|
“Lawn Chair Over Lake Ann”
Tom Dean © December 2004
 Residents
of Lake Ann, Michigan are routinely reminded by the thunder of F-16 jet fighters that Americans
practice for war. “You
hear 'em coming” said Charlie Chamberlain, whose home is below the flight
path, “..they’re fast, out of sight by the time I get
outside.”
“The noise comes in waves, two or three at
a time, it's close, very loud”
said a local TV news anchor, another Benzie County resident.
Her neighbor understands the dangers the free air show represents.
“It’s exciting, I feel a sense of duty every time they fly over,
however, sobriety soon sets in" said the commercial pilot, "...what's
happening up there is risky, and it is no military secret. Low
level jet fighter training missions are approved to fly at speeds just
below the
speed
of sound, in the same airspace as slow moving civilian aircraft which
couldn't possibly get out of the way."
The FAA does not allow pilots, civilian or military, to fly over air
show crowds for a reason. They haven't allowed it since the NTSB
(National Transportation Safety Board) began documenting the crashes.
The training missions
over now populated neighborhoods in northern Michigan are exempt, allowed
to continue, for reasons
we may not know until after the inquiry, following another midair.
In a cable TV
interview, an F-16 pilot gave insight into the seriousness of the problem.
“Fly-by-wire (computer controlled) aircraft are inherently unstable," said
the national guard captain, "flying maximum performance a few hundred feet
over the ground is the most dangerous thing we do." A retired Air
Force colonel added: “Radar is not something pilots can depend on ...it
can't see
wood or fabric covered aircraft...radar needs metal to bounce off of.
Truth is, even large aircraft cannot be absolutely radar
identified unless they are specially (transponder) equipped."
That means the radar screen in the military cockpit
likely will not show small aircraft.
There have been numerous mid air collisions because of this, according to NTSB records.
What’s happening over the Grand Traverse
area is a volatile mix of extraordinarily different types of flying. Super
fast jet fighters are traveling through kites, gliders, and an occasional Northwestern Michigan College
student practicing ‘slow flight’ ― trying to keep a small
propeller driven aircraft in the air at the slowest possible airspeed ― 50 mph, give or take.
Simply put, pilots flying aircraft
so extremely different in their speeds, on a collision course, wouldn't
see each other in time to avoid a mid air.
The FAA (federal Aviation Administration)
requires pilots to "see and avoid" other aircraft. “Tough to do,”
says a pipeline inspection pilot who also flies at tree top level.
“War planes are painted camouflage grey so they blend in with the surroundings
(to avoid
being seen)" said the pilot, "we can't see them...we both fly lower
than radio and TV towers." Civilian pilots understand the dangers of
low level flight and routinely avoid it. There's no time to
react when you're close to the ground. Pipeline inspection and other
pilots whose job requires they fly close to the ground treat the danger of low level flight with due respect. It's not only the weather which will cause the Blue Angels to cancel
Cherry Festival air show performances in Traverse City. It's the tall towers on the hill west
of downtown, close to the flight
Blue Angels' demonstration area, which gets a pilot's attention.
A pilot’s hands are full during training and human error
can get in the way.
A military flight
training manual reminds its students: “On high performance training
missions pilots have forgotten to: 1) tell the regulating agency of their planned route, 2) turn
on their radar or find out that it quit working, and 3) look out the window.”
Truth is, even large aircraft may be hard to spot among the ground clutter, closing at 600 mph, if either pilot turns their head for a moment to
check instruments. You have seconds to react. If you're lucky.
Leelanau County may be the wrong place for ground-hugging fighter missions
for another reason. Sleeping Bear Dunes, 71,000 acres of wildlife
and shifting sands, is delicately balanced. The FAA restricts civilian pilots from
flying anywhere near the area in aircraft which are, when compared to the
blow torch vibration of F-16 engines, quiet as a mouse.
So why did the Department of Defense choose this pristine Northern
Michigan area to build
jet fighter pilot proficiency when
there are wide expanses of airspace, millions of
sparsely populated acres, exclusive to the military, where civilians can’t, won't or don't fly?
It takes money, time and fuel to fly thousands of miles to a Nevada desert. Fighter pilots
also must practice with real world
targets. If this were Iraq, the folks in Mesick, Michigan would have rebuilt the Hodenpyl Dam a thousand times.
The military drew their practice routes and targets a quarter century ago when flying
machines and census demographics were different.
We’ve seen what happens when government agencies don’t work together.
The NTSB reports: “Military and civilian pilots are not always in
contact with the same air traffic controller. On training missions,
military aircraft are controlled by military controllers, and civilian
controllers may have no idea where those military aircraft are.”
None of that, however, mattered in Florida.
A 2001 mid-air near Tampa Bay
involved a flight instructor in a Cessna and two F-16s on training
flights. All three pilots were talking to air traffic control at the time of the
crash. Middairs are never pretty.
Following a low level middair collision over Washington state, involving
an F-16 and a crop duster, an Air Force Accident Recovery Specialist told
me: "we found pieces no larger than a loaf of bread."
Military Training Routes (MTR) appear as thin grey lines on aeronautical
charts. They’re in reality 10 miles wide. The lines criss-cross northern
Michigan, and travel over
sprouting subdivisions. In the Grand Traverse area the line
passes through Lake Ann, Lake Leelanau, Charlevoix.
Are civilians allowed to fly on these same MTR lines where military pilots search
for targets? Yes. Unlike other for-military-use-only airspace, regulations do not restrict
general aviation pilots from flying near
an MTR. Nor are VFR (sightseeing) pilots required to file a flight plan. Nor is
the FAA required to automatically offer
information about MTR activity during a pilot briefing. They only suggest
that pilots ask.
“Its war,” said Don Rumsfeld “you go with what you’ve got.”
How does that thinking apply to the skies over Michigan? Not all aircraft have the latest
safety devices. As an example, Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems can alert pilots to exactly where other aircraft are,
but a TCAS display is too new or expensive to be required equipment. At
uncontrolled airports, like the Lake Ann Airport, radio communication is
not required of any aircraft in the take off and landing pattern.
The F-16s have to fly through its traffic area because the Lake
Ann Airport is a check point as they turn to strike the next target, Charlevoix.
“Low level high speed jets first appeared over Lake Ann in 1981,” said
Lake Ann Grocery Store owner John Nuske. “At first, neighbors
complained about the noise, but the jets went by so quickly that people
got used to them.”
Things change in 25 years. Airplanes fly faster, and slower. The
biggest danger low level military jets face today along an MTR are
actually small, unlicensed ultra light aircraft.
‘Flying-lawn-chairs’ some would call them. “Ultra lights can be a big
problem,” said an air traffic controller at Cherry Capital airport, “they
don’t show up on radar, they don’t have a radio, which means that we have
no control when they accidentally wander into our traffic pattern. A
party guy with a propeller strapped to his back dangling from a parachute
would be as decisive as a Canadian Goose sucked into a jet engine. A
flying drunk can bring down a 747.
The military used to be the training ground for new pilots, but because of the cost, that is no longer the case. How will airlines replace
retiring baby boomers? To get more people interested in flying, the
FAA has made aviation affordable. Rules were relaxed in 2004. The new
‘Sport Pilot” rating encourages anybody with a drivers license to fly in
the same space where F-16s play cat and mouse. Medical exam? Not anymore.
Pass the secretary of state’s eye test and you are fit to fly. Can’t
drive? No problem. You don’t need a license to fly the lawn chair.
Mixing F-16s with any-contraption-that-will-stay-in-the-air, flown by
mutually distracted pilots, one destroying dams the other buzzing bikinis,
is like merging rocket sleds and Amish buggies on a two track road.
Forget looking for the F-16s. Odds are unless you live directly beneath the
flight path you will not see them. Of the 20 or so commercial
pilots I spoke with who had trained in Traverse City all were
surprised to learn that F-16s flew through their practice area two or
three times a week. Only two ever saw the F-16s. One, new to this area,
was standing in his backyard at the time: “Had somebody told me about them
beforehand, had I not seen and heard the F-16s for myself, I would not
have believed the extremly low altitude or high speed they fly over my
neighborhood.”
The problem is far from secret. The NTSB details incidents
on it's web site:
www.ntsb.gov “There are three near mid airs (close calls) every month on
average,” said the NTSB, “not counting
the ones that go unreported.” Unreported? Instinctive. Human nature.
A pilot involved
in a near miss thinks they were flying someplace they should not have been
and keeps quiet about it.
911 put us all in harms way. The chance of an accident over northern
Michigan, or any other formerly rural area, is elevated as the population moves away from the dangers of big
cities, tsunamis, hurricanes and snow in Texas. Trained, barely
trained and untrained pilot numbers
are increasing. Mistakes are being made as the military practices for war.
This article may not be reprinted without express
written permission. Contact:
1-888-TOMDEAN or tomdean@airsho.com
|