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Old June 2nd 20, 05:10 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dan Marotta
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Posts: 4,601
Default Landout at Class C or D tower-controlled airport?

Well done!

I had similar back in the 70s in my Air Force days.Â* I was flying a
contact check ride in a T-33a and my final maneuver was to be a short
field landing.Â* As I approached the base, the tower cleared an RC-135
for take off and he taxied out forgetting to release his parking brake
and resulting in several blown tires.Â* He shut down on the runway to
await maintenance and tower asked, "Muff 91, what are your intentions?"Â*
I replied, "Muff 91 will land opposite direction", to which I received a
"Stand by" from the tower.

As I watched, the entire crew of the 135 bailed out and ran for the
sidelines, after which I was cleared to land.Â* I landed on the numbers,
opposite direction, on the 13,500' runway and took the first taxiway to
clear.Â* Just one more "war story"...

On 6/1/2020 5:52 PM, wrote:
On Monday, June 1, 2020 at 9:40:38 AM UTC-4, Rob wrote:
On Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 12:47:41 PM UTC-7, Charles Ethridge wrote:
Hi all.

I've done thousands of landings in all kinds of airplanes at tower-controlled airports (now called Class B, C and D), but I've never seen a glider land at one.

Does ATC frown upon this (unless one declares an emergency in which case you have a new problem) or to they take this in stride and accommodate us gliders as an unusual but accepted part of their workday?

Faced with the choice of this or a field, what would insurance say if I broke the glider landing in the field? Might insurance deny my claim since there was a perfectly good tower-controlled airport within gliding distance?

If this is an accepted practice at tower-controlled fields, how do you get the glider off the taxiway? Do they have an FBO come out and tow you off?

Ben

I just had this happen.

Me: "Tower, Glider Nxxxx"
Twr:"Glider Nxxxx, go ahead"
Me: "Glider Nxxxx, 7 miles SW of the field at x,xxx feet looking for lift. If I can't find any, I plan on landing there."
Twr: they'll give you the weather say runway requested.
Me: "Hopefully none, but will keep you posted and monitor tower frequency."
Twr: "Roger. Keep us posted."

About 10 minutes later...

Me: "Tower, glider Nxxxx is climbing out of x,xxx in good lift. Will be departing the area to wherever. Thanks for your help."
Twr: "Glider Nxxxxx, frequency change approved, have a nice flight."

It's as simple as that.

As for landing out, I landed out at an uncontrolled airport. I stopped right by a taxiway, got out of my glider and pushed it past the hold short line, turned it around and called for the aero retrieve. Again, nonevent. Takes a little coordination if there's traffic to get you onto the runway, hook up and go, but it's really a non-event.

I had this happen a couple of years ago: I was getting low, so headed to the small, uncontrolled, single-runway airport that we often land at when we can't make it back to our gliderport from the mountains. Saw that another glider has landed there already and was parked near the South end of the runway. There isn't a lot of room there to the side of the runway, so it was jutting into the runway a bit.

Then on the airport frequency I heard a powered plane, a Grumman Cheetah IIRC, announce they're in the pattern to land to the North. So I tell them on the radio to watch out for the glider parked on the South end of the runway.

Now the (light) wind was from the South, and it's a bit downhill to the North, and Cheetahs are fast but don't slow down well. So they approach too hot and go around. Meanwhile I am scratching at about 1200 AGL watching the show. They make a big pattern and several minutes later return for another try. Same result. And I am slowly getting lower.

On the third try they manage to stop at the North end of the runway, after a long ground roll. By then I'm at 800 AGL. So I say on the radio: Grumman xxxx, glider yyyyy will be landing to the South over your head, please stay where you are. So they do, and I do, landing long and joining the other glider pilot at the South end, waiting for aero-retrieve.

Another day at the airport...


--
Dan, 5J