Message-ID: <36B8965B.77A11FE7@uswest.net>
Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1999 12:32:59 -0600
From: Brett Rabe <brett@uswest.net>
Reply-To: brett@uswest.net
Organization: US West !nteract Services
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.06 [en] (X11; I; FreeBSD 2.2.6-RELEASE i386)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.student
Subject: Re: A flaw in the Right away rules: 'Evasive Action'
References: <36b84dd9.0@news.netwalk.com> <36ba80cb.90813131@netnews.worldnet.att.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.147.85.48
X-Trace: 3 Feb 1999 12:32:57 -0600, 204.147.85.48
Lines: 82
X-Report: Report abuse to abuse@uswest.net.
Path: news.jprc.com!dca1-feed2.news.digex.net!digex!news1.radix.net!tor-nx1.netcom.ca!newsfeed.direct.ca!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-feed4.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed1.uswest.net!207.225.159.21.MISMATCH!newsmaster1.uswest.net
Xref: news.jprc.com rec.aviation.student:46215

Todd Pattist wrote:
> No they don't.  They tell pilots what to do when both are
> aware of the situation, they tell the pilot who does not
> have right-of-way that he'd better maneuver if he's the only
> one who's aware, and they help decide after the big crunch
> who was at fault, but there's no rule that will guarantee
> that the pilots see each other.  You did the right thing to
> maneuver, and he did the wrong thing by not seeing you.

Unfortunately, not all pilots fly this way, including
some for whom you would expect stricter training to
be in place.

During my instrument training I was headed back to the
airport with my instructor. I was tired, he needed
practice, so I let him fly the ILS back into FCM. I
was therefore sitting in the left seat acting as
safety pilot.

The intercept altitude is 2600 for the ILS 9R. We were
talking to ZMP Approach, level at 2600, on the localizer
a couple miles outside the marker.

ZMP called traffic for us --  2 o'clock, northbound,
same altitude. I looked and looked but couldn't find 'em.

Finally ZMP gave us the call: "If you don't have them
in sight, turn 90 degrees to the right, heading 170."
Right about then I saw them -- a pair of big, black-smoke-
exuding N'tl Guard transports. How I could have missed
them for so long I'm still trying to figure out. In my
judgement I had to take control of the plane to maneuver,
and did so.

I thanks ZMP for the calls and added a (gratuitous)
"That could have been ugly.", after which we heard
on the APP frequency: "We had you in sight the whole
time."

Gee. Thanks. Nice of you to let me know after the fact.

I still get irritated when I think about that. They
had us in sight but forced the right-of-way. They were
flying (legally, to be sure! but wisely?) across the
localizer path of a busy airport just outside the marker
at the intercept altitude. They knew we were there (since
they were on frequency) and knew we didn't have visual
contact with them.

The controller was as distinctly unhappy with them
as I was and asked us if it was a pair of Guard
transport planes. He didn't sound pleased and mentioned
they had been getting flight following on their way
to the site they practice drops at.

Muttonheads. We had a few other not-close encounters
with N'tl Guard folks during my training that has
distinctly soured my opinion of their flying -- they
seem to consider themselves to be special or above
the rest of us. I guess it didn't help that when I
called to ask why they route their training flights
right across the approach unnecessarily nobody
bothered to call back.

This was a few years ago; I typically don't hold
grudges, but it still makes me mad. :-)

Apologies to N'tl Guard readers out there. I know
not all of you are bad people. It's really hard to
keep an open mind about it when all of your
experiences are negative, though.

Brett

-- 
Brett Rabe                            Email :      brett@uswest.net
Systems Administrator - U S West      Phone :          612.664.3078
Interact - 3S                         Pager :          612.613.2549
600 Stinson Blvd.                     Fax   :          612.664.4770
Minneapolis, MN 55413 USA             Pager : page-brett@uswest.net

 Atheist's Manifesto:  Kill 'em all, and let nobody sort 'em out.
