Happy Spring Semester!

S

SeeYA@GFK

Well-Known Member
Welcome everyone back to GFK for the start of Spring semester! We have a feeling at the tower that it will be extremely busy. The past week we've been averaging 1200 operations a day and that's with mainly contract students. So it should be very interesting!

If you have any questions about what we do and why we do it, let me have it. Your always welcome for a tour at the tower as well.

Good luck and be safe!
 
Happy Spring to ya too. Too bad the temperatures won't be spring like with the ARCTIC AIRMASS moving in! You guys have a lot of patience sometimes dealing with the contract students, I give you all props for that. Hopefully this new semester does not step the stress factor up quite a bit. I'll probably make a trip up sometimes this semester. Is Schletty still around?
 
Oh boy, operations per hour.... how many warriors fit on a runway? Basically the same question. I appreciate all of you in the tower, for those of us instructing, it's hard to let the students mess up, but they have to learn and you take great strides in helping them learn. I for one really appreciate it. Oh, and yes... they only mess up once on my radio before we take the handheld up to the 5 story to practice calls.

Happy New Year!
 
TheShocker said:
Happy Spring to ya too. Too bad the temperatures won't be spring like with the ARCTIC AIRMASS moving in! You guys have a lot of patience sometimes dealing with the contract students, I give you all props for that. Hopefully this new semester does not step the stress factor up quite a bit. I'll probably make a trip up sometimes this semester. Is Schletty still around?
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Makes you wonder why we are stuck here in GFK with cold like this. I'd do anything for a few days at 10 or 15 above!

As much as we bitch and complain about contract students, they are saving our behinds as far as traffic count. Without them we'd be bored stiff. On the other hand I've noticed that when a contract student messes up, either cuts somebody off on final or upwind, trying to give instructions to get them back in a safe place is really, really difficult without losing it over the frequency. A simple instruction to fly 'east through final' to avoid traffic just doesn't click as fast as it should. It takes 2-3 other transmissions to get them out of a sticky situation. So I'm tempted to just let them do their thing and give out instructions to the other aircraft first that they either cut out or are head on.

I'm not picking on the contract students, I know they are all UND students, I get that part, but it is what it is.

And yes, Schletty is still around. He hasn't been on the radios since the summer because his medical was pulled. Long story, but he should be back soon. We need him bad!
 
XcalibeR said:
Out of curiosity, what kind of operations/hr are you guys running at the busiest?
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At the busiest we can see around 225 operations an hour. This is balls to the wall traffic (6 or 7 patterns on each runway) with lots of helo's flying around as well. I'd say between 175-150 is more realistic and managable for steady traffic.

On a West traffic day (27R) probably around 120-100 operations would be about max. I know if I'm working 27R this Spring I'll limit the pattern to 3-5, if there's a bunch of airplanes in the local area. It can get out of control too fast these days so it's not even worth trying to push it to squeeze a few more operations out over safety.
 
ProudPilot said:
Oh boy, operations per hour.... how many warriors fit on a runway? Basically the same question. I appreciate all of you in the tower, for those of us instructing, it's hard to let the students mess up, but they have to learn and you take great strides in helping them learn. I for one really appreciate it. Oh, and yes... they only mess up once on my radio before we take the handheld up to the 5 story to practice calls.

Happy New Year!
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haha...I like the 5 story idea. The link on Liveatc.net was good for awhile, until they added approach. So it's hard to get a feel for the flow of traffic calls just at the airport with RDR doing their thing. But, I'm sure it's good for alot of your instrument students to hear that side as well.

As far as how many airplanes can be on a runway, it would be two. I'm sure there's some crazy situation that I'm forgetting, but mainly two. For example on 35L, a 172 is making a stop-n-go (or full stop) and it touches down just before A3. Now there's a P28A on final making a full stop landing short final. With our rules, the P28A on final can be over the threshold with the other 172 on the runway, it just needs to be past A3. So if your creeping up on the aircraft in front, and your a stop-n-go, I'll give you a 'cleared to land, and I'll call your departure'. I won't do this with everybody, I have no problem helping the American economy by sending you around either. Just depends how busy it is and how much faith I have in you :)

This can work with 35R/17L/17R as well, it can only be used during the day, and different airplanes require different seperation standards so don't take it word for word. I know alot of instructors/students wouldn't feel comfortable with having another airplane on the runway like this, but if we already cleared you to land, it falls on our shoulders to have the proper seperation before your over the threshold. Usually I'll throw in the phrase 'seperation still exists, you are still cleared to land' if I really need you on the ground.

Thanks for the comments and hope you and your students have a wonderful semester!
 
I'm starting 102 this spring. My flying is scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I also have the option of flying additional flights during the weekend. I truly hope that I could finish flying before the end of May, because I want to spend the summer outside of Grand Forks.

Good luck with this semester guys.
 
8ball said:
I'm starting 102 this spring. My flying is scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I also have the option of flying additional flights during the weekend. I truly hope that I could finish flying before the end of May, because I want to spend the summer outside of Grand Forks.

Good luck with this semester guys.
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Make sure to enjoy every step along the way, 102 is a fun one. If you fly as often as you can, stay up to date and study on your own outside of class you will finish it in time and enjoy it as well. 102 is the foundation of everything else you are going to learn so build a good foundation! What ground school professor do you have?
 
SeeYA@GFK said:
Makes you wonder why we are stuck here in GFK with cold like this. I'd do anything for a few days at 10 or 15 above!

As much as we bitch and complain about contract students, they are saving our behinds as far as traffic count. Without them we'd be bored stiff. On the other hand I've noticed that when a contract student messes up, either cuts somebody off on final or upwind, trying to give instructions to get them back in a safe place is really, really difficult without losing it over the frequency. A simple instruction to fly 'east through final' to avoid traffic just doesn't click as fast as it should. It takes 2-3 other transmissions to get them out of a sticky situation. So I'm tempted to just let them do their thing and give out instructions to the other aircraft first that they either cut out or are head on.

I'm not picking on the contract students, I know they are all UND students, I get that part, but it is what it is.

And yes, Schletty is still around. He hasn't been on the radios since the summer because his medical was pulled. Long story, but he should be back soon. We need him bad!
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Great, its gonna make my job a little harder flying on final at 150 kts
 
Micaoct said:
Make sure to enjoy every step along the way, 102 is a fun one. If you fly as often as you can, stay up to date and study on your own outside of class you will finish it in time and enjoy it as well. 102 is the foundation of everything else you are going to learn so build a good foundation! What ground school professor do you have?
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Is Prof. Z still doing 102? He rocks. I seriously loved that class...
 
Micaoct said:
Make sure to enjoy every step along the way, 102 is a fun one. If you fly as often as you can, stay up to date and study on your own outside of class you will finish it in time and enjoy it as well. 102 is the foundation of everything else you are going to learn so build a good foundation! What ground school professor do you have?
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Thanks for your kind words. My ground school professor is John Bridewell, who seems to be a nice fella. As for flying, I just had my first simulator session today at Ryan Hall, which went pretty well. The only thing that bugs me is the thought of doing the exterior pre-flight check around the aircraft in this winter cold. Still, I look forward to all of the flying.
 
They have a couple warriors and a cessna in the hangar next to dispatch so you can go with your instructor and familiarize yourself with the airplane.
 
8ball said:
Thanks for your kind words. My ground school professor is John Bridewell, who seems to be a nice fella. As for flying, I just had my first simulator session today at Ryan Hall, which went pretty well. The only thing that bugs me is the thought of doing the exterior pre-flight check around the aircraft in this winter cold. Still, I look forward to all of the flying.
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Hey I had to do that at 5am on a CRJ while the winds were whipping at 35kts. You gotta do what ya gotta do for flying. If it makes you feel any better when I was a instructor I would preflight with my students on the ramp even in -40 degree weather.
 
8ball said:
Thanks for your kind words. My ground school professor is John Bridewell, who seems to be a nice fella. As for flying, I just had my first simulator session today at Ryan Hall, which went pretty well. The only thing that bugs me is the thought of doing the exterior pre-flight check around the aircraft in this winter cold. Still, I look forward to all of the flying.
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Dr. Bridewell's funny... I had him for 221. Sit in the front of the class or you will be bored out of your mind though... :) Schedule 7am flight launches and you might be able to preflight in the hangar. ;)
 
Farva said:
Hey I had to do that at 5am on a CRJ while the winds were whipping at 35kts. You gotta do what ya gotta do for flying. If it makes you feel any better when I was a instructor I would preflight with my students on the ramp even in -40 degree weather.
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Good job, having the instructor preflight with you out even when it is freezing means a lot, and shows a lot as well. What really bothers me is when the instructor comes out after the student preflights (and preflight is complete) and they do not even check the fuel. The least they could do is take a quick peek, I always do a through preflight but STILL, the instructor should ALWAYS check the fuel.
 
juxtapilot said:
Dr. Bridewell's funny... I had him for 221. Sit in the front of the class or you will be bored out of your mind though... :) Schedule 7am flight launches and you might be able to preflight in the hangar. ;)
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Thanks for the tips. If I could do the preflight in the hangar for every flight that I'm going to have here at UND, then that would be awesome. Realistically though, as Farva has said, you gotta do what you gotta do for flying.
 
av8or91 said:
They have a couple warriors and a cessna in the hangar next to dispatch so you can go with your instructor and familiarize yourself with the airplane.
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Yup, that's just how it went. My instructor and I went to a hangar and that's when we did the initial aircraft familiarization.
 
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