Another Long Cross Country: HPN to PAO in 6 Days (long)

In article ,
Blair wrote:
On Sun, 4 Jun 2006 05:32:45 +0000 (UTC),
(John Clear) wrote:
Ok, one more. http://www.dr-amy.com/rich/flying/kpao.html has a
ton of local knowledge/landmarks for PAO. Like most airports, it
has its share of 'weird' local reporting points.

Rich is a CFI at my club but I'd never seen that before. Cool site.
Wish I had known about it when I was a student.

I'm at WVFC too. I came across that site after I'd figured out most
of the landmarks from experience.

Funny...in my 90 hours of flying, all of which has originated at Palo
Alto and includes lots of pattern work during primary training, I have
NEVER heard tower refer to the Old Yacht Harbor, Bird House, Spot,
Water Treatment Plant, Antenna Farm, Dump, or Cooley Landing. And I've
only heard "Duck Pond" a couple of times (usually they'll just say
"short final").

I've heard Old Yacht Harbor, Bird House, Antenna Farm, Cooley
Landing and Duck Pond. I haven't heard the Water Treatment Plant
or Dump used as landmarks. I've been flying out of PAO for ten
years, so some of them might not be in current use. I'll have to
listen for them and see which they still use.

Speaking of the yacht harbor I just read an article about someone in
the city govt wanting to initiate a study of resurrecting it. This
would require rerouting San Francisquito creek. It was the original
rerouting of the creek that spelled the end of the harbor in the first
place. Sounds crazy but it actually has merit since the creek needs
some major work (e.g. levy improvement) anyways to reduce flooding
risk. What kind of tony waterside town doesn't have a yacht club
anyways, eh?

I think it will take a lot more then rerouting San Francisquito
Creek again. At low tide, the bay really is more mud then anything
else south of the Dumbarton Bridge.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

"John Clear" wrote

I think it will take a lot more then rerouting San Francisquito
Creek again. At low tide, the bay really is more mud then anything
else south of the Dumbarton Bridge.

All that is needed is a developer that needs a lot of dirt, and you have a
lot of dirt available to take from the harbor. The two get together, and
you have a newly dredged out harbor.

It could be a project that could start a whole new sector in the local
economy.
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"John Clear" wrote

I think it will take a lot more then rerouting San
Francisquito Creek again. At low tide, the bay really
is more mud then anything else south of the Dumbarton
Bridge.

All that is needed is a developer that needs a lot of dirt,
and you have a lot of dirt available to take from the harbor.
The two get together, and you have a newly dredged out harbor.

It could be a project that could start a whole new sector in
the local economy.


Probably not. I suspect that any soil removed from San Francisco Bay will
be highly contaminated and not useable anywhere environmental controls
apply, which is pretty much everywhere locally. The runoff from the old
quicksilver mines in Almaden is polluting the Bay daily, and who knows what
else is in the mud from Moffett Field runoff, and other sites around the bay
shore.

(John Clear) writes:

Funny...in my 90 hours of flying, all of which has originated at Palo
Alto and includes lots of pattern work during primary training, I have
NEVER heard tower refer to the Old Yacht Harbor, Bird House, Spot,
Water Treatment Plant, Antenna Farm, Dump, or Cooley Landing. And I've
only heard "Duck Pond" a couple of times (usually they'll just say
"short final").

I've heard Old Yacht Harbor, Bird House, Antenna Farm, Cooley
Landing and Duck Pond. I haven't heard the Water Treatment Plant
or Dump used as landmarks. I've been flying out of PAO for ten
years, so some of them might not be in current use. I'll have to
listen for them and see which they still use.

I've been taking lessons there since the fall. Just on Friday I was
asked to "extend upwind past Cooley Landing". A couple of times I
have heard "watch out for large flock of birds coming off of Dump", or
watch for birds over Duck Pond".

Perhaps it depends on when you fly, and which controllers you
encounter as a result...

Chris
--
Chris Colohan Email: PGP: finger
Web: www.colohan.com Phone: (412)268-4751