Backcountry Pilot

[fern_hopper offline]

Saw this on avweb, more bad press for general aviation. You would think it would be hard to miss the construction vehicles on final. I imagine several of the Senator's quotes had to be taken out of context though...

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1760-full.html

"Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) says he won't guarantee he'll be more vigilant about checking NOTAMs after he landed on a closed runway occupied by maintenance workers ten days ago in Texas. "People who fly a lot just don't do it," Inhofe told the Tulsa World. "I won't make any commitments." Inhofe added that while "technically" pilots should "probably" check NOTAMs, it would be impractical for him to do so on the many flights he makes to small airports in Oklahoma each year. The FAA has confirmed it is investigating the Oct 21 incident in which Inhofe landed a Cessna 340 on an occupied closed runway at Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport, Texas, He was reportedly carrying three others in the light twin when he made the landing on a runway bearing oversized painted Xs, a large red truck, other vehicles, and construction workers. The workers were using loud equipment at the time and didn't hear the plane's approach, so one person ran to warn them. A supervisor immediately reported the incident to the FAA and told TulsaWorld.com he was "still shaking" when he reached the hangar to confront the pilot. For his part, Inhofe said he didn't see the Xs until late on final and was concerned he might not be able to abort safely. He said he landed "well off to the side" of the workers. There were no injuries. A few days after his unorthodox arrival, Inhofe Saturday notified "an airport official" of his intent and used a taxiway for departure, according to The Washington Post. The senator has since spoken with the FAA and will "just wait and see what happens." That hasn't stopped him from offering reporters some form of explanation.

TulsaWorld.com reports that Inhofe said he was unaware of the runway's closure NOTAM because of "a bad relationship he has with one individual, who the Senator said declined to take his phone calls before the flight and did not tell him about the NOTAM." In the Washington Post's coverage, Inhofe said an airport official "hates me, I don't know why." The FAA's current interest is why the landing happened while the runway was clearly marked with the requisite oversized Xs. It will attempt to determine why Inhofe was apparently not aware of a NOTAM about the closure and investigate the circumstances of the taxiway departure. The airport has four runways but according to AirNav all except the main one (13/31) are in poor condition. In his 50 years as a pilot, Inhofe has experienced at least two other publicized incidents. In 1999, Inhofe suffered an emergency landing when his aircraft lost its propeller, and in 2006 he ground-looped a Vans RV-8 built by his son."

[OregonMaule offline]

I hope he gets the same treatment you or I would get. Not very smart to say you don't read NOTAMS.

Made me think...

You might be a redneck aviator if you say. Turning final for runway X

[blackrock offline]

At least he is being honest. I wish we had more of those types in DC.

Maybe this event will bring out just how poorly administered the NOTAM system is. It is such a PIA to get NOTAMS how many of us regularly get all of them?

[qmdv offline]

Went into Spanish fork, UT one time and did not check Notams. But I di notice the chip sealing job in progress. Landed at Provo instead.

Tim

[GroundLooper offline]

While I'm usually at odds with the honorable Imhof, I gotta appreciate his injection of a little reality in the world of flying.

Yes we should all check the Notams every time we depart and frigging TFR's, which I think are far worse.

A while back I was at Lebannon and decided, at the last minute, to pop over to Albany only to see heavy equipment on the runway (no X's). Yes, it was closed via Notam. Didn't land but should have checked. Would have had to call out, "Landing runway Caterpiller!"

Honestly, I've found that having to check everything, plan everything, chart everything, weatherize everything takes a huge amount of time. If I stay up late the night before doing all that stuff, I'm too tired the next day to fly. If I wait until morning, it's afternoon by the time the wheels leave the ground and the heat and winds have picked up by then. Plus there's no room for spontaneity.

I rely on my GPS much more than pilotage simply because it's a huge time saver.

In my mountaineering days, a mantra was speed is safety. The less time spent in areas of objective hazard the better, and often, that means sacrificing weight that might save one's bacon should the s#!t hit the fan. I'm finding that, in some respects, flying is much the same. What can I shorten to make the overall trip safer even though taking shortcuts might also introduce some hazard?

[qmdv offline]

When I go to so cal, I check weather, take off, then check notams while in the air. If all is good I then set auto pilot then alarm clock.

Tim

[mtv offline]

Uh, guys a quick call to 1 (800) WXBRIEF will get you a list of all pertinent notams at ANY airport in the US. That takes at most five minutes.

If you're already in the air, call Flight Watch on 122.0.

Geee, THAT is soooooo hard to do.

A little cheese with your whine, Senator?

Methinks he's gone public with this to perhaps place a little heat on the FAA in hopes they'll back off. I hope they don't. Landing on a runway with equipment on it and marked with an X is just plain dumb. And, it makes no difference who hates you.

MTV

[nealkas offline]

Landed on a closed runway, then departed from the taxiway?

Welllll, no matter how ya slice it, the Honorable Gentleman from Oklahoma is full of baloney.

One could wonder if he is not beginning to show signs of cognitive impairment...whether from aging or simply the perks of being a senator.

[z3skybolt offline]

Personally.....

....I think the senator should be made an honorary member of Back Country A. H.s! He'd fit right in. How about it guys?

Bob

[fern_hopper offline]

One could wonder if he is not beginning to show signs of cognitive impairment...whether from aging or simply the perks of being a senator.

Long term exposure to hot air on Capitol Hill?

I admit I am not always very good about checking NOTAMs, but seeing equipment on the runway and still landing. WTF?

[gbflyer offline]

Maybe he needed to pee really bad.

At that stage of life, it's never pass a bathroom, and never trust a fart.

GB

[Fisherman offline]

Maybe he needed to pee really bad.

At that stage of life, it's never pass a bathroom, and never trust a fart.

GB

I can relate to that. LOL Give the man a break.

[hotrod180 offline]

.. never pass a bathroom, and never trust a fart.

words to live by!

[OregonMaule offline]

Personally.....

....I think the senator should be made an honorary member of Back Country A. H.s! He'd fit right in. How about it guys?

Bob

You have a point there. Wonder if he likes crapes?

Good day

[Oldcrowe offline]

Let he who is without checking NOTAM's cast the first prop strike!

I know the Senior Senator both from my work and from around the airport (KRVS) and yea, I guess he did mess up with the landing vs. a go-around but he claims he tried to checked with the Airport operator like he always did before going to Port Isabel and was not told? Is there a regulation about just who you have to check NOTAMS with?

But in general I say cut him some slack (respectfully) as he is a true friend of general aviation who regularly flies the 340 he oop's (X-landing) with plus a Grumman Tiger and a really nice RV8 his son built and he used to have a cub. He really loves fly ins and has not missed OSH for something like forever and last summer at the OK-18 Supercub.org fly-in he made several low passes down the runway with the RV (but you'd never get it stopped on that field) and he went to the fuel stop for our grass strip poker run and pushed airplanes and dragged hoses around for a couple of hours without saying a word to our visitors and he asked me not too.

Historically he's been both a friend and pretty hard on the FAA so this may prove interesting...

[EZFlap offline]

How many real friends of light airplanes do we have in DC?

Altrusim says that he gets the same spanking that any other pilot would face.

Realism says that we protect the good old boys who protect us.

Most of us know we are forced to accept realism over altrusim fairly often, in order to survive in this world. If Inhofe came out and proposed that free speech should be taxed, then altrusim wins and I don't care how much he supports aviation. But if he wants to leverage a little bit of VIP privilege and takeoff or land on a taxiway... for goodness sake let it go in the interest of private aviation.

Ain't none of us nice angelic pilots here what who ever landed or took off on the wrong side of a painted line...

[blackrock offline]

Afterall, we are only human and we know what that means no matter how perfect we believe ourselfs to be. It is always the other guy thats the idiot or so we like to believe.

Zane, is the poll feature working on this site? I looked but couldn't find one. It might be enlightning to run a poll asking how many of us have made any number of airmanship transgressions.

How many of us have ever done one or more of the following:

Landed/Taken off on the wrong runway (both towered and non towered)?
Landed on a closed runway?
Landed at the wrong airport?
Called out the wrong runway in the pattern?
Bent an airplane?
Been told to call "the tower" after landing?
Received a military escort to an armed welcoming committe on the ramp?
Been questioned by law enforcement after landing?
Not checked destination NOTAMS before or during a flight?
Submitted the "get out of jail" NASA form for other transgressions not listed above?

I know between myself and a dozen friends of mine that would honestly reply, that between us we would answer yes to all of the above and several of these more than once. Anyone up for some soul searching??? What is that old cliche "Those who have and those that will."?

[58Skylane offline]

Afterall, we are only human and we know what that means no matter how perfect we believe ourselfs to be. It is always the other guy thats the idiot or so we like to believe.

Zane, is the poll feature working on this site? I looked but couldn't find one. It might be enlightning to run a poll asking how many of us have made any number of airmanship transgressions.

How many of us have ever done one or more of the following:

Landed/Taken off on the wrong runway (both towered and non towered)?
Landed on a closed runway?
Landed at the wrong airport?
Called out the wrong runway in the pattern?
Bent an airplane?
Been told to call "the tower" after landing?
Received a military escort to an armed welcoming committe on the ramp?
Been questioned by law enforcement after landing?
Not checked destination NOTAMS before or during a flight?
Submitted the "get out of jail" NASA form for other transgressions not listed above?

I know between myself and a dozen friends of mine that would honestly reply, that between us we would answer yes to all of the above and several of these more than once. Anyone up for some soul searching??? What is that old cliche "Those who have and those that will."?

Yes to at least one.

[mtv offline]

Yes, many of us have done some dumb things in past. But, in case you guys hadn't noticed, there's a whole lot of media exposure nowadays about ANY general aviation pilot who screws up, including members of the legislature, obviously.

We CANNOT afford this kind of publicity, folks. Have I ever flown without checking notams? Sure. But, that was back in a time when it really wasn't all that important. What's important to me? Keeping my pilot certificate is important to me. Keeping the priviedge to fly on into the future is important to me.

We can't afford to keep screwing up on simple stuff like this. I think we can all agree that after a while, someone in big government is going to see a "need" to further restrict "those little airplanes" because their pilots obviously can't be trusted....

I'd hate to see that happen.

Inhofe is an elected official. He above all people should be playing by the rules.

You get a list of NOTAMs every time you get a standard briefing from FSS or on DUATS. That does NOT take that long, nor is it a huge inconvenience.

Shame on Mr. Inhofe for shining yet another negative light on general aviation.

MTV

[hotrod180 offline]

I don't think failing to check notams was that big of a deal. Ditto for taking off from the taxiway. It was the (apparent) disregard for safety in landing on the runway anyway-- probably after a straight-in approach so he couldn't see what was going on until he was almost on top of it.
I once arrived at a small country airport to discover that they were striping it that day. Yes it was notam'd. Did I land on it anyway, regardless of the workers & equipment? No. I landed on the grass instead.
I think the "bah humbug" comments about checking notams was just dumb, if it was reported accurately. If you or me said something like that publicly after a screw-up, we'd have our asses handed to us by the FAA.