Kaye
Line Up and Wait
It was forecasted to be a beautiful day, so I scheduled a hooky day to go fly. The wx didn’t disappoint me, and I’m looking forward to a fun flight.
A little background about JYO. JYO backs up against Dulles airspace on the northwest corner with a 17-35 rwy. Instrument approaches usually get 17 with a circle to land on 35 if necessary due to the proximity to Dulles airspace.
Back to the story…..I’m ready to go. Couple of planes working the pattern, couple that just left the area, and me ready for TO on 17. Just as I rotate, I hear someone new call in, “Leesburg traffic, Leesburg traffic, Flightcheck 77…..blah blah blah….. (okay, we have someone coming in on the approach, but that’s behind me)…..VOR alpha…blah blah blah (hmmmm, what approach is that?)…..anyone in the area, please advise, anyone in the area, please advise!” The planes in the pattern gave their position, but I’ve just taken off, establishing my climb and cleaning up the plane.... the airplane is behind me, I’m not talking…..but it’s nagging me about the VOR A approach. I’m about 350 agl when I raised my flaps. I always look to confirm they’re up, and what do I see…..a King Air 50-75 feet passing below me, opposite direction. Now, the VOR A clicks…..it’s the VOR A rwy 35 that comes off the Armel VOR sitting at Dulles. No one gets that approach unless the LOC is out and there’s wx, and no one gets that approach for practice. It also registers that someone upstairs was looking out for me, as a midair was just missed.
Shortly after we pass, the King calls a miss (he’s below the MAP and I’m still dumbfounded…just fly the airplane), and once again I’m thanking my lucky stars that he didn’t call it a few seconds earlier. I found out later that when he went back to approach, his only comment was that there was too much traffic at Leesburg (one of the planes in the pattern was on final for 17). I don’t think he ever saw me, and I think it’s pretty obvious that he wasn’t monitoring the CTAF prior to talking.
Me…..I’m beating myself up. Complacency at home airport…..approaches are always for 17, so I tuned out the guy when he called. I can’t tell you if he gave his position, I can’t tell you if he said VOR alpha “for rwy 35”, because I tuned him out with the assumption he was approaching 17 and I was departing same. Yes, the VOR A nagged at me, but I still remained oblivious.
Another big concern, as an after thought, are the students training at this airport. They have a clue that airplanes will do straight-in approaches to 17, so beware, but not for 35. And they’d have no reason to understand a VOR A approach, even tho I should.
So I got lucky today, but it did kind of ruin my lunch. It was definitely a wake-up call. Hope I have a few more lives left.
Kaye
A little background about JYO. JYO backs up against Dulles airspace on the northwest corner with a 17-35 rwy. Instrument approaches usually get 17 with a circle to land on 35 if necessary due to the proximity to Dulles airspace.
Back to the story…..I’m ready to go. Couple of planes working the pattern, couple that just left the area, and me ready for TO on 17. Just as I rotate, I hear someone new call in, “Leesburg traffic, Leesburg traffic, Flightcheck 77…..blah blah blah….. (okay, we have someone coming in on the approach, but that’s behind me)…..VOR alpha…blah blah blah (hmmmm, what approach is that?)…..anyone in the area, please advise, anyone in the area, please advise!” The planes in the pattern gave their position, but I’ve just taken off, establishing my climb and cleaning up the plane.... the airplane is behind me, I’m not talking…..but it’s nagging me about the VOR A approach. I’m about 350 agl when I raised my flaps. I always look to confirm they’re up, and what do I see…..a King Air 50-75 feet passing below me, opposite direction. Now, the VOR A clicks…..it’s the VOR A rwy 35 that comes off the Armel VOR sitting at Dulles. No one gets that approach unless the LOC is out and there’s wx, and no one gets that approach for practice. It also registers that someone upstairs was looking out for me, as a midair was just missed.
Shortly after we pass, the King calls a miss (he’s below the MAP and I’m still dumbfounded…just fly the airplane), and once again I’m thanking my lucky stars that he didn’t call it a few seconds earlier. I found out later that when he went back to approach, his only comment was that there was too much traffic at Leesburg (one of the planes in the pattern was on final for 17). I don’t think he ever saw me, and I think it’s pretty obvious that he wasn’t monitoring the CTAF prior to talking.
Me…..I’m beating myself up. Complacency at home airport…..approaches are always for 17, so I tuned out the guy when he called. I can’t tell you if he gave his position, I can’t tell you if he said VOR alpha “for rwy 35”, because I tuned him out with the assumption he was approaching 17 and I was departing same. Yes, the VOR A nagged at me, but I still remained oblivious.
Another big concern, as an after thought, are the students training at this airport. They have a clue that airplanes will do straight-in approaches to 17, so beware, but not for 35. And they’d have no reason to understand a VOR A approach, even tho I should.
So I got lucky today, but it did kind of ruin my lunch. It was definitely a wake-up call. Hope I have a few more lives left.
Kaye