NOTAM - Midland/Penetang area

[Wayne G. O'Shea]

NOTAM - Midland/Penetanguishene, Ontario Area

Communication towers continue to be an added safety concern to aviation,
all over the country I would imagine. From improper beacons fooling you
into thinking that you're heading for the airport on a night flight, to
encroaching our airspace in unsettled areas.

I should have wrote this last year when I learned that one of our local
pilots did as he'd done for years and turned final for Hog's Bay -
Victoria Harbour, just like he'd done the weekend before, only this time
to find that a new Cell tower had gone up on the West end of the Bay
sometime thoughout the week. Luckily he missed the tower, and it's guide
wires, but it sure messed up his approach (and possibly his pants!) for
a nice landing on the bay.

We have regulations, or threats of new regulations, in place to avoid
over flight of built up areas while landing on our lakes for noise
abatement, etc, so we do our utmost to avoid them and over fly the
bush/unsettled areas that can usually be found on most lakes. Then
someone plunks a tower up in this unsettled area and what choice do we
have on our approach path anymore.

I am writing this "NOTAM" at this time, as we now have another
communication tower hazard on the West shore of Penetanguishene Harbour
and this one is even worse than the one over in Victoria Harbour. The
tower went up late in the fall of 2003 and was of course placed on the
highest piece of land they could find. Unfortunately, with them of
course choosing the unsettle area to install the tower, this tower is
exactly where you would do the left hand Southbound downwind leg for
landing on Penetanguishene Harbour Northbound. It's the natural choice
for downwind since it's a forested area, versus the packed residential
shoreline and town on the East side of the harbour.

These towers both top out at approximately 1200'Above Sea Level (ASL).
Land in our area averages between 710' and 750' ASL, putting the towers
in impact range for someone with an altimeter slightly off flying
"legally" at 500 feet AGL over an unsettled area. The other huge factor
that comes into play, when setting up for a water/ski landing on the
Harbour, is that Georgian Bay's water level is approximately 570' ASL.
This puts the tower tops over 600 feet above the water level, greatly
increasing the impact possibilities for someone setting up to land or
coming in on a base leg half way up the harbour to get away from boat
traffic in the basin.

If you've flown onto either Hog's Bay or Penetanguishene Harbour in the
past, or are planning to do so this winter/summer or in the future, I'm
hoping that your reading of this "NOTAM" will keep dropping into the
area safe.

Regards,

Wayne G. O'Shea






*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
To unsubscribe from this list go to:
https://www.dcsol.com/public/code/html-subscribe.wcx
Archives located at https://rebel:builder@www.dcsol.com/default.htm
To contact the list admin, e-mail mike.davis@dcsol.com
*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*








-----------------------------------------------------------------
List archives located at: https://mail.dcsol.com/login
username "rebel" password "builder"
Unsubscribe: rebel-builders-unsubscribe@dcsol.com
List administrator: mike.davis@dcsol.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------