[TowerTalk] planes and towers

Fri Sep 19 14:43:52 EDT 2014

Thanks Roger for the explanation / correction regarding the Altimeter 
deviation. It been a few years since I received the FAA explanation of why 
encroaching or approaching within 200 feet of the free circling plate would 
require lowering the tower or antenna (in our case we could not reduce the 
building height sixty feet) or how the altimeter correction applied.  I 
cannot fathom how a building 200 feet AGL and just off the west end of the 
primary (at that time) E-W runway 4 blocks to the west of the airport and 3 
blocks off the approach path could not be reported / noticed by pilots or 
the CIRA airport manager for twenty-five years! But my actions did result in 
raising the free circling plate, we got our FCC license and FAA site license 
too.

73 & DX,

Gary - AB9M

-----Original Message----- 
From: Roger (K8RI) on TT
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 11:43 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] planes and towers

On 9/18/2014 9:19 PM, Gary - AB9M wrote:

Being instrument rated, that minimum deviation is plus 100, minus
nothing!  IE, you can be violated if you forgot to set the altimeter.
Part of your clearance is the altimeter setting and you best show on
their radar the altitude given.  For fields with out radar you are given
the setting from a near by monitored facility.  Altimeters must be
calibrated regularly and fixed when any discrepancy shows up.

Prior to take off for IFR flights, you are required to check the
altimeter settings. The altimeter had best show the field elevation
(posted on the terminal building even at small airports) with very
little deviation.   If it doesn't you best pray you don't get ramp checked.

Mine had the gasket on the front looking ragged.  Had to replace it, or
get it rebuilt even though it still gave the correct reading.

I had Toledo Approach call me as I was flying North into an area of
storm and ask if I had reset the altimeter when I contacted them
earlier.  The storm had me lower than what the altimeter said.  (High to
low, look out below).

They might be low, but it can get your license yanked, or at the least a
bit of remedial training.  My tower is directly on the center line for
final; on 06, but I'm far enough out, I could go 190 feet, but not 200.

73

Roger  (K8RI)

> In the mid 80's or early 90's, State Farm Insurance was involved in 
> upgrading their Corporate Headquarters Campus two-way radio system.  The 
> antenna used was some 12 feet long which would extend above the clearance 
> lights three feet above the four corners of the 13 story building which 
> just happened to be 197 feet tall. When I went to submit the license 
> application to the FCC, I noticed the LAT/LONG of the previous license was 
> incorrect, showing the building which had stood at the corner of Veterans 
> Parkway and Washington street in Bloomington, IL for over twenty-five 
> years, to be several miles away near the south-west split of I-55 and 
> I-74. Given the actual building proximity to the Bloomington Airport 
> (BMI), I was required to also notify the FAA of any changes in frequency 
> or antenna height.
>
> Several weeks later I received a call from the FAA's Chicago Office 
> informing me that I had to reduce my tower height by sixty feet! When I 
> replied, "you don't understand", the FAA official said, "NO YOU DON'T 
> UNDERSTAND, your tower is too close to the end of the Bloomington Airport 
> runway"! I then replied, the antenna support structure is not the type 
> tower you envision, but rather it is a building tower which has been in 
> place for over twenty-five years".
>
> I was then required to have the site surveyed by a local engineering 
> group. Included in the survey  were the direction and distance from the 
> center of the runway to the clearance lights, antenna, and any other 
> object which might project above the clearance lights. In addition to the 
> FAA permit for the radio antenna, State Farm holds a seasonal permit to 
> erect and extend a crank up pole supporting a Christmas tree shaped 
> configuration of colored bulbs.
>
> The net result of the survey of the State Farm Executive Tower at One 
> State Farm Plaza, Bloomington IL, was a "Notice To Airmen" published by 
> the FAA, which changed take off and landing angles to and from BMI, as 
> well as increasing the "free circling plate height" of BMI to 1244 feet 
> AMSL.
>
> Unfortunately sometimes the FAA does not have ALL the facts or the correct 
> facts for pilots flying near our antenna structure.  As it was explained 
> to me, an aircraft flying under limited visibility conditions has a two 
> hundred foot clearance buffer in the "free circling plate height". 
> Changes in atmospheric pressure or incorrect setting of the altimeter can 
> put a plane lower in height and into a tower in the flight path to the end 
> of the runway if the tower location and height are not accurately 
> reported.
>
>
> 73 & DX,
>
> Gary - AB9M
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Courtney Judd
> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 1:30 PM
> To: Towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] planes and towers
>
> Looking at the W9ZUC incident and the clip below it about the
> duster/tower made me think back about several incidents with mine. I
> live directly in a MOA (military operating area) and 20 or so years ago
> maybe more a F4 blew over my tower while I was working at the top
> exceeding the speed of sound. He put a sonic boom on me which i would
> have jumped off if i had not been securely fastened to the tower.
> Normally it is illegal to create a sonic boom over the continental US
> but they had a waiver in order to re-certify the F4's before giving them
> to the national guard.  this turned out to be pretty regular for the
> next several months. Another time I was up at daylight standing on my
> porch looking at my 140' tower which was hidden in fog from about 50 ft
> and up when i could hear helicopters coming my way. I could tell that
> they were heading right at my tower. They were flying right at the
> bottom edge of the fog. They came into my view a couple of hundred ft
> from the tower. One broke left; the other went right. I thought was
> going to witness a big one for a minute!  Scary! 73's Cort K4WI
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-- 

73

Roger (K8RI)

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