True story. The other day I was completing leg #1 of my solo cross
country for my Private Pilot Certificate. I was preparing to land at my
home airport, a class D at Opa-Locka (KOPF). I called the tower,
entered the airspace, and was cleared to land on 9L. A couple of
minutes later I hear that a Coast Guard jet was cleared to land on 9L.
Now, I was doing 80-90 knots before I deployed flaps or started my
prelanding checklist. I think jets fly just a bit faster than that. I
got a little nervous that we were both cleared to land and he obviously
wasn't in front of me.

I looked around the airspace trying to find the jet. I know Class D
doesn't provide radar separation, but the tower had always advised me
of traffic before. And besides, this jet was probably still over the
Everglades and made a call from afar. WRONG! I hear on the radio, 40U
immediate right turn, cleared to land on 9R. When I turned south to
intercept the 9R centerline, I saw the jet pretty darn close to me on
final for 9L. What ever happened to the right of way, me being the
lower airplane and all?

I've never had any of these problems at an uncontrolled despite what
seems to be more traffic and CTAF frequencies from multiple airports
colliding. These kind of things are really an eye-opener, and I can
see how people tend to get too comfortable in Class D.

Jay Honeck wrote:
Totally agree. I'll take uncontrolled over non-radar Class Delta,
any
day.


Do you think the problem is the tower, or the fact that they tend
to have
more traffic?

I think it's a combination of factors.

Mostly I think it's a problem with controllers who *think* they know
where
the planes are, based on (often erroneous) pilot position reports,
combined
with the limitations of what a guy can see with binoculars.

When you've got a guy directing traffic who has a faulty mental
picture of
the traffic in the airspace -- often through no fault of his own --
you've
got a recipe for trouble.

And you often get it, in my experience.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"