Rich_R

For the infrastructure Pros out there…the 1000’ AGL tower near one of the fields I fly into rarely has all or even most of it lights working, as I write this I can’t remember seeing lights on at all this summer, though it has been dutifully notam’d. Reaching out to airfield manager who reached out to state aviation, only concern seems to be whether it is notam’d or not, with the advice that if I drive to the base of the tower I could look up ownership info on a placard there.

As towers propagate in our wireless world and with those above the lighting threshold elevation being approved contingent on lighting…is there a similar performance threshold for maintaining the lighting…or is satisfying the notam requirement where compliance ends?

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skyvisions

You can’t be sure how relevant and accurate the findings are, because we are not given all they considered and factored in. Was the time lost with the COVID lockdown factored, pilots who did get sick, and lost time flying. Did those who got sick have long COVID symptoms, and if so, were they ones that affected flying? Like “brain fog” and fatigue? And if none of that factored in, what about job loss or furloughed, and inflation that caused some not to fly as often, or delay dual instruction? So, there is much unknown here.

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davebaker123

I’ve wondered why airports are fringed with towers, malls, neighborhoods and apartments. One glaring example of such zoning stupidity is still talked about today: The F-86 crash in Sacramento. That tragedy should have poured ice water on zoning commissions to consider developments around airports very carefully. Our military base where I worked was closed due to zoning issues, with folks who lived nearby constantly complaining about noise. DUUUHHHHH!! It was an AIR FORCE BASE, not a tree nursery. Those folks would have you believe they woke up one morning and discovered someone had built an airport next to their hamlets during the night. City leaders must know the value of having airports to service their travelers and businesses. The last thing they should do is allow developers to build high density housing or retail stores in harm’s way.

davebaker123

My bugaboo on safety issues is automation. Pilots are still prone to coupling gizmos for navigation and flying chores rather than to grasp that funny looking steering wheel thingy to physically operate the plane. This trend is manifested by many videos of planes plunging out of cloud bases during IMC, or even spinning to terra firma in VMC. Of course not all such mishaps are recorded for posterity, but at least the FAA is taking a stab at coaxing pilots to eschew hooking up computers to conduct their trips.