A very short repositioning flight in the Cessna Citation Mustang from the St. Louis Lambert Airport to the Spirit of St. Louis Airport. As I taxi onto the runway for takeoff, the airport diagram is displayed on the MFD for easy reference. Once On the runway the synthetic vision shows the runway and center line stripes on the pilot Flight Display. This is so accurate that our position several feet right of the center line as seen through the windshield is accurately displayed on the PFD. The takeoff is on runway 30R and the landing at Spirit Airport is on runway 8R. Straight line distance between the two airports is only 15 nautical miles which makes for a very busy single pilot trip. As soon as I level off, ATC confirms I have Spirit in sight and I’m cleared for the visual to 8R. This was a Saturday afternoon so there isn’t much ATC radio traffic.
Tag Archives: atc radio communications
Flying the Cessna Citation Mustang into O’Hare International Airport, Chicago
A pre-dawn arrival and landing in a Cessna Citation Mustang at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. O’Hare is the world’s 2nd busiest airport and flying single pilot in this airspace can be a challenging experience. I arrived before 6:00 am so avoided the peak traffic times but even so, approach was very busy with airline traffic entering the terminal area. This was evident by the high number of ATC radio calls and the approach controllers request to maintain a higher than normal speed to the marker. No problem for the Mustang, which can slow rapidly. There’s no speed limit on the speed brakes and the gear extension speed is 250 Knots. Pull the throttles to idle, extend the speed brakes, drop the gear and your decelerating towards the outer marker like you just dropped anchor. In the center of the instrument panel on the Multi-Function Display (MFD) you can see how helpful the G1000 moving map display is for situational awareness. On the flight plan page I flip through various approaches to 27L and select and load the 27L ILs approach. With all the city lights on the ground it can be very difficult to visually identify and maintain the landing runway. The course line and all the approach fixes are presented on the MFD map and greatly aid in identifying the airport and the runway. More than one seasoned pilot has started his turn towards the airport and rolled out on the wrong runway. Once cleared for the visual approach the map display is great for confirming you’re on the correct course to the assigned runway. The lighting on runway 27L consist of an ALSF2 Approach Light System leading to the runway, a 4 light PAPI Precision Approach Path Indicator to the right of the runway for visually maintaining the glide path, and at the far end of the runway the pulsing white lights across the runway are hold short lights for use in land And Hold Short Operations LAHSO. Unfortunately, with an early morning summer takeoff I picked up lots of bug splats on the windshield which are visible in the video.
Beechcraft Super King Air 350 Landing Eagle Airport Localizer Approach ATC
A Hawker Beechcraft Super King Air 350 turboprop on the localizer 25 approach, lands at the Eagle County Regional Airport, also known as the Vail/Eagle Airport, in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. On this flight we are in and out of snow showers and pick up a little ice on the airframe before landing. With a field elevation of 6,540 ft Eagle airport (EGE) is a high elevation airport surrounded by mountains and is on the History Channels list of the top 10 most dangerous airports. This king Air 350 cockpit video starts with a picture of the actual FAA Instrument procedure chart for the approach. Due to the high traffic flow during the ski season the FAA often institutes a slot system for aircraft arrivals and departures. During theses time reservations need to be made no more than 72 hours in advance with the FAA’s e-STMP system and the ramp is often crowded to capacity with private jets. LDA/DME RWY 25 Eagle County rgnl (EGE)
Cessna Citation Takeoff Nashville
A Cessna Citation Encore CE-560 departs the Nashville airport. This video has ATC radio communications.