Eblo

Everything Is Under Control

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On 12/29/03, I flew into Class D Airspace for the first time. Class D Airspace encircles an airport which has an active control tower (and isn't busy enough to have Class C (Milwaukee) or Class B (O'Hare) airspace). So it was the first time I needed to use the radio. Campbell Airport, which I fly out of, is an uncontrolled airport. So you make announcements about where you are and what you're doing out over the radio, but there's a) no requirement to do so b) no guarantee others heard you and c) no requirement for others to tell you where they are and what they're up to. "See and Avoid" is of critical importance at all times, but especially when operating around an uncontrolled airport.

So we flew north until we were directly west of Kenosha Regional (KENW). Along the way, we listened to the ATIS frequency to get the automated information about the wind conditions, which runways were in use, etc. Then Brice, my CFI nodded, and I squeaked out the line he'd coached me to say, "Kenosha Tower, Warrior, 8-4-4-7-Lima." After a brief pause, a voice came back parroting, "4-7-Lima. Go ahead."

It was my turn again, "Kenosha Tower, 4-7-Lima with information Yankee, 10 miles west, to land." I had now told them who I was, where I was, that I had the ATIS info was, and what I wanted to do. He then came back, repeating my callsign, and telling me to make my way towards the airport - I was now allowed to enter the Class D Airspace (you don't need 'clearance' technically speaking, but you do have to be in communication with the tower).

I made a right hand turn towards the airport and started descending to pattern altitude. This wasn't so bad. At first the communications seem a bit daunting, but it's all pretty logical, and 9 times out of 10, you're just repeating back what the person in the tower just told you to do.

In addition to the added load of working the radio and the stupid psychological pressure of knowing someone is watching you, this was my first time flying into an airport with right-hand traffic. If you look at the GSP plots from this flight and the next, my patterns aren't very pretty to the right yet. I need to practice. It's not a big deal, though.

Another thing you might notice from the GPS plot is that on one circuit, I aborted the landing on Rwy 24R. There had been a Lear jet holding short of the runway as I was on my downwind leg. For some reason, just as I was making my base turn, the controller cleared the jet to take off, and then cleared me to land. I was pretty short on final and the jet was still spooling up and starting to roll. I was just about to ask my CFI what I should do when he grabbed the microphone and told the controller we were going to make a right turn as we were getting too close to the jet still on the runway. The controller came back and told us to turn left instead, and enter a downwind for Rwy 24L.

It wasn't a 'close call' or anything, but it was pretty strange that he'd cleared us so close together. It just goes to show that being in a controlled environment doesn't relieve the pilot from staying aware of what's going on around him/her.

I made a total of four landings there and headed on home. To get into the pattern at Campbell, I overflew it and made a tight right-hand turn to enter on the 45. I executed the turn a little early, so the setup to land was a bit rushed, but all was well.

All in all, it was great fun, if a bit stressful.

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[Ed. note - This was entered on 1/4/04, but I'm dating the entry for the date of the flight for archival purposes]