Hi, all!
I haven't posted in a while. I moved to Anchorage about four weeks ago. Since then, the weather has been a nearly nonstop series of cloudy or rainy days. Suck suck suck suck. Plus, I've been busy doing things like furnishing my condo, doing new-arrival chores like going to the DMV, and of course, working. I have approximately 65 students in two physics classes who seem to think I'm pretty cool so far. Of course, their first problem set is due on Monday; we'll see how cool they think I am after suffering through that!
I live about 3 or 4 blocks from the approach end of runway 33 at Merrill Field (MRI, or PAMR if you're the ICAO type). No, this choice of location was not intentional. Entirely.
Anchorage is a good city for bike paths. Not only is there a bike path from my house to one of the airport's main entrances, but there is a bike path throughthe airport itself. Today, the first non-rainy day in a week or two, I stuck out on my bike and went cruising around through Merrill. There are high-wing taildragger bush planes everywhere, many of them in various stages of decrepitude.
There was a place called "Alaska Air Acedemy" that I saw from the road. The sign said flight training, private through atp, taildragger training and checkouts, etc etc. The taildragger part in particular caught my attention (the other two big flight training places at Merrill don't offer any), so I went to their door. It was locked. Peeked in the window. No one inside. Oh well, I'll go somewhere else.
Next stop: "Aero Tech". They have a moderate-sized fleet of 150's and 172, a Cardinal, and an Aztec. I chatted with one of the instructors behind the desk for a while. A student appeared with (I later learned) his DPE; he'd just passed his private checkride. They all took a few pictures. I asked for a checkout in a 150. Dick (the owner of the place and the DPE) said he'd get me started with an instructor.
The instructor, it turns out, was a nontalkative guy who had been sitting in a chair reading a magazine the whole time. Extracting himself from the chair in order to give me a checkout seemed to be quite an unpleasant and disappointing experience for him. We brought out the Anchorage Terminal chart and the Alaska AF/D and talked for a while about special procedures.
The Alaska AF/D is PINK, not green! It is actually a "supplement" and not an "AF/D" per se, which is weird. What's most remarkable about it is all the "special" stuff in the back, i.e. TFR's for avalanche control firings, and pages and pages and pages of special arrival and departure procedures.
I thought Boston's airspace was complex before I went to San Francisco. I thought San Francisco's airspace was complex before I came here. This is the craziest airspace I've ever seen! Anchorage International has a Class C; about 7 miles away is Elmendorf AFB with a military Class D. Squeezed in between these two are not one but TWO more Class D's: Lake Hood and Merrill. That's FOUR airports, each one with MAJOR traffic, each one with its OWN designated airspace! All within about a 7-mile stretch. They all are funny shapes which abut each other, there's no room even on the terminal chart to see where their boundaries are.
So these details are relegated to the "pink book". In there, you can find important details (like altitude restrictions inside a "corridor" which belongs to Merrill's Delta-space... so you don't get run over by those jets, fly either below 600 feet, or above 2000, between here and here! Yikes!) For each of the four airports, the "pink book" contains endless pages of standardized approach and departure procedures... the ones for Merrill are actually written in "approach plate format" with a briefing strip and everything, and have names like "West High Departure." I've got some study material to chew on for a while. Maybe some MSFS is in order.
Anyway, the instructor sends me out to preflight. The Cessna 150 is painted red, and everything looks shipshape. Thankfully, getting a squawk on the ground is not a problem at Merrill; they'll give you one without even asking where you're headed.
We're cleared for takeoff on runway 15, and the little bird sloggs into the air. The Merrill Tower guy talks fast. We head south for a bit before turning a little loop and heading north above the nasty Elmendorf corridor (above 2000 feet!), across Knik Arm and to the school's practice area to the northwest (away from all the mountains). There's lots of traffic, lots of low-flying floatplanes and who knows what else. We do the requisite steep turns, slow flight, and stalls, then head back to Merrill for a few touch & goes.
I wasn't very impressed with my instructor. Throughout the checkout, he seemed bored and as if he really wished he were somewhere else. I asked him questions, he'd give me minimal few-word answers. I asked him about instrument flying--he didn't seem to know much about it, said not many people flew IFR around here. Upon landing, when I gave him my logbook to sign, I realized that he had never once looked at my logbook, asked me about my prior flying experience, or even asked how many hours I had. He knew I was a "flatlander" because I had made a point to mention it, but made no effort to give me any advice on mountain flying or on local weather patterns (which seem like quite microclimate-ish so far), even when I prodded on the subject.
So, I don't think I'll use this place for commercial training. No tailwheel, eiter. When I got home, I tried to look up "Alaska Air Academy" (the place that was locked), but they're not in the phone book. Can't find 'em online either. Did I just make the place up in my head? Whose door was that?
I have to find out if I can get the commercial training through UAA's aviation program (professors get a tuition waiver, dontcha know?). But it's good to know that I can now rent a "knock-around" C-150 for those sunny Saturdays! If only it would stop raining for just a little while...
--Kath
(Seeking: freelance tailwheel instructor at PAMR!)
I haven't posted in a while. I moved to Anchorage about four weeks ago. Since then, the weather has been a nearly nonstop series of cloudy or rainy days. Suck suck suck suck. Plus, I've been busy doing things like furnishing my condo, doing new-arrival chores like going to the DMV, and of course, working. I have approximately 65 students in two physics classes who seem to think I'm pretty cool so far. Of course, their first problem set is due on Monday; we'll see how cool they think I am after suffering through that!
I live about 3 or 4 blocks from the approach end of runway 33 at Merrill Field (MRI, or PAMR if you're the ICAO type). No, this choice of location was not intentional. Entirely.
Anchorage is a good city for bike paths. Not only is there a bike path from my house to one of the airport's main entrances, but there is a bike path throughthe airport itself. Today, the first non-rainy day in a week or two, I stuck out on my bike and went cruising around through Merrill. There are high-wing taildragger bush planes everywhere, many of them in various stages of decrepitude.
There was a place called "Alaska Air Acedemy" that I saw from the road. The sign said flight training, private through atp, taildragger training and checkouts, etc etc. The taildragger part in particular caught my attention (the other two big flight training places at Merrill don't offer any), so I went to their door. It was locked. Peeked in the window. No one inside. Oh well, I'll go somewhere else.
Next stop: "Aero Tech". They have a moderate-sized fleet of 150's and 172, a Cardinal, and an Aztec. I chatted with one of the instructors behind the desk for a while. A student appeared with (I later learned) his DPE; he'd just passed his private checkride. They all took a few pictures. I asked for a checkout in a 150. Dick (the owner of the place and the DPE) said he'd get me started with an instructor.
The instructor, it turns out, was a nontalkative guy who had been sitting in a chair reading a magazine the whole time. Extracting himself from the chair in order to give me a checkout seemed to be quite an unpleasant and disappointing experience for him. We brought out the Anchorage Terminal chart and the Alaska AF/D and talked for a while about special procedures.
The Alaska AF/D is PINK, not green! It is actually a "supplement" and not an "AF/D" per se, which is weird. What's most remarkable about it is all the "special" stuff in the back, i.e. TFR's for avalanche control firings, and pages and pages and pages of special arrival and departure procedures.
I thought Boston's airspace was complex before I went to San Francisco. I thought San Francisco's airspace was complex before I came here. This is the craziest airspace I've ever seen! Anchorage International has a Class C; about 7 miles away is Elmendorf AFB with a military Class D. Squeezed in between these two are not one but TWO more Class D's: Lake Hood and Merrill. That's FOUR airports, each one with MAJOR traffic, each one with its OWN designated airspace! All within about a 7-mile stretch. They all are funny shapes which abut each other, there's no room even on the terminal chart to see where their boundaries are.
So these details are relegated to the "pink book". In there, you can find important details (like altitude restrictions inside a "corridor" which belongs to Merrill's Delta-space... so you don't get run over by those jets, fly either below 600 feet, or above 2000, between here and here! Yikes!) For each of the four airports, the "pink book" contains endless pages of standardized approach and departure procedures... the ones for Merrill are actually written in "approach plate format" with a briefing strip and everything, and have names like "West High Departure." I've got some study material to chew on for a while. Maybe some MSFS is in order.
Anyway, the instructor sends me out to preflight. The Cessna 150 is painted red, and everything looks shipshape. Thankfully, getting a squawk on the ground is not a problem at Merrill; they'll give you one without even asking where you're headed.
We're cleared for takeoff on runway 15, and the little bird sloggs into the air. The Merrill Tower guy talks fast. We head south for a bit before turning a little loop and heading north above the nasty Elmendorf corridor (above 2000 feet!), across Knik Arm and to the school's practice area to the northwest (away from all the mountains). There's lots of traffic, lots of low-flying floatplanes and who knows what else. We do the requisite steep turns, slow flight, and stalls, then head back to Merrill for a few touch & goes.
I wasn't very impressed with my instructor. Throughout the checkout, he seemed bored and as if he really wished he were somewhere else. I asked him questions, he'd give me minimal few-word answers. I asked him about instrument flying--he didn't seem to know much about it, said not many people flew IFR around here. Upon landing, when I gave him my logbook to sign, I realized that he had never once looked at my logbook, asked me about my prior flying experience, or even asked how many hours I had. He knew I was a "flatlander" because I had made a point to mention it, but made no effort to give me any advice on mountain flying or on local weather patterns (which seem like quite microclimate-ish so far), even when I prodded on the subject.
So, I don't think I'll use this place for commercial training. No tailwheel, eiter. When I got home, I tried to look up "Alaska Air Academy" (the place that was locked), but they're not in the phone book. Can't find 'em online either. Did I just make the place up in my head? Whose door was that?
I have to find out if I can get the commercial training through UAA's aviation program (professors get a tuition waiver, dontcha know?). But it's good to know that I can now rent a "knock-around" C-150 for those sunny Saturdays! If only it would stop raining for just a little while...
--Kath
(Seeking: freelance tailwheel instructor at PAMR!)
