SoCal TRACON, Montgomery Field Tower Evacuated.

From a TV news broadcast:

It appears that forest fires have forced the evacuation of SoCal
TRACON and Montgomery Field Tower. LA Center is handling LAX traffic.

and many airlines have stopped flying into LAX for the moment..

I-15 is also closed.. stranding weekend travelers in Las Vegas..



"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
From a TV news broadcast:

It appears that forest fires have forced the evacuation of SoCal
TRACON and Montgomery Field Tower. LA Center is handling LAX traffic.

I-15 is also closed.. stranding weekend travelers in Las Vegas..

The horror!

(I should be so lucky... :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I live here.. those trapped tourist keep my tax $ down..


BT

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:xe0nb.38054$Tr4.78629@attbi_s03...
I-15 is also closed.. stranding weekend travelers in Las Vegas..

The horror!

(I should be so lucky... :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:mG1nb.94367$La.51230@fed1read02...
I live here.. those trapped tourist keep my tax $ down..


BT

When the fires are out, is Mustang Range still in operation to KEEP them
trapped? :~)


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:xe0nb.38054$Tr4.78629@attbi_s03...
I-15 is also closed.. stranding weekend travelers in Las Vegas..

The horror!

(I should be so lucky... :-)

they said tonight on the local news that I-15 was still open.
But I also heard from CNN or Fox, that I-15 was closed the other day. I
think the local news would be the more correct of the two.

BTIZ wrote:

and many airlines have stopped flying into LAX for the moment..

I-15 is also closed.. stranding weekend travelers in Las Vegas..

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
From a TV news broadcast:

It appears that forest fires have forced the evacuation of SoCal
TRACON and Montgomery Field Tower. LA Center is handling LAX traffic.

Did you know that as a result of the fires / tower closure / poor pilot
judgement, a Mooney crash landed at Montgomery, or I should say, on the
freeway just west of the runway. Plane cartwheeled a few times per
witenesses, burst into flames, but the pilot walked away with no injuries!

Initial talk says the pilot was landing with a tailwind that had to have
been 20 kts at Montgomery (with a closed Tower) realized he wasn't going to
be able to land and stop with useable runway leftover so he initiated an
emergency go-around. Pilot was quoted saying the airplane just would not get
any lift on the go-around and so he "put it down" on the freeway albeit not
to gracefully.
Initial reporters were stating that he was attempting the landing with the
known tailwind so he could use the ILS for 28R. Obviously the reported and
the pilot in this case didn't know about a backcourse? Hmmm.

Should be interesting to read the reports on this when they are done..

JB


"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
From a TV news broadcast:

It appears that forest fires have forced the evacuation of SoCal
TRACON and Montgomery Field Tower. LA Center is handling LAX traffic.

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 06:51:18 GMT, wrote in
Message-Id: :

Did you know that as a result of the fires / tower closure / poor pilot
judgement, a Mooney crash landed at Montgomery, or I should say, on the
freeway just west of the runway.

No.

Plane cartwheeled a few times per
witenesses, burst into flames, but the pilot walked away with no injuries!

Fortune can be merciful occasionally.

Initial talk says the pilot was landing with a tailwind that had to have
been 20 kts at Montgomery (with a closed Tower) realized he wasn't going to
be able to land and stop with useable runway leftover so he initiated an
emergency go-around. Pilot was quoted saying the airplane just would not get
any lift on the go-around and so he "put it down" on the freeway albeit not
to gracefully.

There's something wrong with that explanation. If the aircraft had
not yet landed, it would only require the application of full throttle
to continue to sustain it in the air. A climb might be difficult (but
possible) under such conditions if full flaps were extended.

Initial reporters were stating that he was attempting the landing with the
known tailwind so he could use the ILS for 28R. Obviously the reported and
the pilot in this case didn't know about a backcourse? Hmmm.

It would be interesting to know what other landing options were open
to the pilot at that time, and what lead him/her to choose a downwind
landing at a closed field.

Should be interesting to read the reports on this when they are done..

Agreed. The first report will likely appear he
http://www2.faa.gov/avr/aai/iirform.htm . Later he
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp#query_start

I find nothing on either web site about the accident you mention yet.

JB


"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
.. .
From a TV news broadcast:

It appears that forest fires have forced the evacuation of SoCal
TRACON and Montgomery Field Tower. LA Center is handling LAX traffic.

Larry Dighera
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-
-There's something wrong with that explanation. If the aircraft had
-not yet landed, it would only require the application of full throttle
-to continue to sustain it in the air. A climb might be difficult (but
-possible) under such conditions if full flaps were extended.

Lessee...hotter than hell in San Diego, pilot scared out of his wits with the
smell of smoke in the air, full flaps, gear down, slow as mercifully possible to
make the lading short, near IFR (more probably LESS than IFR) conditions, no
visible horizon to keep things level while cleaning up the airplane...talk about
Monday morning quarterbacks.


-
-Initial reporters were stating that he was attempting the landing with the
-known tailwind so he could use the ILS for 28R. Obviously the reported and
-the pilot in this case didn't know about a backcourse? Hmmm.

There is no published backcourse for Montgomery. Sure, you can shoot the
backcourse any time you want, just don't get caught doing it in less than VFR
conditions. And, I might add, without glideslope. Finding the runway
centerline was one half of this poor feller's problems. Finding the end of the
runway was the other half.


-
-It would be interesting to know what other landing options were open
-to the pilot at that time, and what lead him/her to choose a downwind
-landing at a closed field.

Oh, dozens. And I'm sure that you can sit in your easy chair sipping a cold one
and figure out just exactly what you would have done. The airport wasn't
closed; the tower was. Montgomery is long enough that a 60 knot tailwind would
not cause overshoot if you hit the numbers. This poor ******* couldn't find the
numbers in the smoke.

Jim
Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

"Jim Weir" wrote in message


Montgomery is long enough that
a 60 knot tailwind would not cause overshoot if you hit the numbers.
This poor ******* couldn't find the numbers in the smoke.

Hence the question: Why did he feel that he *had* to land at Montgomery?
That's what I'm hoping winds up in the NTSB report.

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/tknoFlyer
__________