I have a low tolerance for people who don’t know what they are doing imposing restrictions on others.
Compass Readers Forum, March 2012
The first “Info and Updates” item in the March Compass, “Avoid Low Flying Planes,” (by the “Assistant Safety Officer” of SVG Air), stopped me in my tracks. It is another case of somebody invoking the word “safety” to cast useless, costly, and maybe dangerous fears and restrictions upon others, procedures that have no basis in reality… aka the razor wire fence around the dinghy dock at Bequia meant to stop terrorists from boarding ships bound for the US.
The item tells yachts to “avoid the area within two miles of the runway final approach areas in Union Island and Canouan…” along with other nonsense.
Let’s work our way south from St. Vincent, where Bequia ferries, which are as tall as yachts, would have to divert a mile to the west to comply. Has there ever been a conflict between a ferry and an airplane landing at Anos Vale Airport? If so, I hope they arrested the pilot and took away his license. At Bequia, you’d have to forgo your photo of Moon Hole Arch and sail a mile downwind and down current of West Cay before turning south. At Canouan, pass a mile and a half downwind and down current of Glossy hill, which is much higher than your mast. Directly off the departure end of the Canouan airport is the Friendship Bay anchorage – maybe that should be closed. The Union Island airport has a 106 metre hill half a mile off the approach end of the mentioned runway 08, right on the runway’s extended centerline. The nearest you could get a yacht under the extended centerline of 08 is in Ashton Harbour, half a mile farther than the hill. In the countless approaches I’ve watched to the Union airport, very few planes fly anything other than a tight, circling approach to a short final, crossing the hospital, houses, and town at low altitudes that are only permitted when necessary for takeoff or landing. Off the departure end of 08 might be a good place to keep an eye out, the center of the channel is only a quarter mile from the end of the runway, and airplanes don’t always go up as fast as they come down. As for “the parasailing activities south of runway 08” cited as a hazard to aircraft, there is a beach lined with palm trees between them and the airport. At Carriacou, there is a 52 metre hill under final approach a mile from the threshold — passing two miles away would take you way outside of Sister Rocks. Grenada’s airport is a quarter mile inland from Point Saline — It’s often a good idea to stay well off Point Saline but not because of aircraft At St Lucia, the entry range into Port Castries is a tenth of a mile from the approach end of the runway.
Moreover, just as with driving and boating, flying has rules. At low altitude in uncontrolled airspace, an airplane is required to maintain 500 feet (vertically and horizontally) from any person or property, and is required to be clear of clouds and have one mile of flight visibility. (That’s the US version, I don’t know the IACO version.) In other words, if you are on the ground or on the water, you have the right of way over an airplane in flight… “except when necessary for takeoff or landing….” We flight instructors used to joke about what that actually means. If you come across a pilot who is worried about running into a yacht mast beyond a quarter of a mile from the runway, my advice is, don’t get into an airplane with them.
Fair Winds, Happy Landings,
Hutch, s/y Ambia
There is a much bigger point to be made. The Assistant Safety Officer was demonstrably unqualified and incompetent, knew nothing of the airports referred to and, in this flight instructor’s opinion, knew little or nothing about flying – yet was the Assistant Safety Officer of the local airline. And lecturing an audience presumed ignorant of flying (a surprising number of sailors have done some flying along the way – many similarities). Readers unfamiliar with flying or the islands/airports mentioned or who just gloss over the article at face value might get sucked in… or just mutter “nonsense” and carry on.
But let’s imagine that a bareboat out of Blue Lagoon is passing Canouan and can make the Tobago Cays in one tack and daylight if they pass close under Glossy Point. But not if they pass a mile and a half downwind and down current of Glossy. Now nonsense becomes dangerous. You see why I had to say something.
But what about people who assume authority to tell us how to behave? (With no thought or knowledge of our circumstances?)
This was about a tiny incident in a world in which pretending authority with no knowledge and with no interest on its impact on others is becoming endemic.
“Half of what you see is just illusion. Most of what you hear in not the truth.” I heard that many years ago, it rings more true now. Critical thinking (or maybe abstinence) might be the best defense.
One Love, Hutch
© Copyright 2012