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Recently we have all been hearing about our air traffic controllers going to sleep at the switch.  So I thought I would share with the folks an incident that happened to me in December 1973.

First a little personal historical back ground.  I started my flying career in 1962.  The girl I was dating in high school her father had a pilot’s license and we would go flying on Sundays. After four years in the Navy ,three years as a crew chief on Convairs and Super DC 3.  I actually learned to fly during those years, well sort of, thats another story. Anyway after the Navy I went to Spartan Aeronautics in Tulsa Oklahoma and finished up my ratings Instrument and Instructor , then returned to Manhattan Kansas and flew for the next three years for a commuter airline.  I then decided I was tired of being a cab driver and re enlisted in  the Air Force to go to air traffic control school which I did in Beloxi Miss. After completing the school I was transfered to an Air Guard base in Michigan and began my field training in the tower. During that time I bought an old twin Piper Apache and started giving multi engine training at a flight school in Pontiac.  On several of the training flights I would land at Saline Michigan , on the south side of the interstate south of Ann Arbor. I made friends with the Sales manager there. They were a Cessna and Bellanca dealership. They offered me a job as chief pilot and said they would work me into sales.  I found out that the Air Force had an early out program , I qualified , because of my Navy time , so the Air Force in their wisdom , spent the money to train me then let me go.

Now to the event.  I was en route to Saline, from South Bend Ind. with  a brand new Cessna 310. We had the aircraft there having a new avionics package installed. It was on a friday and I was to deliver the aircraft to the buyer the next day.  I called the tower at 13 miles out and reported to the controller my N#  and type and that I was inbound for landing. Note, the weather that day was four miles visibility and haze. The controller responded with , “enter and report downwind” which I acknowledged.  I then heard a Cherokee call the tower and report that he was at the stadium inbound for landing . The stadium was almost due north of the Saline airport.  So I was looking for this aircraft , remember the visibility issue.  About  that time I entered and reported downwind and the controller responded by “your cleared  to land” . Now what that means is , that runway is mine, and there are no other aircraft to worry about.  Just as I was abeam the end of the runway, I reached over and lowered the main landing gear.  The second the gear locked in place , I was hit in the windshield upper right hand corner. At first I thought I had hit a bird.  But this bird left blue paint on my windshield , and knocked the cabin door open.  You’ve all heard the expression, I never saw what hit me, well I’ve been there.  I checked my controls ailerons ,rudder and elevator and everything was a go, engines were fine. So I rolled it over and put in on the runway asap, not knowing when I might lose one of my controls.  once on the ground I was not able to contact the tower because I had lost my antenna .  So I taxied up to our sales hanger , which was adjacent to the tower. The guys were standing in our show room , and watched me run over to the tower. On the way up to the tower cab , I saw the tower chief sitting in his office. When I got to the tower cab , I told the controller , who turned out to be a trainee, to give me a land line to the radar room at Willow Run Airport.  I knew that s were all the sector tapes were made for the surrounding airports. I asked for a supervisor I gave him my numbers and requested that he freeze the tapes for the last hour at the Saline Airport.  He asked me why , and I told him that there had been a mid-air collision in the last 30 minutes at that airport and I was the one that was hit.  I also told him (CYA) that I was going to be calling a friend of mine, at the “GADO” General Aviation District  Office“   and ask him to come over to Saline immediately. Some times those tapes get erased?  I knew him from Tulsa and knew that he would be involved in the accident investigation.  While I was talking to the Supervisor at the Willow Run radar facility,  the local trainee and the tower chief, his supervisor were standing directly in front of me, and it was the first point in time that they knew they had a problem.  Incidently the aircraft that him me , failed to enter the traffic pattern at the appropriate location plus he was high and diving in a sharp turn to the left which is why I hit his left wing tip , he landed in the grass, with his left-wing spar busted in two locations , only the skin of the wing, kept that wing on the aircraft.  He lost his license for 6 months. The trainee was fired and the supervisor was busted down two GS ratings and removed as a tower chief.  Since my aircraft was flyable , it was called a incident.  I and my GADO friend flew it to Pontiac the next morning for repairs.  He thought it was best to get back in the saddle ASAP.  A little side bar here: that same night my chief pilot for the commuter I flew for was killed in a Cessna 310 in a Ice storm trying to land at Manhattan Kansas,.  I was fine until his wife called me to tell me about the accident.  We were fishing and card playing buds. And we spent many hours in the air  together.  My FAA pal did me a major favor. 

For you none flyers, let me make this point.  When ever there is a tower and it is operational , some close at 9 or 10 in the evening.  The Local or tower controller is responsible to maintain aircraft separation inside the 5 mile diameter of the control zone.  The tower is at the center of that zone.  The bottom line here is this , First there should never be a trainee left alone in the tower cab. Two. There should never be less than two controllers on duty as long as the tower is operational. At the very least there should be a trainee also in the cab.  Trainees are and have graduated from the academy at the Will Rogers airport in OKC.

Now having told you this story, let me say that after 30 plus years of flying , as a student, commercial airline, and sales operations. I have the highest regard for air traffic controllers. There have been many times that due to the lack of adequate radar they have saved my bacon.

Today I saw Secretary Ray LaHood on Fox with Cris Wallace. And I recognize his anger related to controllers falling asleep.  But there are simple solutions, and I am going to contact him to discuss them.  And I must make this point right now. There are aircraft all over the world that land at night with no problem after the tower has closed. There are also aircraft that land at night and in the day time at airports with out towers and there are no problems. Because of the procedures that proficient pilots adhere to.  That is what we need here.  A procedure and the use of simple technology.   These major and regional airports where these naps took place can be remedied easily. First if  these aircraft are talking to a en route radar facility, even if they are in VFR conditions, a hand off should take place. If the receiving controller does not acknowledge the hand off, a simple phone call , land line call is in order. Wake the sucker up.  If there is still no answer, install a bell like they have at fire stations that can be activated by the en route or approach radar unit supervisor.  However having said all this, these pilots are trained to communicate with aircraft nearby , landing at the same airport and providing between themselves adequate separation.  It’s not as complicated as these media talking heads make it out to be.  Nobody is going to get hurt because some government union employee takes a nap. Well, maybe that’s not true, Congress has been taking a nap for 70 years. And now were 14-21 trillion in debt.  As for the Air Bus swiping the tail of the regional jet, that is clearly pilot error,. That Air Buss capt should be fired. And the ground controller that cleared the regional jet to push back and taxi, needs some training.

Well this is a little different post from the usual. But since flying was my life until a few years ago, I thought some might find it interesting. Today being Sunday   maybe a change of pace is in order , you decide.