Quote:
Originally Posted by flipper35
Still 30mph winds here.
Ted, we used to live close to NAS El Centro and a good friend was a couple miles east of the runway. Got to see the Blue Angels practice a lot.
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I was at El Centro 78' to 80'.
The big event was the earthquake that collapsed the big city building downtown.
The population was less than 30k back then.
Yeah wake turbulence requires a long landing like you know already.
A good controller would of told you the wind and caution wake turbulence and that the heavy jet nose wheel touched down at whatever thousand feet it was down the runway.
Rule was never rush or tell a heavy jet immediate anything.
A controller had a DC10 crossing the runway rather slowly with a small aircraft on short final.
The controller told the heavy jet to cross without delay, the heavy jet poured the coals to it just as the small plane rolled out behind it.
The DC10 jet blast flipped the little plane over on the runway.
On departures we had to give 5 miles in trail 737 following a heavy jet for turbulence.
Back at El Centro the Blue angels were flying A4s back then.
Twice a day they did practice air shows for 3 months.
Twice a day the solo A4 pilots would take off and do a barrel roll under 100 feet one dirty one clean (gear down and gear up).
My buddy got some of the blue Angel paint and painted his sports car blue angel blue.
That paint was so thick and heavy looking, like blue candle wax on a car.
Another story, it was a slow night at Navy El Centro airport.
An A6 reports 10,000 feet overhead for landing.
Nothing going on so we cleared him to land.
Time goes by and we don't see the A6, we didn't have radar in that tower.
So we get on the line and call Imperial airport next door and ask them if they have seen an A6?
They said he was on short final to Imperial.
The A6 was about to land at the wrong airport on a runway that was 4,000 feet to short.
So we told him to go around and he did and then landed at Navy El Centro.
The next night just before closing the pilot visited the tower with 2 bottles of jack in the black.
Good old Navy days nothing got reported no investigations.
Funny to me story.
Friend was working at Carlsbad tower a couple miles from Oceanside airport.
A small AC pilot reported 4 mile final over the flower fields for landing.
The controller told the pilot he was lined up for Oceanside not Carlsbad.
Pilot was adamant he was on final for Carlsbad.
So the controller told the pilot to report the Drive in theater.
Pilot reported the Drive in theater.
So the controller told him OK now you are on a 2 mile final for Oceanside, Pilot then agreed.