I was on a flight where they aborted the landing. I forgot the explanation that the pilot gave. I think it was that another plane was too close on the ground. I wonder what actually happened.

kleinbl00: Back when I did a lot of business travel I used to go into DC regularly. The approach to Reagan Int'l changed after 9/11 so that you are now required to fly nap-of-the-earth down the Potomac. I learned this because we were waved off once and the Navy guy next to me in 1st class said "yeah, there'll be a report on that one. This airport got a lot trickier once they decided to make everybody play limbo to prove they were actually pilots." Apparently if you were just at Embry Riddle long enough to learn how to take off, getting into the pattern for Reagan - and getting proximity to all the juicy, juicy targets - is pretty much impossible. It's also a lot harder for pilots who know what they're doing.

My dad has a Mooney M20F. He got it for a steal off a former test pilot who no longer had the arm strength to work the landing gear - but not before the former test pilot put $70k worth of avionics in a $60k plane. My dad has no interest in IFR, despite having enough gear to fly blind... but he also likes to come visit, which means landing at Hawthorne Airport (home of SpaceX in Compton). In order to get to Hawthorne, of course, you have to punch a hole through the Class Bravo airspace that is LAX... and we get fog.

He was coming in last Thanksgiving and we were pretty well fogged in. He had to communicate with LAX in order to cross their airspace. Tower asked him how, exactly, with a VFR and a Mooney, he intended to land at Hawthorne.

"...well, I got a Garmin," my dad said.

"Good luck with that," said Tower. "deferring you to Hawthorne, have a nice day."

Mooney landings are interesting anyway. Here's the most interesting one I know of, not my dad flying (although my dad insists this guy is doing everything perfectly).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhKTKKasMZI


posted 4443 days ago