PilotEdge Forums

Quite an interesting run tonight on the fly-in. True-to-form (Murphy, you rat bastard, couldn't you have formulated some other type of law?!!!) I take off in plenty of time from KOXR to KSNA, but at about 500 feet altitude my avionics, pfd and mfd panels completely blew out. Black is NOT beautiful in a full-glass cockpit! (I'm sure the avionics buss is NOT connected to the electric flaps servos). Not to worry though, at least I could semi-gracefully stay in the pattern, land, and "repair by reboot".

OK, now to try it again with BOTH OARS in the water....

Due to faster traffic overtaking me, I was put on a vector a bit off the planned course, but that's what I love anyway -- the unpredictable or less-than-routine. I was soon but back onto course direct to SXC. But soon after crossing SXC things got interesting again. The approach controller was very busy vectoring the many pilots for spacing. I made several blocked calls to SoCal and finally was put on a vector for spacing. I kept my ears open for my callsign, thinking to myself "damn, I need to change call signs, there are too many other '2-Juliet-Romeos' in the air tonight" though they were not King Airs. After re-tracing half the distance back towards Oxnard I heard the controller twice again issue vectors to the Duke 2-Juliet-Romeo. Given the common occurrence that I cannot hear other pilots, just the controller handling multiple frequencies/positions, it didn't strike me as too unusual other than I really thought I should have been issued another vector a long time ago....

I finally decided that I had better ask Approach if she was addressing me.... Damn to find out that at least some of those calls actually WERE for me, even if mis-directed to a "Duke 2-Juliet-Romeo.!!"

Once again "if in doubt, CLARIFY!" How many times do I have to re-learn this lesson?!

Ultimately got vectored back towards KSNA. Had been advised that was receiving "Vectors for the visual approach" -- but was then cleared for the Localizer 20R Approach. Ah, Ha! At least I WAS prepared for that, even though I was not the most graceful in capturing the localizer. I contacted Tower, and was told to "Continue" -- then things got even more interesting, and the tower controller had to sort out a few potential problems with planes missing calls or misduplicating instructions as I kept track of the traffic in the pattern ahead of me. Saw another aircraft depart 20R as I was on short final, but I landed without incident. Told to switch to Ground, and I received taxi instructions to parking where I began my debrief, while watching others begin to land.

As I looked back over the flight in my mind's eye, it suddenly hit me like a brick:

I HAD LANDED WITHOUT A LANDING CLEARANCE!!! Holy Crap Batman! (THWACK!!! <<FACE-PALM !!!>>)

That deer-in-the-headlights feeling poured over me, then I quickly and not-so-gracefully exited stage-left and hastily logged off. (Like hiding was somehow gonna help me save face, go figure!.... <sheepish grin>)

My appreciation to all the controllers who make this such a valuable learning experience for myself and others. Events like this bring a level of randomity and intensity that are even more challenging than usual.

I never like making mistakes, but we are all human. I really HATE making the same mistake twice, or even ONCE making the really dumb one's or those cardinal errors like "Thou shalt not enter the Bravo without a specific clearance to do so." or "Thou shalt not land without a landing clearance."

Thank gawd my first-born child has long since grown up and on her own, lest she be stricken down by the gods in punishment for my knuckle-headed actions.....
Guess that just leaves me to atone for my own sins. I'm starting with a confessional.... <sheepish grin>

Don
N252JR

I was listening in on tower after I landed...he was probaly just happy to have you on the ground Regarding call signs, I'm always amazed how many similar call signs there are on the network. Cirrus 454FT seems to be a paricularly popular plane!

My flight:

Salt Lake City to Orange County/John Wayne:
http://peaware.pilotedge.net/flight.cfm?id=104577

Notes:

* Initial network connections were flaky on my end (?) from 6PM to 7PM Pacific but then pretty solid after I crossed Boulder City VOR.
* Initial check in was smooth crossing into ZLA airspace the controller hadn't get been rattled, so all was normal.
* Was on the KAYOH5 and got the instruction to cross DAWNA at 14,000, but in a Pilatus PC-12 it should have been 13,000 so I went with it.
* Handoff to SoCal was good and that's where it got interesting. Got the first controller fine and the arrival descent instruction to 8,000. Was level at 8 for the handoff to Keith. Continued to follow the arrival in but had a hard time checking in and couldn't get on the freq until crossing KAYOH. Got an immediate 4,000 descent and about 2 minutes after that a request if I could see the field. Sure, I could see it plus 6 other non-drone aircraft.
* It was at this point that I imagined Keith looking like this:

https://fogsmoviereviews.files.wordpres ... fusely.png

* Never got the tower at about 2 miles out. Overflew runway 20L climbing to 3000 heading 196 and called back in with "3ET climbing 3000 missed, plenty of gas" Got the long way around back to the approach sequence and got a tower handoff this time. He was 'scolding' a bunch of folks but snuck me in #2 behind a Bonanza. The PC-12 took almost all of 20L.

Amazing stuff:

* FSX was running on a Core 2 Duo 3GHz machine with an Nvidia GT210 (1GB) -- my backup machine -- and handled the traffic like a champ. Had decent frames all of the way in.
* The old Flight1 PC-12 is still a fun bird to fly.
* Loved the intense traffic but the tough parts were the VFR flights inbound that took a long time to talk on the frequency. I think the only way around that would have been to triple the ATC staff to spread out the comms or forbid VFR flights

The PC-12 took almost all of 20L.

That's kind of funny. I surprised myself by pulling the PC12 off by J on 20R. Reverse thrust is fun.

Pieces wrote:That's kind of funny. I surprised myself by pulling the PC12 off by J on 20R. Reverse thrust is fun.

I was flaps 40 and crossed the threshold at 80 kts but couldn't make it second to the last one (H?)

Maybe we need to have a landing contest with everyone on the same sim, same plane, same weather. Just not over a ridge on final.

That flight sounded pretty fun and also busy. However, if 60 planes are on, well who wouldn't be busy. Do you know what your roll rate was on 20L? About flying and implementing a landing contest, that sounds like a really fun time. Would that be an event?