A Swarm of Airplanes

As we approach Weatherford, OK, our first refueling stop on the way to the Rocky Mountains and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, the Garmin Pilot displays an astonishing situation.

A puzzling display of airport traffic

The blue-green numbers and arrow heads look like a swarm of bees converging onto the airport. Yet the display rule for these symbols says that each of them is an airplane. How is this possible?

Three hours earlier, we had taken off in the dark from Aero Country airport in Texas, the home for our Zenith 601 HDS, N314LB. Shortly thereafter we experienced a spectacular sunrise.

Sunrise worthy of Texas

The leg to Weatherford is purposely short, to be followed by a longer leg to Goodland, KS. We plan to reach Goodland shortly after noon and stop for the day.

You may wonder, why stop so early and not go on? The reason: In the summer, significant turbulence always starts in the mountains shortly after noon. 

It isn't fun to fly in the turbulent air, and can even be dangerous.

The Mysterious Swarm

We wonder: How can these possibly be airplanes, so tightly packed together? 

We have never seen anything like this. Maybe the McAlester Flight Service, which covers that part of Oklahoma, can illuminate what’s happening.

We call the flight service. The briefer says there are no NOTAMS (Notices to Airmen) for the airport and that he isn’t aware of any special events. We know this about the NOTAMS since we checked them before departure and rechecked them a moment ago with the Garmin Pilot.

Hence no clarification, but also no cautionary message that we should stay away.

While we are in the traffic pattern of the airport, the FBO tells us on the UNICOM frequency that upon landing we should taxi to the south parking area.

Looking down at the airport on the downwind leg, we can see why: The north parking area is packed with small planes.

Maybe a training program of the Air Force?

We dutifully taxi to the south parking area.

Getting out of the plane, we are struck by impressive static displays. The photo captures our slowpoke of a plane together with a speed monster.

Slowpoke N314LB vs. speed demon

We refuel, then walk up north to see what the planes are.

Piper airplanes of Spartan College

They are 14 Piper airplanes of the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology, located in Tulsa, OK.

Going inside the FBO building, we talk with one of the students. It’s a training flight. What we saw on the Garmin Pilot was the tightly scheduled landing sequence of these planes.

The FBO tells us that another plane wanted to take off, but couldn’t for ten minutes as the Pipers, one after another, marched downwind, base, and final to land.

In case you are concerned about the future of general aviation: This story shows that there's no need to worry.

Have any questions or feedback? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Testing Rotax 912/914 Generator and Voltage Regulator/Rectifier

Image
Our original installation of the Rotax 912/914 r egulator/ r ectifier. 24 years later, the two brown wires on the left were replaced by yellow wires of a new stator, see photo below. The Rotax 912/914 electrical system may fail unexpectedly. I t happened to us once at a really inconvenient time : S ee Rotax Goes South As We Go West . Most likely the electrical failure is caused by the voltage regulator/rectifier.  To ver ify this , we now carry in the plane a small multimeter that measures AC/DC voltage and resistance and use the checklist below. The checklist assumes a standard installation as described in the Rotax installation manual Section 24-00-00, without additional external generator, and that the voltage is not in the normal range. Testing Electrical System Beyond Regulator/Rectifier It is possible, though quite unlikely, that the electrical failure is caused by something other than the generator and regulator/rectifier. There is an almost infinite variety of poss
Read more

Rotax 912 Engine: 2,400 Hours in 28 Years (achieved in 2023)

Image
Rotax 912 engine The  Rotax 912 engine  in o ur plane, a Zenith 601HDS, has reached an important milestone. Over the past 28 years, it has run 2,400 hrs without major repairs. Zenith 601HDL, N314LB It's appropriate to reflect about this performance and muse how this is possible. After all, when we bought the engine, in 1994, the suggested TBO was 1,200 hrs.  Since then TBO has gone up, first to 1,600 hrs, and more recently to 2,000 hrs. Of course, those increases apply to later engines, not to our early model. Let's see how the engine performs after all this time. Performance after 2,400 hrs Compression is 76-80 lbs/sq.in. on all cylinders. Oil consumption is less than 1/2 qt per 25 hours.  During each oil change, we cut open the filter and look for metal. There is almost none, just one or two tiny specks. Essentially, the engine shows no sign of wear. The engine performs well up to the legal limit of 14,000 ft MSL for flight without oxygen. When flying
Read more

uAvionix TailBeacon: Installation and Testing

Image
TailBeacon of uAvionix mounted on rudder of Zenith 601HDS The uAvionix TailBeacon is a low-cost device that satisfies the ADS-B Out requirement kicking in on January 1, 2020.  The TailBeacon piggybacks on any Mode C or S transponder, and thus avoids purchase of a much more expensive ADS-B transponder.  There are two TailBeacon versions: the TailBeacon TSO for certificated aircraft and the less expensive  TailBeacon  EXP for experimental aircraft.  We bought the EXP version for our Zenith 601HDS, N314LB. uAvionix also offers an alternate ADS-B Out module: the  SkyBeacon .  It uses similar technology, but is installed in a different part of the airplane. Details on this below. T here are two versions: TSO and EXP.   This post covers why we selected the TailBeacon and how we installed, tested, and evaluated it using the  FAA ADS-B Performance Report. It's easy to adapt the process for installation of the SkyBeacon. ADS-B Out Requirement Starting on January 1, 2020,
Read more