Friday, October 21, 2005

Men, Migs and Municipal Airports

Life is interesting on the final approach flight path.

I love living in Pueblo. There is hardly a dull moment. Between managing this old house, watching the machinations of local government—the D-60 school board has been VERY interesting, of late—and hoping that the corporate cretins at the 8,000,000 pound 4-story gorilla a block away won’t destroy the neighborhood—like it did the Thatcher House—something is always happening. I guess that song from the Shrek sound track, All Star, is so appropos….

That’s the way I like it and I’ll never get bored.

Now, the airport has thrown in a new twist.

The house is along the long final approach to the municipal airport to the east of town. When the winds are favorable, I am frequently serenaded by the steady drone of engines of C130s as they practice touch-and-go landings. I do enjoy that sound. Long ago and far away, in another life where everyone wore green, those engines would serenade me to sleep on an outward bound jump mission.

Today, I had a wake-up call as I was working at the computer in my office. A sudden surge of jet engines that sounded ENTIRELY too close to the ground. Sudden rememberances of the March ‘91 crash of an unfortunate Boeing 737 a half-mile from my house in Colorado Springs. The fool thing rolled over and dove into the ground of Widefield Public Park as it was on final approach to the municipal airport. It was on a line over my house there when the vertical stabilizer went bonkers.

Well. There was no crash. But once-burned twice consternated. Seriously. I would not enjoy having my day ruined by someone plowing into my house or the hospital across the way. Or a good neighbor. So I decided that someone needed to have a talking to about flying too low.

The first challenge was to find a phone number to call. Qwest’s Directory Assistance service only has a disconnected number as a listing for the airport. So I had to call the airport administration number to get in touch with Operations/Control Tower at the airport.

Finally got to talking to the tower crew, asking for the tail number of the jet that had landed in the last few minutes. They were reticient. They wanted to know if I knew the tail number. I felt like an unintentional participant in some TV game show…playing Name that Aircraft. I found the idea hilarious. Here I am in a house surrounded by 100+ year-old trees. They tower over the four stories. It’s lovely but it does have a few draw-backs. The first being, you can’t see an aircraft flying at 200 mph within seconds of it buzzing the house. Especially while the trees are still in what amounts to full leaf. It’s not like I’m a plane-spotter from WWII days, sitting on the roof with my binos and aircraft recognition charts waiting to catch someone. If I were doing that, I’d rather have a good AA weapon as well. May as well have some ‘fun’ while convincing hot shot pilots not to come too close. No bullets. Maybe a lot of paint-balls. GOTCHA!!!! Ya low-flying so-and-so.

At any rate. I finally convinced the crew in the tower that I was serious about this. And I explained why….I LIKE living….here. I asked for the make, model and tail number of the aircraft so that I could “denounce them properly”. A phrase spoken by a Soviet aide-de-camp in Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising. Great book that. I should have realized there was something significant about my desire to use that phrase the moment it ‘popped’ into my head during this matter.

The crew would not tell me the make, model and tail number of the aircraft. But they said they’d call me back.

They didn’t….

However, I did get a call from the FAA office in Denver. And I had to explain everything to the gentleman from the feds that I had to the tower crew at the airport. Fortunately he did have the tail number and make of the aircraft. It was, get this, a Mig-21. An old Soviet fighter. How very odd, that.

We had a pleasant chat about military aircraft flying over civilian areas and he said he’d talk with the pilot.

A short while later, I got another call. This one from the Mig pilot. It seems that the Mig-21 was enroute to or from some air show. I suspect he was returning, as he said he’d flown through Pueblo west-bound on Tuesday, but having made his final from the east, I missed the noise. At any rate, here’s a tidbit of information about that old aircraft. It seems that in order to maintain flight params while on final approach, the Mig-21 blows air from the engines over the wings to help it stay aloft while landing. Hence there is additional noise from those planes as they are landing.

The pilot was pleasant to talk to and apologized for all the racket from his landing. He mentioned that on his Tuesday flight through the area, he was flying out from Lincoln, Nebraska. I wonder if he’s a fellow Cornhusker. I like him already….

It’s a good think the Sovs never conquored US. Otherwise we’d hear that kind of racket ALL the time.

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