TheGolfPilot
Line Up and Wait
Had an interesting experience today to share.
I was arriving to Concord, KCCR, from the Northwest, around the vallejo area, in a Bonanza. Called tower and was instructed to enter a left base for 1L. I thought a 45 entry to the downwind was more appropriate but seemed harmless enough to go straight to the base. This was mistake 1.
As I was entering the airspace on a base entry, descending through about 1500', a falcon calls up almost to the Final approach fix )around the CCR vor area. He was instructed to circle to land one left. She then instructs me to make a right turn and make an extended downwind, even said it was to make room for the falcon. At this point I am maybe 10 seconds away from turning final somewhere between 700-800 feet. I repeated the instruction. This is where I really should have said something.
As I am going turning to right I realize that isn't going to work real well, there are hills there, I either had to climb, converge with the final approach, or converge with a hill. The controller was getting anxious and asks me to make a 360. At this point I am about 2 miles outside of the airspace, that falcon is at about midfield, and I am only 4-500 feet AGL over hilly terrain. This is where I finally said something "No, I can't do a 360, there is terrain, I am turning left to avoid hitting it. I am almost 2 miles outside your airspace, figure it out".
Mind you, there is about 4 mile visibility out from smoke. I am VFR, and visability shouldn't be an excuse, but it was very much a factor, The controller probably couldn't see me, the falcon couldn't see me, and I was flying over hilly terrain at low altitude in a reduced visibility setting.
At this point another controller comes onto frequency "turn base, cleared to land 1R, caution wake turbulence". After all that. I touched town on the right runway as the falcon jet was exiting the runway.
Had she just cleared me to land on the right runway to begin with, I would have been shutdown by the time the Falcon touched down. On the car ride home I kept running the scenario in my head and determined
I should have first requested the appropriate 45 degree entry, but I didn't know a fast moving plane was on approach.
Second place to say no was when she asked to change my base into a an extended downwind. A simple "unable" would have gone a long way to making her realize that wasn't the right call.
3rd spot, things were really starting to pile on. I could have probably done the 360 she was asking but things were starting to daisy chain and I realized she didn't have control over the situation, and I was quickly losing situational awareness.
That is how my routine day turned exciting. Amazing what ATC is willing to do to accommodate a jet.
All of this happened faster than it probably takes to read it.
Feels good to write it out.
I was arriving to Concord, KCCR, from the Northwest, around the vallejo area, in a Bonanza. Called tower and was instructed to enter a left base for 1L. I thought a 45 entry to the downwind was more appropriate but seemed harmless enough to go straight to the base. This was mistake 1.
As I was entering the airspace on a base entry, descending through about 1500', a falcon calls up almost to the Final approach fix )around the CCR vor area. He was instructed to circle to land one left. She then instructs me to make a right turn and make an extended downwind, even said it was to make room for the falcon. At this point I am maybe 10 seconds away from turning final somewhere between 700-800 feet. I repeated the instruction. This is where I really should have said something.
As I am going turning to right I realize that isn't going to work real well, there are hills there, I either had to climb, converge with the final approach, or converge with a hill. The controller was getting anxious and asks me to make a 360. At this point I am about 2 miles outside of the airspace, that falcon is at about midfield, and I am only 4-500 feet AGL over hilly terrain. This is where I finally said something "No, I can't do a 360, there is terrain, I am turning left to avoid hitting it. I am almost 2 miles outside your airspace, figure it out".
Mind you, there is about 4 mile visibility out from smoke. I am VFR, and visability shouldn't be an excuse, but it was very much a factor, The controller probably couldn't see me, the falcon couldn't see me, and I was flying over hilly terrain at low altitude in a reduced visibility setting.
At this point another controller comes onto frequency "turn base, cleared to land 1R, caution wake turbulence". After all that. I touched town on the right runway as the falcon jet was exiting the runway.
Had she just cleared me to land on the right runway to begin with, I would have been shutdown by the time the Falcon touched down. On the car ride home I kept running the scenario in my head and determined
I should have first requested the appropriate 45 degree entry, but I didn't know a fast moving plane was on approach.
Second place to say no was when she asked to change my base into a an extended downwind. A simple "unable" would have gone a long way to making her realize that wasn't the right call.
3rd spot, things were really starting to pile on. I could have probably done the 360 she was asking but things were starting to daisy chain and I realized she didn't have control over the situation, and I was quickly losing situational awareness.
That is how my routine day turned exciting. Amazing what ATC is willing to do to accommodate a jet.
All of this happened faster than it probably takes to read it.
Feels good to write it out.
