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Posted By: Hal Brown

Date Posted: Jun 17, 2007

Description: This is a tiny bit of the five mile taxi for takeoff. It's a mile or two from the Museum ramps to the runup pad for runway 1R, but by late afternoon they were taking off to the south, so we had to taxi all the way to the end of 19L. 1R/19L is more than 11,000 feet long. Fortunately, they didn't make us use 19R, which would have been another 2 or 3 miles of driving.

I have to say that flying into KIAD was, um, interesting. First, there's the DC ADIZ to get into (without scaring up a Blackhawk escort). Then of course there was the Class B business--at one of the busiest airports in the country. I was lucky to have my Aventura II friend, Matt, along as copilot--because it took both of us to make the airplane go and figure out what the ATC folks were telling us to do.

One interesting thing they told us was to follow a certain Delta to 19L. Position and hold. Then they cleared us for takeoff long before the Delta had reached the far end of the runway, but as soon as we were airborne they told us to turn left 20 degrees, and we never felt any turbulence at all. Then they kept us at or below 2000 feet until we could get out from under the Class B airspace.

Our arrival was somewhat more confusing to us, but it also was relatively easy. After having us wander around for a few minutes at 1500 feet--at our blazing 80 knots!--we were cleared straight in for runway 1R. That was good, because the approach end is close to the museum. But the first turnoff is about a mile beyond the numbers (which are B I G numbers), so I got down low and flew about halfway there. Even so, it was a long drive.

We wondered what the pilots of a big Boeing at the hold line were saying to each other when we eased by on short final, going all of 70 mph.

All in all, the KIAD experience went well--a lot better than I had feared. There were only two problems: One was rupturing the tailwheel tube on something at the museum's North Ramp. I always carry a spare tube, so that was an easy fix, once we rounded up a 5 gallon plastic bucket to rest the rear of the hull on. The other was that I forgot to switch the transponder from standby to Alt before taking off. (That's a no-no because of the ADIZ.) The tower very kindly said, 'I can't see your transponder,' reminding me to twist the knob. In two seconds, it was okay and we didn't have to land back on 19L. Phew!

Matt found the dead frog on the ramp--thought it was appropriate that it rest in peace on another amphibian.

The 'check gear' warning is Russ Garner's prototype. I'm trying it out.

Date Taken: Jun 17, 2007

Place Taken: KIAD

Owner: Don Maxwell

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Category: 23, Max Pix

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Read what others had to say:

Dan Nickens - Jun 17,2007 Viewers | Reply


	Whew! What a workout! Good show, Don.

Dennis Vogan - Jun 17,2007 Viewers | Reply


	And the frog's a nice touch.

Bruno Grondin - Jun 17,2007 Viewers | Reply


	The time out 2 min for gear up ???????

Rick Oreair - Jun 18,2007 Viewers | Reply


	80 Knots!!! Must have been firewalled.

Don Maxwell - Jun 18,2007 Viewers | Reply


	Yeah, Rick--and pointing downhill, too! (<I>Ahem. Let's hear some polite cheers for the mighty 914.</I> <P>Actually, the one scary part of the landing was that it was a straignt-in approach and I suddenly realized that the gear was up. That was <I>way </I>out, abreast of the museum (see it in the video, in the File section), but what unnerved me was that I hadn't gone through my pre-landing checklist yet. Can't blame it entirely on the straight-in, though, because I forgot the transponder on takeoff. The truth is, I never used my printed "pre-" checklists there. Stupid.<P>I still don't know if Russ' gear warning gizmo would have saved me because I caught the gear before lowering the flaps, which is when it starts its nagging. (Not sure I really <I>want </I>to test that feature.)<!-- >'"><br><font color=red size=6>' or > missing in user HTML. Please fix the HTML.</font> -->

Jeff Arnold - Jun 18,2007 Viewers | Reply


	Don, I was raised 5 mi from KIAD and did my initial primary flight instruction out of Leesburg, VA, 10 Miles NW of KIAD. In the late 1970's, I was in a flying club that had two Grumman Tigers based out of KIAD.<br /><br />Here is an interesting KIAD story from that era: I was in the Civil Air Patrol. We were having a Search and Rescue practice event at Orange County airport. My mission was to go to Leesburg Airport (KJYO) and pick up a Cherokee 180 and make the short 10 mile flight to KIAD to pick up two CAP members and be at Orange count airport by 7AM. The day started early.<br /><br />I got out to Leesburg and preflighted the Cherokee in the pitch black predawn morning. Everything checked out good and I hopped in and fired her up. I taxied to the active, completed my run up and then set out to make my first radio transmission to announce my departure on unicom. In these days, we did not use head phones. We used the speaker and hand held micropone. When I reached down for the microphone, it was not there. I pulled out my flash light and looked all over. NO MICROPHONE!! And I am about to fly to Dulles International!! What to do....what to do.....<br /><br />I was a fairly fresh private pilot and my training was fresh in my then young mind. Light Signals! I can fly into Dulles with light signals. Green = Clear to Land. Flash my landing light and get the green light. No Problem!<br /><br />I took off from Leasburg to the north and made the right turn on course. I could immediately see the Dulles beacon. At about the half way point, I flashed my landing light on and off a few times. OK, give me the green light...... Nothing. I again flashed the landing light at about 2 miles out.......Nothing. I got to the airport perimeter and tried again........Nothing. I remembered my instructor say that if I did not get a reply to a flashing landing light, I should fly by the tower and would then get the light. So I commenced a low pass by the tower, from west to east, at tower elevation and 1/4 mile south. As I climed away, I looked over my left shoulder saying, probably aloud, 'OK, Give me the Green Light!'........Nothing.<br /><br />OK, I have completely violated Dulles airspace and I am not in any communication with the tower. What now??? I guess I should go ahead and land, so I made right traffic for Runway 1R. Now I was scared. I figure I was in big trouble for sure. I taxied to the FBO at the departure end of 1R, Page Airways at the time. Well there were no security / police cars racing toward the plane as I shut down so I figure that was a good sign. I walked into Page Airways. It was business as usual.<br /><br />I asked for a phone and said that I needed to call the tower. I called and the instant the person at the other end of the phone said 'Hello', I had a complete explanation for what happened. That groggy 'Hello' was how people talk when they are awoken. The controller had been asleep!! He had been sitting there with the radio volume up to answer any calls and did not hear my little Lycoming through the thick tower glass.<br /><br />I explained my arrival and he said 'no worries' - or what he meant to say was 'I won't tell if you don't tell'.<br /><br />Yes, it was a different age of flying.......

Don Maxwell - Jun 18,2007 Viewers | Reply


	Yikes! If you tried that this year, Jeff, you'd probably end up with a few bullet holes!<br /><br />What I found is that Dulles was a lot more complicated than the ADIZ. If anyone's considering a trip to the DC area, entering and departing the ADIZ VFR is pretty easy--but you MUST file a DC ADIZ flight plan first and you MUST activate it before entering the ADIZ or taking off within it and you MUST squawk the code that Potomac Approach will give you until you're on the ground or well outside the ADIZ. The controllers were very helpful. A VFR ADIZ flight plan is closed automatically when you land. The FAA has an adequate new tutorial online (finally!) and the AOPA has it with some other helpful info. Be sure to use the frequencies given in a graphic accompanying the online NOTAM because on them they're thinking 'ADIZ'--might not be on other frequencies.

Dennis Scearce - Jun 18,2007 Viewers | Reply


	OK, dumb question of the day. Would they have approved an intersection take off if you had asked - telling them that you needed at least 300 feet?

Don Maxwell - Jun 18,2007 Viewers | Reply


	Not dumb at all, Dennis. In fact, the museum people suggested that we all request intersection takeoffs. But the problem with that--as I figure it--is that the airport was so busy getting airliners in and out that the wake turbulence would probably have been fatal. I think that's why they told me to turn left 20 degrees immediately after we got off the runway, with the idea that we'd then be far enough away from the vortexes that they wouldn't bother us. In any case, the air was very smooth when we took off. On landing, however, it was smooth at the numbers, but started getting unsettled farther down the runway. That's why I landed when I did, rather than continuing to fly toward the turn-off. You can see a little of it in the video.

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