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TAF at Punta Gorda Airport today
- Thread starter taxi1
- Start date
I think it was a one-time trip. No calls for down there yesterday. We weren't operating as part of the FEMA det.
It seemed like there was plenty of work for the military guys, though, as we could hear them doing a bunch of locating and hoisting over common.
It seemed like there was plenty of work for the military guys, though, as we could hear them doing a bunch of locating and hoisting over common.
We have a decent footprint down there right now. I didn't go down because A) I am now OIC of an AVIM maintenance company and B) I am retiring in less than 4 months. I have turned in EVERYTHING!!! Here we are doing a 120 hr for a Chinook heading back down tomorrow.
I spoke too soon. Ended up going down again yesterday. The scene appears to have changed some, as there doesn't seem to be the focus on SAR and it's more logistics now. Hawks and Chinooks working logistics LZs (a -47 was coming and going at a school next to the hospital I was at), LE flying around, GA volunteers (I'm assuming) trying to help while also causing their own small brand of chaos, and CBP doing whatever it is they do while sitting around the FBO.
I can't see what's happening on the coast, but on the east side, it seems now that the FEMA contract EMS birds are much busier and moving people out of the hospitals while the Guard is focusing on logistics. We were yet another trail of tears moving patients yesterday, but this time going to the east coast. It was a mix of FEMA contract HEMS and regular HEMS moving patients, with 2 -135s passing us going the opposite direction going back.
Southwest Regional/Ft. Meyers (KRSW) tower is back up now, but the Class C is not. Tower was running it, which was helpful. Since everyone is already running their own code or a company code, they don't have to assign anything, they're just managing the circus.
The KPGD FBO has water now but no power. They do have internet, as well, so contract gas is a little faster (once they realize you have a direct bill). Vz cell service continues to be slow but FirstNet seems to be running.
While there's lots to do and I certainly wouldn't want to be having to live down there, my general sense is that this still isn't to the scale of Haiti, but it's interesting to see some of the operational similarities.
I can't see what's happening on the coast, but on the east side, it seems now that the FEMA contract EMS birds are much busier and moving people out of the hospitals while the Guard is focusing on logistics. We were yet another trail of tears moving patients yesterday, but this time going to the east coast. It was a mix of FEMA contract HEMS and regular HEMS moving patients, with 2 -135s passing us going the opposite direction going back.
Southwest Regional/Ft. Meyers (KRSW) tower is back up now, but the Class C is not. Tower was running it, which was helpful. Since everyone is already running their own code or a company code, they don't have to assign anything, they're just managing the circus.
The KPGD FBO has water now but no power. They do have internet, as well, so contract gas is a little faster (once they realize you have a direct bill). Vz cell service continues to be slow but FirstNet seems to be running.
While there's lots to do and I certainly wouldn't want to be having to live down there, my general sense is that this still isn't to the scale of Haiti, but it's interesting to see some of the operational similarities.
GroundPounder
Well-Known Member
When it is all over, I would be interested in your assessment of FirstNet.
Do you guys ever use any sort of satellite-based data system?
I'm curious, because we've been on the lookout for something portable we can use for in-flight weather updates during ferries through remote (e.g. oceanic) areas. Think small cockpit. I've inquired about a few, but Iridium Go is too slow to be useful, and have yet to find anything else that's readily available.
I'm curious, because we've been on the lookout for something portable we can use for in-flight weather updates during ferries through remote (e.g. oceanic) areas. Think small cockpit. I've inquired about a few, but Iridium Go is too slow to be useful, and have yet to find anything else that's readily available.
I've generally been very happy with my Vz service, any bad examples I mention are usually because of one-off issues like being on a base with no antenna. At my current work, we work in a Faraday cage of a building. Add to that being in a more rural area on the edge of town, and the Vz service sucks inside. When we switched to First Net (on an iPhone), the service was drastically improved. I usually text my boss on my personal phone, but if he calls me or I need to call him and don't want to go outside, I'll switch to the work phone.
While down south this week, I wasn't using much data on the First Net side, but calls had no problems going through. The Vz iPad in the aircraft would come and go down there and my personal Vz phone was really slow (although still pushing some data). I have a feeling that had more to do with the standard limiting of bandwidth in disaster areas than lack of signal.
Given how unimpressed I've been with ATT previously, I just haven't been motivated to switch over to First Net for personal use, but for work, it's been very reliable.
The only thing we have is XM, which obviously isn't going to help you in an oceanic environment. I've found XM to be very time late on updates. We don't have ADSB-In in the particular model of aircraft I fly.
I thought the biz jets had something like you're asking about.
Biz jets typically have a few things, but I’m not ferrying a biz jet this time, so I won’t have those advantages (Iridium/CPDLC/HF built in).
Long story short, the last time I ferried an aircraft, we had to divert over Greenland for unforecast fog, and ended up really low on gas and well off our planned route. Trying to avoid that kind of situation again. Real-time radar/satellite/icing imagery updates are the dream, but I’ll settle for the ability to get METARs real-time.
Not much available- it's admittedly a small market. Starlink is a good thought though- I'll have to research that a bit more. It was ostesibly built for hard-to-reach markets (like Africa), but I have no idea how it would work at higher latitudes, such as the North Atlantic region, which is our most troublesome area for international ferry flights.
ETA: Looks like Starlink is not designed to be mobile. We may be stuck with our iridium GO / sat phone voice solution for now.
PMPT
Well-Known Member
in all fairness, I look back now on my T-6 solo and am amazed it went as smoothly as it did. at that point in time with my total lack of experience, I would have seriously struggled to know what to do if any serious friction came up
I had to divert on my first solo up to Brewton, fun times. Beautiful VFR day turned the field IFR when the local farmers decided to burn their fields to the ground ?
I remember dropping into Evergreen one day and everything outside the airport property was on fire. You could line up for one or two of the Initals, but PEL entries were really the only way in. The airfield property itself wasn't on fire but apparently the airport authority had allowed a burn inside the boundry during the weekend. Everything except the ramp and the runways was black. It was a bizarre scene.
While my student was lining up for the PEL, I heard one of the other IPs in call the RDO and say, "I love what you've done with the place, Jim."