From: prang@plato.ds.boeing.com (Ron Wanttaja)
Subject: NORDO Fun 'n Games
Organization: Boeing Defense & Space Group
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 07:56:37 GMT

Ah, the fun-and-joy of being a NORDO pilot....

(For the uninitiated:  NORDO=No Radio.  I fly from an uncontrolled field,
where radios aren't required)

We had a bright and sunny day today, so it's off to the airport to blow the
frost out of the innards of the (good 'ol) Fly Baby.  Temperature was about
35; the 'Baby's open cockpit is snug enough to not require much extra
clothing at that temp.

One aspect of today's weather made me grind my teeth a bit.  The wind was
light and variable from the west, and Auburn's airport runs north and south.
The problem's not with the crosswind.  Auburn uses one of those
landing-direction-indicating tetrahedrons, which automatically checks the
wind direction and uses a motor to allign itself with what should be the
active runway.

And of course, the UNICOM operator isn't all that diligent on checking the
tetrahedron before announcing the current active runway....

When I got to the airport, 34 was active.  But after propping '500F and
donning my flying togs, I taxied out to discover the tetrahedron was now
indicating 16.  I taxied to the 16 end, did a runup and took off.  As it
had been a few weeks, I decided to stay in the pattern for touch and goes.

Things went well, at first.  Several other planes took off on 16, and two
entered the pattern and landed normally.

After about five years of NORDO flying, I've developed a few survival
traits.  One is checking the pattern immediately after breaking ground
after a touch-and-go.

Today it paid off.  I saw an aircraft two miles away, parallelling the
downwind for 16.

Why is this important?  Because Auburn uses right traffic for 16... which
means the downwind runs over the same ground no matter which runway is in
use.  And the bogie was behaving exactly like he was entering the pattern
for 34 instead of 16.

And so it developed.  By the time I turned downwind, the Cessna was on the
45 for 34.  He was at my eleven o'clock, flying right at me. 

I started rocking my wings.

He saw me.  I think.  In any case, he finally realized he was entering the
pattern in the wrong direction.

What would you do in that case?  Personally, I'd pull out and reenter the
pattern on the proper 45.

This guy made a 135-degree turn in front of me.

He ended up about five hundred feet away, ahead and slightly to the left.
He showed no inclination to turn base (which would have turned him 
directly in front of me) so I completed my base and final.  He apparently
followed, as I saw him taxiing back when I was on downwind after the touch
and go.

As the saying goes, I bet I scared him a LOT more than he scared me...
after all, I knew exactly where he was at.  And my bright-yellow-and-red
airplane must have just popped out of the blue, as far as he was concerned.
The big thing that threw me was that he turned toward... instead of away...
the possible collision.  But we never came that close... I never could read
his N-number, for instance.

Not that I needed to.  I recognized the 172 from one of the local flight
schools.  For those that remember my "The Bad BFR" posting from a while
back... the 172 was from THAT school.  He had taken off about a half-hour
before I did.  There were two men in the plane.  It may have been an
instruction flight.

And when they had taken off, 34 was the active runway.  In the interim, the
pattern direction had changed.  Did they not bother to look when they
returned?  Or was the UNICOM operator still saying "34"?

Guess I'll never know.  The lesson here is the same as ever:  Keep your eyes
open and your brain hot when in the pattern of an uncontrolled field.
Don't trust your life to the radio speaker.

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                         T T/_______\T T      Ron Wanttaja 
			 | |         | |      prang@plato.ds.boeing.com
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