Air Wagner..... He’s baaaaackk.

MooneyDriver78 said:
His autopilot didn’t catch the ILS, had to hand fly it, a bit erratic but no stalls or 60° turns.
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Just out of curiosity, he is intercepting final course at something like 75 deg angle. Should autopilot be able to catch it? Seems like the plane starts violent turn to right diretion when he engages it.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Yeah. It is a nontowered airport with only about 110 aircraft based there, none of them even a private jet. Jerry's one of very few twins. Busier than some similar ones (it is California, after all) but we're not talking jet flights on a tight schedule.

But sure, if it's a towered airport, especially with a dedicated runup area, pilots are expected to use it and not do their pre-takeoff checks on the taxiway.
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Uh, there is a very nice Eclipse that is in the hangar right across from Jerry's. There are tons of turboprops in and out of there, along with light jets. There are also lots more twins than just Jerry.

Auburn is one of the busiest nontowered airports in the US, and apparently the busiest west of the Rockies. It is an airport that could use a tower.
 
N1120A said:
Uh, there is a very nice Eclipse that is in the hangar right across from Jerry's. There are tons of turboprops in and out of there, along with light jets. There are also lots more twins than just Jerry.

Auburn is one of the busiest nontowered airports in the US, and apparently the busiest west of the Rockies. It is an airport that could use a tower.
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talking in the third person again, huh?
 
N1120A said:
Uh, there is a very nice Eclipse that is in the hangar right across from Jerry's. There are tons of turboprops in and out of there, along with light jets. There are also lots more twins than just Jerry.

Auburn is one of the busiest nontowered airports in the US, and apparently the busiest west of the Rockies. It is an airport that could use a tower.
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It happens.
 
midlifeflyer said:
It happens.
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It really should have a Tower. I know, there's lots of people who are scared of towers (ones who, not coincidentally, will crap on Jerry's every move), but a place with Auburn's traffic and surrounding complexity would be helped having a tower.
 
pilot904 said:
Just out of curiosity, he is intercepting final course at something like 75 deg angle. Should autopilot be able to catch it? Seems like the plane starts violent turn to right diretion when he engages it.
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Some autopilots you have to be within 1-2° to capture.


Tom
 
N1120A said:
It really should have a Tower. I know, there's lots of people who are scared of towers (ones who, not coincidentally, will crap on Jerry's every move), but a place with Auburn's traffic and surrounding complexity would be helped having a tower.
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Not every move, just the ones where he is clueless that his flying is atrocious. And since you keep defending his horrible flying it makes me question a few things about you. For starters...why?
 
N1120A said:
It really should have a Tower. I know, there's lots of people who are scared of towers (ones who, not coincidentally, will crap on Jerry's every move), but a place with Auburn's traffic and surrounding complexity would be helped having a tower.
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I'm agreeing with you. There are nontowered airports which, due to location and/or traffic, grew towers. Whether Auburn fits the mold or will get one or not, is above my pay scale.
 
N1120A said:
Auburn is one of the busiest nontowered airports in the US, and apparently the busiest west of the Rockies.
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Based on FAA operations data, Auburn (KAUN) is the 10th largest untowered airport by traffic in California with 206 operations/day average. The busiest untowered airport west of the Rockies is Auburn Municipal Airport, but the one in Washington (S50) with 451 operations/day average.

Also based on the airport's reports to the FAA, there are 7 multiengine aircraft based there. Whether that is accurate, I do not know.
 
amox said:
Based on FAA operations data, Auburn (KAUN) is the 10th largest untowered airport by traffic in California with 206 operations/day average. The busiest untowered airport west of the Rockies is Auburn Municipal Airport, but the one in Washington (S50) with 451 operations/day average.

Also based on the airport's reports to the FAA, there are 7 multiengine aircraft based there. Whether that is accurate, I do not know.
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I haven't been to S50 in years, but I did my PP check ride out of there back in 2001. It can be a busy airport.
 
amox said:
Based on FAA operations data, Auburn (KAUN) is the 10th largest untowered airport by traffic in California with 206 operations/day average. The busiest untowered airport west of the Rockies is Auburn Municipal Airport, but the one in Washington (S50) with 451 operations/day average.

Also based on the airport's reports to the FAA, there are 7 multiengine aircraft based there. Whether that is accurate, I do not know.
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I did a lot of training at S50 (Dick Scobee Field, Auburn Muni) and it is busy.... I love that place but you need to be looking everywhere.
 
amox said:
Based on FAA operations data, Auburn (KAUN) is the 10th largest untowered airport by traffic in California with 206 operations/day average. The busiest untowered airport west of the Rockies is Auburn Municipal Airport, but the one in Washington (S50) with 451 operations/day average.

Also based on the airport's reports to the FAA, there are 7 multiengine aircraft based there. Whether that is accurate, I do not know.
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Do you have a link for searchable nontowered airport operations data?

I suspect the choice of adding a tower is about more than just numbers anyway. I've never had a reason to look into policy but assuming AUN meets the basic criteria in FAR 170.13, we are looking at a 3700' runway with a single instrument approach with no supporting approach lights and only Category A and B minimums. Dunno how much things like those are a factor for tower investment, but there are plenty of nontowered airports with a wider range of facilities to host a broader mix of traffic.
 
Why is it presumed that a tower will make a busy airport better?

one of the busiest untowered airports I know is Zephyrhills. I seriously doubt adding a tower would improve anything other than slowing everyone down and making people go somewhere else. If the airport is busy due to scheduled departures and arrivals, then a tower would help, but if it’s all sorts of random traffic saying close, not so much.

Zephr has skydiving, gliders, lots of gyros and trikes that fly non standard patterns as well as a lot of GA Transient traffic . Adding a tower would make it worse.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Do you have a link for searchable nontowered airport operations data?
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On this site: https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/airportdata_5010/menu/#datadownloads

If you click "Airport Facilities Data" and get an excel file that includes all sorts of data. One of those columns is "ATCT" yes or no and there are a few columns of yearly operations data (which you can sum all the categories and divide by 365 to get operations by day). Then either it's using the excel filter option or a pivot table to extract what information you want.
 
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amox said:
On this site: https://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/airportdata_5010/menu/#datadownloads

If you click "Airport Facilities Data" and get an excel file that includes all sorts of data. One of those columns is "ATCT" yes or no and there are a few columns of yearly operations data (which you can sum all the categories and divide by 365 to get operations by day). Then either it's using the excel filter option or a pivot table to extract what information you want.
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Thank you. I was already familiar with the site where you can generate all sorts of reports on towered operations, and I knew this data existed, but hadn't used it.
 
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@amox, thanks again. I played a bit with the data - added a total ops column. Looks like AUN is #63 on the hit parade. But I know a number of the ones above it and have one near me which is only two ranks below, substantially higher in based ops due to it being a base for a medical transport company. Never thought any of them merited a tower. But maybe that's what happens when you are used to a busy Class D. Lot of other places which seem busy to others just don't strike you that way.
 
amox said:
Based on FAA operations data, Auburn (KAUN) is the 10th largest untowered airport by traffic in California with 206 operations/day average. The busiest untowered airport west of the Rockies is Auburn Municipal Airport, but the one in Washington (S50) with 451 operations/day average.

Also based on the airport's reports to the FAA, there are 7 multiengine aircraft based there. Whether that is accurate, I do not know.
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This was something the fuel people at AUN mentioned, so I didn't check it out. The place is certainly busy, and I normally operate out of very busy Class Ds.
 
I had posted this on a different message board, but if anyone here gets a selfie with Jerry, I will send you $100.
 
100 dollars!! I'll fly up there in a couple of weeks for 100 bucks. They have a pretty decent restaurant there.
 
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