Photos coming later, Francis says he took a few.

March 16, 2008

(Revised after I had US/FAA Training - revisions in BLUE)
Last time I flew with my instructor, Francis Yannuzzi (Snowbird 3), he told me to make sure that I had all of my documents with me, because we would be finishing up the basic instruction before the solo flight and he figured that I would solo on our next flight. To fly as pilot in command (only one) you need to have your student pilot license, medical certificate & radio operator's license with you.
We got cancelled on Friday March 7, and our next scheduled flight was this morning, Tuesday, March 11. Weather was perfect, bright sun, light winds, temp about -5 C. Great weather for flying. Did all the checks and preflight items, and taxied out to the runway. Takeoff was great, down the center line, lifting off at the proper point. After 4 left turns, back at the runway, did a touch & go (you land but don't stop, just proceed to take off right away) and went for my next 4 lefts. (we fly a rectangle around the airport, turning 90º left each time, beginning and ending at the runway)
Since this is a lesson, he's teaching me how to handle all the emergencies that could be encountered during a flight. We've been working on engine failures, making sure I could handle all situations, should they happen. So, on this second go round, Francis puts the engine into idle to simulate the failure as I'm about the make the last left (base) turn for the runway. I perform all the procedures and get ready to glide in for a landing. As we're about 200' up and 1/4 mile out, we can see a plane waiting by the runway to take-off. Usually (read always) they wait until you land then go after you've made your touch & go. Not this guy (now to be known as Shmuck-1). He just rolled out and began his take-off.
We were too close to land after Shmuck-1 - what if he couldn't complete his take-off - so I elected to abort the landing and do a missed approach where I would skip the landing part and continue in the circuit up to the next landing. Everything is fine, and Shmuck-1 went flying off someplace.
As we're making the next simulated failure we hear our next fabulous flyer, "Shmuck-2", call that he's over the field at 3000' and will be turning RIGHT to land. That's two problems; first, at 3000' he's in the International airport's CLASS "B" AIRSPACEairspace (major airports are found under very large inverted cones of protected airspace that are quite wide up high, and smaller closer in. Makes sense because airplanes land and take off at an angle and there's no reason to stop traffic that won't get in the way) and second, he wants to turn right. All circuits just about everywhere are done to the left. In the US, the air traffic controller tells you which direction the pattern (circuit) turns. if there is no controller, there are indications on the ground as to which way to fly in the "pattern" depending on the runway in use. NOT DONE IN CANADA, so the guy was trying to find it and couldn't. But he SHOULD have made a simple radio call to find out. Don't ask me why, it's been this way since Orville and Wilbur. Oh and he's visiting from the US, so we cut him some slack because he's never been to our little patch of planes before.
So we look around to try and find him, and can't see where he would be. We continue on our merry way, and keep making our left turns. Suddenly, as we're on the second one (the crosswind leg) we see an airplane coming at us. It's Shmuck-2, flying a Columbia (nice plane, very nice plane). We get out of the way, and Francis, being the senior instructor that he is, tries to help the guy out by giving him and idea of the fact we turn left and we can only go to 1700' in the area (The ground is at 935' so we only have about 750' to play in. More than enough for us.) He acknowledges us, says he understands and we continue for the next simulated engine failure. I get the plane ready to land, and we hear Shmuck-2 announce that he will be landing on the runway that intersects the one I'm just about to land on. Not good. So I do my second missed approach of the day, and we decide to clear the area until Shmuck-2 has his airplane firmly on the ground.
Off we go, flying over to Georgetown, about 10 miles away to check out the nude beach (just kidding, it's too cold and there's no beach). As we get to the town, I jokingly ask Francis if we should call the field to see if Shmuck-2 has left a hole in the ground or a burning pile on the runway. Just then, we hear Shmuck-2 call for a tow truck, he's gone off the end of the runway.
This causes a bunch of problems. They are:

1. The authorities are called in. Since Shmuck-2 is from the US, we need Transport Canada AND the FAA involved. Shmuck-2 might loose his license over this.
2. when a plane goes where no plane has gone before, it's probably broken and needs a whole pile of money to repair (minimum $10k) or replace.
3. All of the government workers and airplane mechanics, while trying to put Humpty back together again, won't move Humpty for a while. The runway that he's at the end of will now close, and nobody can land or take off from that runway until everybody signs off, in triplicate and 2 official languages, with Canadian & US versions. Could be weeks.
4. When you're doing your solo, the understanding is that you are just barely able to do the flying thing and you'll need 2 runways to make sure you can find a nice solid place to land.

All my landings today were perfect ("greasers" where you don't even feel a bump), even with the distractions. But now, since there is now just one runway, we couldn't do the solo today.
But the promise is that I'll do it soon. I can't wait to meet Shmucks 3 & 4. I hope the weather is good. Will let you know.