WOW

Today I got to see something that not many people get to see. First let me set the situation, Grand Forks international is located about 9.1 miles directly east of Grand Forks Air Force Base. GFK AFB used to be a tanker base but is now being transitioned into a UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle) base. They started operating Predator UAVs just this summer. Because of this they need put up a temporary flight restriction(TFR) every time that the UAV flies so it can get up into class A airspace with out interfering with civilian traffic. This TFR extends from the top of the Class D airspace at GFK AFB upto 18,000' MSL.

Usually airplanes are not allowed through TFR's under visual flight rules but because of the high amount of training and our relationship with departure we are allowed to transition through as long as we request it and are in contact with departure.

Today my student and I were practicing XC ops and we departing to the west directly over the base. After we took off we contacted departure and asked for a transition through the TFR. "Sioux 24 cleared through the TFR at or above 3,500 due to Predator ops" was the response from departure. So we climbed up to 3,500 and flew directly over the middle of the AFB.

I knew that since we were cleared above 3,500 that the Predator was probably returning from a mission. Little did I know that when I would look down at the approach end of runway 17 I saw something spectacular. The Predator UAV on short final!

As I completely started ignoring my student, like any good flight instructor does, I watched the Predator touch down and start his ground roll. Little did I know that he wasn't done, power came up and sure enough the nose started to lift up. A touch and go! WOW must be fun!

I've written about them before and I am continually amazed and interested in UAV's and UAV operations.

Side note: a Predator B UAV landed at OSH earlier this week making it the first Predator landing at a civilian airport. The link includes a video if you interested.

Controlled Crash

It's amazing when you think about the risk that all of us pilots are taking. Trying to land an airplane going somewhere between 50 and 70 kts onto a 100' wide(or less) piece of concrete. Really it is an amazing feat, one that has claimed many lives.

With practice this becomes routine and almost a none event. So what makes it so difficult? Let's add some crosswind, since the wind is never directly down the runway ;), how about a short or soft field, how about an unstablized approach?

How do we get this experience? Practice, practice, practice. Recently I read an article by master flight instructor Rod Machado on letting your students get experience. To put it briefly he talked about how an good flight instructor lets his students make mistakes and learn from them.

He mentioned how he talked to a student one time who mentioned that his instructor had NEVER let the student completely land the aircraft. That is the instructor was always on the controls and helping the student out. Is this good for the student? No.

Rod made the point that a good instructor will let his student make the mistakes and learn from them. Granted a good flight instructor knows the limits of his plane and won't let the student get into an unsafe position but will let him get close enough.

Since I've read this I myself have realized that you need to let students make mistakes. Let them see what happens from control inputs, or lack of and how to correct for it. Like Rod said I believe this is not only beneficial to the student but also shows the ability of a good flight instructor.

ATC

I know this post is could be taken as a touchy subject. I am very cautious about writing this because I respect and admire the work that an air traffic controller does when controlling multiple aircraft in a relatively very small area. They are almost always at the top of their game and provide a confidence to the pilots of both large and small aircraft.

However, the reason I'm writing this is because I recently had a situation where a controller was either having a bad day or just not happy to be there. Because of this it caused my aircraft to be put in a dangerous near miss situation and the controller to belittle and yell at other aircraft throughout the flight.

We were practicing night landings for the first time with my student. After going to the practice area and working some maneuvers we headed back to a busy controlled airport for landings. Entering the pattern I initially noticed that we were a following an aircraft who is on a wider than normal downwind. Which is fine by me especially since we don't want to cut off an aircraft at night.

This continued for about two trips around the pattern before ATC started to get upset with all aircraft over, well, basically everything. "All aircraft your downwind is Way to wide" "N***** it sounds like you still don't understand what I said" "N***** this is going to be a full stop landing for you." etc. etc. etc.

In the middle of all this I'm trying to teach my student how to do night landings. Which on about the 5th attempt as we turned to base I look back on downwind and notice an aircraft inside of us and closing fast at our altitude. I glance at my ADS-B and see that he is almost 1/2 mile and at our altitude closing. This is where I take over and push the nose forward and loose about 500' and put us extremely low to avoid this near miss.

Now again please don't get me wrong. I sincerely respect and admire the work of all ATC. But sometimes we all have bad days, in the world of aviation we need to leave our troubles and feelings at home. Lives are at stake, we are required to be the most professional of professionals. This goes for both pilots, large and small, atc, FBO employees, line operations, security, and everyone associated with aviation. Don't risk your, mine, or other peoples lives because you are upset.