential safety issues.

 

[tc1234c]

Runway 28L during construction

August 1st.

 

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

Here's one I took in a little before Ted's picture, too.

I THINK these are the old hold short lines, but I'm not sure. BTW, they just built a new VOR across the street (pretty much directly under where Ted is in his picture) and presumably are pulling the VOR on the field. I'm not sure why on earth the government is building new VORs.

Here's a MAC produced video of Flying Cloud.

 

[Dgamble]

Bob -

I read through the blog post and all of this honest and frank discussion here. I'm glad everything seems to have worked out okay for you and that you're good with the FAA.

That said....

If I was looking for a good takeaway from this experience, I think I would spend a few minutes reflecting on this sentence:

"My currency with the FBO expires next week, so I went out today to shoot some touch and go's."

I've seen an awful lot of very tragic get-there-itis stories start with a sentence very much like that one. I obviously wasn't there, but I can say that a personal no-go for me is ice, any ice at all, on the taxiways. Sure, I don't get to fly much in the winter because of that, but I'm simply not comfortable with icy conditions. It's an easy no-go decision for me, each and every time.

I understand that your situation is different up there in America's Frigidaire and I am not saying that you should have stayed home when the snow started, but I do wonder if you're missing the forest for the trees on your "lessons to be learned" from this.

 

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

Not at all. I think I indicated -- somewhere -- that I've never been out in those conditions before and, now that I have, it's provided good data for making future go/no go decisions.

One of the revelations here -- for me -- was to look at more than just runway conditions. In this case, the two were not the same.

BTW, the hardest part about flying that day was the front on the inside of the windows. I hadn't encountered that before. I had to open the window to avoid internal IMC conditions.