On 05 Aug 2007, at 18:06, Chuck Hards wrote:
Many years ago, there was a mid-air over Kearns between either a 2- or-4 seater (for some reason I'm remembering that it was a Mooney) and a commuter turbo-prop. It was pretty grisly on the ground; school children were kept indoors until most of the remains were taken off the street. I remember that neighborhood dogs were observed getting-away with some remains. I think you were living in SLC at the time, Patrick- or was it before you moved here?
Yes, unfortunately I was here and remember the situation all too well. The instructor in the small plane was an fellow I hired from time to time and I used to rent one of his aircraft. Fortunately it would be a bit more difficult for that situation to repeat itself today as one can not fly in the SL valley these days at the altitude the airliners fly without a device which automatically tells air traffic control your altitude. That's assuming, of course, everyone follows the rules. Plus all airliners and many largish small aircraft these days are equipped with something called TCAS which alerts the flight crew if another aircraft is in the area. I've been TCASed out at Wendover when landing or taking off there when the 737 the casinos hire to fly in customers is landing. Standard practice is to broadcast one's position when flying into and out of uncontrolled airports and the casino 737's typical reply is something to the effect, "54U we have you on TCAS". But even so, I still keep my eyes outside the cockpit. Better to be seen than heard ("crunch"). pw