Mystery Plane

Its probably a Shorts 360:
http://www.airliners.net/discussions...ad.main/59468/

Dean W.

I almost had a mid-air with one of those things once. We were inbound
to a VOR for an approach. We called on the CTAF "10 miles north,
inbound for the VOR-B approach", then "5 miles north, inbound for the
VOR-B approach", then again announcing VOR outbound. Then out of
nowhere we hear "Gallia Meigs traffic, millitary Shorts procedure turn
inbound VOR-B, Gallia Meigs". Me and my instructor were like "OH
SHI..." and abruptly turned back north, just in time to see it fly
right past us maybe 10 seconds later. We were both at 3000 ft, and on
the exact same radial. If we had continued on with the approach, a
mid-air would have almost certainly occurred.

Up to that point I've always descended to the first minimum altitude
before crossing the IAP, but now I always make sure to be at least a
few hundred feet higher, and do the rest of the descending while in the
procedure turn. That way, if some joker is doing the approach and not
making any radio calls, he'll at least pass below me.

Anyways, I knew it was a Shorts 360 because I was previously familiar
with the plane from looking at pictures on airliners.net, and we passed
so close to it I could make out the boxy fuselage and single tail (the
330 would have had a double tail). It must have been flying the
approach at category A speeds (90 knots), because it seemed to just
float in mid air as it crossed the FAF.