[TowerTalk] New FAA regulations affecting towers

Bill Putney billp at wwpc.com
Mon Jul 18 12:28:56 EDT 2016


First, single engine radar has to be hung out on a pod on the wing, 
which is where the spray bars are. Second, you don't want a spray 
pilot's eyes inside the cockpit looking at a radar screen when they are 
flying 50' above the ground.

Bill Putney - WB6RFW
Chief Engineer
KPTZ - Port Townsend, WA

PP-SEL/A&P-IA

"...you know me to be a very smart man. Don't you think if I were wrong, I'd know it?" -Sheldon Cooper

On 7/18/16 6:23 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> Haven't seen this mentioned:
>
> Why don't they require these low flying planes to
> have radar that would "see" power lines and towers?
>
> Rick N6RK
>
> On 7/18/2016 4:44 AM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
>> I have seen a few dusters up close ranging from an old Steerman to
>> modern purpose built.  The latter had an inclined sharpened blade
>> positioned in front of the canopy  to cut wires.  I don't know how
>> effective that arrangement was. I never saw it tested.
>>
>> Patrick        NJ5G
>>
>>
>> On 7/17/2016 10:38 PM, Roger (K8RI) on TT wrote:
>>> Sounds like his antenna may have been a Rhombic.  They were very
>>> popular for those who had the room back then.
>>>
>>> Crop dusting aircraft would likely cut a wire antenna or phone line
>>> like it wasn't there, but a friend (I went to high school with)
>>> misjudged the height of a power line and neatly removed the vertical
>>> stabilizer from his Ag Cat.  With no lateral stabilization the torque
>>> rolled it over and turned it into a lawn dart. It hit the ground going
>>> almost straight down. killing him instantly.
>>>
>>> Those transmission lines are substantial and wound on a steel core.
>>> That strong steel core is much larger than any typical antenna wire.
>>> The antenna might bring down a light plane but modern crop dusters are
>>> built like the aeronautical version of a tank.
>>>
>>> We flew down to Visit my wife's folks in Florida over the Christmas
>>> holidays some years back. A layer of ground fog forming at night is
>>> quite common in the Florida peninsula and may not burn off until 9 or
>>> 10 AM.
>>>
>>> A piper Cherokee pilot took off one morning, staying really low. He
>>> apparently forgot about the high tension lines abt 2 miles W of (IIRC)
>>> Tampa Bay Exec. He apparently panicked when he saw the first set pass
>>> overhead and pulled up...right into the second power line. The only
>>> thing left was the engine and prop rolled into a ball. There was a
>>> notch in the one prop blade a good inch deep where it hit one of the
>>> lines.  AFAIK power was not interrupted.
>>> They probably replaced that span.
>>>
>>> 73
>>>
>>> Roger (K8RI)
>>>
>>>
>>> On 7/17/2016 Sunday 10:59 PM, lstoskopf at cox.net wrote:
>>>> Waaay back in the early 50s when I was just getting started there was
>>>> a Ham in central Kansas whose job was keeping oil wells pumping.  He
>>>> and his wife lived in a very small house right in the middle of a
>>>> batch of those 90 ft derricks that we all think of when we think of
>>>> Texas oil. Anyway, he had a long length of wire running from his 'mud
>>>> room' to one of the towers, then to another, etc for maybe 5 or 6
>>>> towers and back to the shack. The towers were probably 800 ft
>>>> spaced.   Fed with a open balanced tuner.  I'm not sure what bands he
>>>> was on, but he could work DX!!!!!!  RF's got to go somewhere!
>>>>
>>>> So wondering how a long wire antenna fits into the regulation? His
>>>> would have be a very invisible airplane catcher.
>>>>
>>>> N0UU
>>>
>>>
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