bob turner
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- Jan 7, 2005
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Just got home from a social event. One of my friends is an approach controller (as well as a pilot). He mentioned the altitude for non-transponder aircraft.
Apparently, when we show up without an altitude readout, the new plan is to assume we are at the same altitude as aircraft being radar vectored, and thus the jet (or whatever is being vectored) will get a heading to avoid us. This is new, as far as I can tell, and may not be official procedure. Yet.
I am telling my Cub students to be very careful to make sure our friendly tower controllers know what altitudes we are planning. That way when approach control calls in a panic, they can say "That is just Bob, and he assured us he will remain at or below 1700' ". Apparently that is good enough to avoid having two or three Southwest jets vectored off the localizer.
We are perfectly legal below class Bravo, and in class Delta - but if this becomes a serious problem, I can see things changing for the worse. We could easily lose our grandfather status. So I am recommending letting somebody know what your altitude will be if you are in the vicinity of arriving and departing jets.
I just say " If anybody asks, I will be at 1700 feet the entire flight". That seems to keep folks happy.
Apparently, when we show up without an altitude readout, the new plan is to assume we are at the same altitude as aircraft being radar vectored, and thus the jet (or whatever is being vectored) will get a heading to avoid us. This is new, as far as I can tell, and may not be official procedure. Yet.
I am telling my Cub students to be very careful to make sure our friendly tower controllers know what altitudes we are planning. That way when approach control calls in a panic, they can say "That is just Bob, and he assured us he will remain at or below 1700' ". Apparently that is good enough to avoid having two or three Southwest jets vectored off the localizer.
We are perfectly legal below class Bravo, and in class Delta - but if this becomes a serious problem, I can see things changing for the worse. We could easily lose our grandfather status. So I am recommending letting somebody know what your altitude will be if you are in the vicinity of arriving and departing jets.
I just say " If anybody asks, I will be at 1700 feet the entire flight". That seems to keep folks happy.
