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March 30, 2002 - Playing with the Big Boys
I think Michael was trying to mix it up a little to keep us (me) from going
crazy with all the landing work. So me made it my choice and I picked
Oakland International.
This was cool stuff - I'd flown in and out of Oakland ton on MS Flight
Simulator and I'd worked for a year a 1/2 mile from this airport.
We got our frequencies and took off and there we were. We managed to
get a word in edgewise with Bay Approach and got handed off to Oakland.
Unfortunately - Bay Approach didn't tell Oakland we were inbound for touch and
goes (they're supposed to). We mentioned double checked with the
controller on about 2 mile final and he was pissed that we didn't tell him but
shifted us from 27R to 27L and cleared us.
So we did a touch our first touch and go. Flying at Oakland is
intimidating. Oakland is effectively two airports next to each
other. "South Field" is runway 11-33 where the big boys
play. "North Field" is the General Aviation field where we
were. But the pattern for 27L/9R where we were takes us to the left/west
towards 11-33 (within about a 1/2 mile). It is a very non-standard pattern
- very close to the runway and low, only 600' AGL. Well - our 2nd touch
and go and we couldn't get the controller to clear us, but finally got in and
then did touch and go number two. But he was pissed again - strike 2.
At this point a controller switch was happening. The new controller
told the plane in front of us to report over the United hanger but never said
anything to us. We learned later that is in fact standard for the 27L/9R
pattern because the controllers are in the tower over by 11-33 and have poor viability
to the south end of North Field. But we didn't report over United.
We had a Cessna ahead of us on a straight in to final and we were cleared #2
behind him. Here's the problem - the Warrior likes an approach speed about
7-8 knots faster than the Cessna. Plus - this guy was flying the slowest
approach we've seen so we ended up too close to him. Finally the
controller completely lost track of where anyone in the pattern was. We
got too close and called a go-around and the controller lost it. He
basically kicked us out of his airspace and told us to go home.
Not a totally fun time - but I'm a lot more pragmatic than Michael. He
took it pretty hard but I just looked at it as another learning lesson. At
no point was there a safety issue and we knew any admin action would play the
tape and show the controller loosing track - not us. So I was okay with it
all. I do want to go back there some day and I now know to report over the
United hanger ;-)...
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