What Gatordev is really saying is that he would prefer you not try to kill him.
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KBay tried to kill me...
- Thread starter Steve Wilkins
- Start date
Yeah, I just love those random Cessna's that seem to spawn out of nowhere, especially when the clouds just seem to sh!t them out left and right.
How bad is the civilian traffic in the P-cola areas? We definitely have our encounters down here, but that makes sense because everyone wants to fly along the beach where all our course rules and areas are. I guess I figured that they might be a little fewer and farther between over there.
I've seen days when there aren't any planes other than ours, then I've seen days where you can't count as fast as you see the planes.
An example, it was so busy last week during a night flight that the controller had to tell some people to stop talking and call back in 10 minutes because he had too many planes to deal with.
Some days it can be really bad, almost to the point that if you're below 8,000 you can't get many maneuvers in because you're always trying having to avoid traffic.
*Mods: This post may be better suited elsewhere, but it is in line with the current discussion.
For those in or headed to the HTs, you really need to keep your head on a swivel, since you often operate at or close to common GA altitudes. Civvy traffic can be heavy, particularly around Milton. Be especially watchful when transiting across the major roads (90 & 10), when flying along the beach, and when working at Harold and Santa Rosa (traffic in and out of Milton comes close to these two fields). When flying at OLF Pace, keep the J22 strip in your scan. When working in the eastern area, watch out for a lot of C-130 traffic in and out of Duke (particularly at night) and civvy traffic around CEW VORTAC. Finally, when transiting Area 1 during the day (IFR), watch for T-34s practicing HAPLs. (I was IFR to BFM at ~1500' one day, and saw a T-34 pass beneath my chin bubble!)
You regularly work at some non-towered civvy airports (Bob Sikes, Jack Edwards, Florala, etc), so get very comfortable with entry, exit, and pattern calls at these types of fields. Tune up the field early, listen, and build your SA ASAP. Make your bubba calls in the pattern early and often, especially if you plan to take off or land somewhere besides the runway.
All in all, civilian traffic in the Pensacola area can be heavy at times, but conflicts are easily avoided if everyone maintains a vigilant scan and communicates well, both internally and externally.
For those in or headed to the HTs, you really need to keep your head on a swivel, since you often operate at or close to common GA altitudes. Civvy traffic can be heavy, particularly around Milton. Be especially watchful when transiting across the major roads (90 & 10), when flying along the beach, and when working at Harold and Santa Rosa (traffic in and out of Milton comes close to these two fields). When flying at OLF Pace, keep the J22 strip in your scan. When working in the eastern area, watch out for a lot of C-130 traffic in and out of Duke (particularly at night) and civvy traffic around CEW VORTAC. Finally, when transiting Area 1 during the day (IFR), watch for T-34s practicing HAPLs. (I was IFR to BFM at ~1500' one day, and saw a T-34 pass beneath my chin bubble!)
You regularly work at some non-towered civvy airports (Bob Sikes, Jack Edwards, Florala, etc), so get very comfortable with entry, exit, and pattern calls at these types of fields. Tune up the field early, listen, and build your SA ASAP. Make your bubba calls in the pattern early and often, especially if you plan to take off or land somewhere besides the runway.
All in all, civilian traffic in the Pensacola area can be heavy at times, but conflicts are easily avoided if everyone maintains a vigilant scan and communicates well, both internally and externally.
Moved this over to another thread...
Generally there's pretty good coordination between the HTs and VTs because the course rules are separated, although I had a -57 shoot an ILS to Bob Sikes all the way to the numbers going the opposite direction of traffic in the pattern, which happened to include myself and a Cessna who both repeatedly announced our setup. Jackass.
Scoober, what ends up happening is in one area, there's at least three civilian fields in addition to our 3 fields and in another area, both of our OLFs are also operating civilian fields. That doesn't even include aircraft coming and going out of PNS. I live right on the HT course rules going back to Whiting, and generally it seems to be pretty clear, but like Kbay said, occasionally there will be some civilian cruising right along the road.
And I won't even get into the hornets nest that is the GCA/Santa Rosa/Milton T area.
Generally there's pretty good coordination between the HTs and VTs because the course rules are separated, although I had a -57 shoot an ILS to Bob Sikes all the way to the numbers going the opposite direction of traffic in the pattern, which happened to include myself and a Cessna who both repeatedly announced our setup. Jackass.
Scoober, what ends up happening is in one area, there's at least three civilian fields in addition to our 3 fields and in another area, both of our OLFs are also operating civilian fields. That doesn't even include aircraft coming and going out of PNS. I live right on the HT course rules going back to Whiting, and generally it seems to be pretty clear, but like Kbay said, occasionally there will be some civilian cruising right along the road.
And I won't even get into the hornets nest that is the GCA/Santa Rosa/Milton T area.