Date: Tuesday, January 8, 2002, 12:54:46 AM Subject: Trip to MYF (Montgomery Field) San Diego and back Howdy, I flew my daughter down to San Diego yesterday. The ceilings were at 12,000 ft., but otherwise it was a fine day for flying. We even had 10 kt. tailwinds for the flight down, which would have made for a 52 minute flight, except for some delay in landing at MYF. As usual, my daughter slept on the way down, even though we only cruised at 5500 feet, so it must not have been the lack of oxygen. :^) The actual flight had several little events that bothered me. First, I got VFR clearance, with flight following, for a SE departure to MYF, cruising at 3500. My plan was to go through the LAX SFAR corridor, at 3500 southbound (as required) until FERMY, where I would climb to 5500 to go over SNA (John Wayne Airport) airspace. * as we departed SBA, the departure controller headed me straight south for "spacing" (from what or for whom was never clear). I politely waited until almost five nm outside of the Class C airspace limits (that's 10 minutes @ 120 kts), at which point I asked if I could turn easterly, to actually head towards San Diego, instead of the Catalina Islands. All I got was a "standby". I guess he was too busy (doing what I have no idea), so after a bit, I decided to turn east anyway, and I spoke up and said so. I was at least five nm outside of Class C airspace, and I was not flying out over the ocean any further. He responded by saying the typical, "squawk 1200, maintain VFR separation, radar services terminated, frequency change approved." In other words, ATC-speak for "F*** you." He basically did not hand me off to SoCal Approach, nor Pt. Mugu, which is customary for flight following. Fine. I immediately dialed up SoCal Approach anyway, and they gave me a new squawk, and then shortly after handed me off to Pt. Mugu. Pt. Mugu normally hands off to another So Cal. Approach, but apparently they are too busy and don't accept the hand off, so Pt. Mugu tells me the "Squawk 1200, radar services terminated, ..." etc. litany, and then gives me the So Cal frequency to contact. So, at this point, I'm under Class B, headed at 3500 towards SMO (Santa Monica), which is the "entrance" to the VFR corridor over LAX. Before I get there, I connect with SoCal again, they *do* pick me up for flight following, give me yet another sqawk, and then, less than 10 minutes later, terminate radar services as I'm about to enter the LAX SFRA. They don't give me a frequency to pick me up on the other side of the corridor. I squawk 1201, tune in 128.55 (I think that's it), turn on all lights, and announce my intentions (southbound at 3500 through the LAX SFRA). As soon as I'm out of the corridor, I squawk back to 1200, and tune in the nearest ATC (according to my handy Garmin "nearest ATC" page). They pick me up, give me a new squawk, and I'm good for the remaining 25-30 minutes down to San Diego. As I approach Mt. Soledad (a visual reporting point for the approach to MYF), I'm now talking with MYF TWR. From the chatter on the tower frequency, it's clear that there a LOTS of planes in the pattern, leaving or arriving. It's a zoo. MYF tower tells me to make left-based for 28L (the small runway). As I get on the downwind leg, tower advises me that I'm #4 behind a "Great Lakes". I confirm my assignment, and start looking for whatever the hell a "Great Lakes" (I now know, of course -- but imagine the state of mind then). In front of me is a Warrior, and to my left are two planes, one on short final, and one on long final. So, I can see three planes in the immediate pattern "in front" of me -- but none of them are a "Great Lakes". So, I'm flying a reduced speed downwind, maintaining the 1740 ft. pattern altitude, looking for a "Great Lakes". The three other planes "in front" of me are either landed or on final. I'm still heading downwind away from the airport, looking for my predecessor. Given that I was assigned #4, and I just saw three planes to land, I was thinking that perhaps I should be following that Warrior that was in the pattern before me, but for some reason the controller was calling it a "Great Lakes". At this point, even flying slow at 100mph, it feels like I've gotten quite a bit away from the airfield. Just as I start to initiate a left turn for the base leg, ahead and low, I see a biplane chugging along, very low almost invisible against the cityscape, and flying really, really slow. Ah-ah. This bi-plane is the "Great Lakes"? Why in the world did tower sequence me *behind* him? I could have easily turned way in front of the bi-plane, handily beat him to the airport, with or without making short approach, and been off the runway before the bi-plane was even on short final. I guess that if I were flying a Bonanza, that's what I would have done, tower or no-tower. :^) [That's just a joke, guys -- from the recent Bonanaza vs. Cherokee thread] Oh well. I maintain my ever-increasingly lengthy downwind leg until the bi-plane has passed by me off my left wing. I even give it some "room" before I initiate a left turn to base, and then a few tens of seconds later, another left turn to a very long final, a reasonable distance behind the bi-plane. I'm slowed down as best I can. I've got two notches of flaps (25 degrees) on, and trimmed to a nose-high pitch for almost but not quite MCA. I'm flying about 85-90 mph, which feels very slow to me -- but is still too fast for the "Great Lakes". I'm slowly gaining on him. The bi-plane is still 1 mile out and, unbelievably, he *SLOWS DOWN EVEN MORE*. What is he doing? I do some S-turns to keep from gaining, but it's impossible to fly as slow as he does. Just as I add power for a go-around (I could have flown over the bi-plane and landed in front of him, but I won't go there), tower speaks up and *tells* me to do a go-around. I'm doing the normal go-around sequence: power-up, pitch-up, positive-rate-of climb, flaps down, pitch-up, positive rate-of-climb. While I'm doing the flaps down thing, tower impatiently tells me to confirm that I'm doing a go around. I was in no hurry to communicate, since all of my instructors taught me to aviate, navigate & *then* communicate. But, tower got antsy I guess; so after dropping the flaps, I key the mike and confirm the go around. What else did he think I was doing? I'm now climbing, turning left, following the pattern for another landing attempt. Only, there are still many, many planes in the area, some just arriving. As I am mid-downwind, tower tells me that I'm now #4 (again) behind the Bonanza ahead, which is actually 500 ft. above me (I'm at pattern altitude) and to the right, at my 2 o'clock position. In the pattern is a small plane on short final, a Cessna on long final (just opposite to me on my downwind leg), there's another low-wing further away on very, very long final, and then there is the Bonanza at 2 o'clock to me by about a mile, and 500 ft. above me. That's five planes in line for landing--as far as I can tell--but I confirm my #4 position, and that I've got the Bonanza in sight. And, I begin to follow him. Now, I'm following the Bonanza and the other planes are landing, and after the 3rd plane lands, I start to wonder if that 3rd plane was a Bonanza, and maybe I misunderstood which Bonanza? Tower clearly made me #4, and 3 planes landed since then. Meanwhile, I'm still following the Bonanza ahead of me on an increasingly long downwind. I'm still following. And... we're now almost three miles from the airport again, on a very long downwind. What in the world is this Bonanza doing? And, is this the wrong Bonanza? Should I turn to land as #4 as cleared? Finally, he starts to descend. But, he's not turning, and all of our predecessor traffic has landed. He's STILL flying a downwind -- or just passing by the airport. Okay. Now, here's my mistake.. or maybe one more mistake. Instead of asking tower if the Bonanza ahead of me still intends to land at MYF and should I still land behind him, I concluded that perhaps I had followed the wrong Bonanza, and was following someone that had merely flown past the airport. This sounds stupid as I write this, but remember that the sky was *full* of planes around MYF, and there were several Bonanzas. So, it was a reasonable guess of the current behavior of the Bonanza ahead of me. Who flys a single-engine prop on a five mile downwind? So, at this point, I decided to start a turn for base FIVE miles from MYF (I mean we are way past Qualcomm stadium at this point). At which point, the Bonanza mysteriously and finally decided to start his turn. It figures. It has already been that kind of a day. As I see that he just started his turn to base finally, instead of trying to turn into his direction in an attempt to get back on the downwind behind him, I continue my base, and extend it, and then when he has safely passed behind me, I start a 270 degree right turn to sequence behind him. As I saw the Bonanza turn to base, I spoke up asking tower to confirm whether or not I turned in front of the Bonanza that I was to follow. Tower asks the Bonanza if he can see me, he says sure -- that I'm no factor. I then speak up and tell tower that I'll do a right 270 and track the Bonanza in on a very, very long downwind. Lesson: when in doubt, ask the tower. Don't be shy. And, maybe it will remind the other plane it is time to turn (instead of talk, or whatever else he was doing). I finally get to land, behind the Bonanza, and then before directing me to MYF ground, tower gives me a little lecture about learning to observe plans and fly proper patterns. There's no way to win this argument that immediately begins to form in my mind in response, so I just say "yessir" and leave it at that. Some questions that I would have loved to ask the tower: * Why did you sequence me behind the Great Lakes bi-plane when it was flying 80 kts max, and I was flying 90 kts minimum? * when a plane is on short final, does it count? If so, then why was I #4 behind the Bonanza if it ended up landing as #4? * when there are that many planes in the pattern, isn't it a good idea to explicitly tell planes when they can turn base and/or final? ------- A little over an hour later, for the departure back to SBA, the MYF ground controller gave me progressive taxing to 28R, and then the tower approved a straight out departure, and advised me to remain clear of the Class Bravo. When he handed me off to Departure Control, he said "they're expecting you". Sheesh. Maybe because of the earlier difficulties in working into the pattern, I'm guessing that the tower controller had pegged my tail number with some kind of note. Any of you Piperites controllers or know about these things? Anyway, the flight back was uneventful, except that I requested the LAX shoreline route instead of the LAX SFRA VFR corridor. This kept me "in the system". On approach to SBA, I requested a VFR GPS approach to 25, so I could get another practise IFR landing in. They approved it, but then vectored me south (out to the islands again) for about 5 minutes just as I was about to hit KWANG to make room for an incoming Brazilia making a visual approach. I thought that the situation was ironic: here's a VFR private pilot in a relatively slow plane being IFR-controlled out over the ocean to make room for a normally IFR commercial plane making a VFR approach at very high speeds. It was all bass-ackwards. Anyway, I was getting real IFR practise by getting vectors. They vectored me back to an intercept to track into ZACKS at 2100 ft., and cleared direct via SBA GPS 25. I let the GPS drive mostly, with an auto-pilot controlled descent of 500 fpm (at 120 kts descent rate, the chart calls for something like 472 fpm) until I was over land, at which point I flew manually, and made a very nice, roll-on landing. Now, if I can just find the time to study for and take that damn IFR written, I could schedule my IFR oral and practical checkride. I'll look forward to some words of wisdom on how to better deal with crowded patterns and unhelpful tower controllers. -- Best regards, Alan K. Stebbens , N4184R, PA32-300, SBA