Sunday, July 24, 2005
Summer Vacation Odyssey 2005
The Preflight
On June 25th, we are scheduled to fly down to Melbourne, Florida to visit with family, the beginning of an 11-day odyssey by General Aviation airplane along the East Coast of the United States. The trip included plans to visit Melbourne for several days to celebrate birthdays and other family milestones, then travel back to Syracuse, New York, for the 4th of July and the 40th wedding anniversary of the maternal grandparents, and then return home.
As the sun came up on Saturday morning, the plan had been to relocate Diamond Star 7DS to Washington Dulles (KIAD) for the first leg of the journey on Friday night. One reason for this was that the runway at Leesburg, Virginia (KJYO) was currently being improved and re-surfaced. The available runway for takeoff is about 2500’. While it is more than sufficient, with the whole family on board and hot temperatures making all the distances for taking off and landing just a bit longer, it was my decision to consider more safe and convenient facilities. Dulles is 5 miles from home, so it is a bit closer for loading up the family and getting into the air, too. Parking at the Piedmont-Hawthorne FBO was also (mostly) free.
The original plan was to move the plane Friday night. Unfortunately, it was scheduled for flight training until 8pm and I had not factored in the runway construction restrictions on the airport facility. The facility is only open for day VFR operations, meaning that it is closed at night and no instrument approaches are allowed. Given that this is the week of the summer solstice, night is very late. This should not be a problem.
As I left for the airport at 7:45pm, I called the Flight Service Station to inquire about how the NOTAM for the airport restrictions was worded. The notice is written that the airport is closed at 1230AM ZULU, daily. This means that I now have 45 minutes to drive to the airport (20 minutes in ideal conditions), preflight the airplane (about 20 minutes), coordinate with ATC (this is the infamous DC ADIZ airspace), and depart the airport. If anything unforeseen happens, I’ll be starting up the airplane just to taxi back and put it away – a waste of time. At this point, I am already pretty sure that plan A is not happening, but we go to the airport anyway because we need some charts for the trip south. When flying GA, plans B and C always have to be framed up and ready for execution.
Arriving at the airport just about 8:10pm, the question remains whether or not we can execute quickly and get the airplane out of there. In the back of my mind I am nagged by the internal adversity of being cited for reckless behavior by departing an airport after it has been closed by the FAA. It is very slim that we are now leaving. Robbie is also with me and I have told him that we probably are not going afterall to prepare him for what seems like the inevitable. I go into the airport to get charts. I need 4 items; they don’t have ANY of them. Huh? Well, with the runway construction, they have reduced the number of charts ordered since the amount of operations is reduced. Okay, can I get the charts at the Hawthorne FBO at Dulles? Negative, they don’t carry them at all. Really? Wow.
Interpretation: the two flight schools on the field are busy flying more than ever, but the bigger personal/business jets are not flying here and buying jet fuel and charts. Such is the economics of airport business. On the other hand, I am all but grounded by regulation without the charts appropriate to the flights I plan to conduct. Where is the balance? Plan C is evolving to Plan D and E. Lesson learned – go online and order the charts two weeks in advance.
(Note to those concerned about flight safety issues: is it any clearer just from this short description how tough it still is today to prepare all of the information relevant to the flights to be conducted? Even the best plans have basic assumptions, and when those assumptions blow up, so do the plans. Subsequently I proffer, half-ass workarounds start being considered, and when they don’t work out so well, we see results where pilots accidentally fly around the White House or into the side of hills.)
As fate would have it, a stop in the flight school results in a chance encounter with my flight instructor who was flying until 8. The week before, he had flown down to Columbia, SC on personal business, which just so happens to be the destination for our first leg from Dulles. I explained my frustrating circumstances that evening, and he responds with an offer to use the charts he has. They expire on 7 July and he doesn’t need them. I now have everything I need to get the trip started and get down to Columbia, SC. (Thanks Mike!) I will work out the plan to get the charts to FL along the route of flight. So, the new plan was that to go to Leesburg early Saturday morning to fly the airplane to Dulles.
On June 25th, we are scheduled to fly down to Melbourne, Florida to visit with family, the beginning of an 11-day odyssey by General Aviation airplane along the East Coast of the United States. The trip included plans to visit Melbourne for several days to celebrate birthdays and other family milestones, then travel back to Syracuse, New York, for the 4th of July and the 40th wedding anniversary of the maternal grandparents, and then return home.
As the sun came up on Saturday morning, the plan had been to relocate Diamond Star 7DS to Washington Dulles (KIAD) for the first leg of the journey on Friday night. One reason for this was that the runway at Leesburg, Virginia (KJYO) was currently being improved and re-surfaced. The available runway for takeoff is about 2500’. While it is more than sufficient, with the whole family on board and hot temperatures making all the distances for taking off and landing just a bit longer, it was my decision to consider more safe and convenient facilities. Dulles is 5 miles from home, so it is a bit closer for loading up the family and getting into the air, too. Parking at the Piedmont-Hawthorne FBO was also (mostly) free.
The original plan was to move the plane Friday night. Unfortunately, it was scheduled for flight training until 8pm and I had not factored in the runway construction restrictions on the airport facility. The facility is only open for day VFR operations, meaning that it is closed at night and no instrument approaches are allowed. Given that this is the week of the summer solstice, night is very late. This should not be a problem.
As I left for the airport at 7:45pm, I called the Flight Service Station to inquire about how the NOTAM for the airport restrictions was worded. The notice is written that the airport is closed at 1230AM ZULU, daily. This means that I now have 45 minutes to drive to the airport (20 minutes in ideal conditions), preflight the airplane (about 20 minutes), coordinate with ATC (this is the infamous DC ADIZ airspace), and depart the airport. If anything unforeseen happens, I’ll be starting up the airplane just to taxi back and put it away – a waste of time. At this point, I am already pretty sure that plan A is not happening, but we go to the airport anyway because we need some charts for the trip south. When flying GA, plans B and C always have to be framed up and ready for execution.
Arriving at the airport just about 8:10pm, the question remains whether or not we can execute quickly and get the airplane out of there. In the back of my mind I am nagged by the internal adversity of being cited for reckless behavior by departing an airport after it has been closed by the FAA. It is very slim that we are now leaving. Robbie is also with me and I have told him that we probably are not going afterall to prepare him for what seems like the inevitable. I go into the airport to get charts. I need 4 items; they don’t have ANY of them. Huh? Well, with the runway construction, they have reduced the number of charts ordered since the amount of operations is reduced. Okay, can I get the charts at the Hawthorne FBO at Dulles? Negative, they don’t carry them at all. Really? Wow.
Interpretation: the two flight schools on the field are busy flying more than ever, but the bigger personal/business jets are not flying here and buying jet fuel and charts. Such is the economics of airport business. On the other hand, I am all but grounded by regulation without the charts appropriate to the flights I plan to conduct. Where is the balance? Plan C is evolving to Plan D and E. Lesson learned – go online and order the charts two weeks in advance.
(Note to those concerned about flight safety issues: is it any clearer just from this short description how tough it still is today to prepare all of the information relevant to the flights to be conducted? Even the best plans have basic assumptions, and when those assumptions blow up, so do the plans. Subsequently I proffer, half-ass workarounds start being considered, and when they don’t work out so well, we see results where pilots accidentally fly around the White House or into the side of hills.)
As fate would have it, a stop in the flight school results in a chance encounter with my flight instructor who was flying until 8. The week before, he had flown down to Columbia, SC on personal business, which just so happens to be the destination for our first leg from Dulles. I explained my frustrating circumstances that evening, and he responds with an offer to use the charts he has. They expire on 7 July and he doesn’t need them. I now have everything I need to get the trip started and get down to Columbia, SC. (Thanks Mike!) I will work out the plan to get the charts to FL along the route of flight. So, the new plan was that to go to Leesburg early Saturday morning to fly the airplane to Dulles.
# posted by Bob @ 6:45 PM 
