Caborca - Pigs, Planes, Gold, and Businessmen

CHAPTER 4

CALIFORNIA FLYING

On the day before our planned departure, Bob and Gil had filed flight plans with the FBO at Sacramento Metro, where we kept our planes. They did this in person by filling out forms on paper in the office. At the same time, they confirmed that both planes had been “topped off” with fuel. The process of filing flight plans is advised for every pilot planning to fly to let authorities have a record of departure and arrival dates, number of passengers, routes, the purpose of the flight, etc. The objective is for safety in case of emergency. Afterward, they flew the planes to Cameron Park, a higher-elevation airstrip about fifty miles east of Sacramento, and secured them for the night.

Our planes did not have radar. GPS had not yet been invented. Cell phones had not been invented. This was 1973. Maps for pilots, called charts, were on paper. These maps, folded just so, saw constant use in the cockpit, as the pilot had to rely on them to determine where he was and which direction to go to reach his destination. Charts provided visual features, like roads and railroads, cities, airports, tall towers, and land features, such as rivers, lakes, and mountains. It’s called VFR flying (visual flight rules), as opposed to IFR, or instrument flight rules, which allow a pilot to fly in clouds and fog using instruments only.

Neither Bob nor Gil were IFR qualified. Both had to rely on charts, which worked well as long as we were in the US. Charts were not available for Mexico. We had to use the “other” definition of IFR, “I fly roads,” once we crossed the border into Mexico. We did have some rudimentary road maps of Northern Mexico with us.

Aero charts also display important information, like the radio channel of each airport, the radio channel of the VOR marker, and the radio (AM/FM) channel of the various towers installed around the countryside.

Flying California skies requires a pilot to be especially vigilant due to the number of planes aloft at any one time. The FAA indicates that 5,400 planes are in the air over the US at peak times. California is especially hot with commercial service at huge metro centers, like LA and San Francisco, many military bases, and hundreds of small airfields. The sky is virtually filled with airplanes. To stay safe, a pilot must play by the rules. For example, he must maintain level flight on the odd thousands of altitudes, e.g., one thousand, three thousand, five thousand, etc., when flying south (between compass headings of ninety degrees south through 270 degrees) and even thousands when going north (270 to ninety north). That system is designed to keep planes apart vertically, but they must get to these altitudes by climbing after take-off and descending through them as they approach landings. The pilot must be very watchful, looking around for other planes in the sky in his vicinity.

A pilot can request help from air traffic controllers stationed at various nearby airports, who are aware of traffic in the sky at all times via their radar. They can see the blips on their screen indicating each airplane, but in 1973, they did not have the technology to know which blip was which plane. That’s why we had transponders in our planes. The pilot would call the ATC (air traffic controller) in the nearest airport (station) on the radio and ask to be advised on “area traffic.” The controller would then ask the pilot to activate the transponder in the aircraft by pressing a button. The controller would see one blip on his screen flash, indicating which pilot was calling, and then would advise that pilot of any nearby airplanes that might be encountered in the next few minutes. It was a crude system but much better than what was done before transponders were invented, when a pilot had only his eyes to warn of nearby planes. However, the range of transponders was limited, so to be effective, the plane had to be near a station that had radar and a controller on duty. Where we were going in Mexico had neither.

The weather was a constant concern for our pilots. As VFR pilots, they were not licensed to fly in clouds, and our planes were not equipped to do so. Obtaining weather reports of conditions along the way (en route) was a key part of our activities. We started our trip by getting a weather forecast for the next several days for the areas we planned to visit. Cloud cover, precipitation, temperature, wind speed, and direction were key elements to consider. We updated our understanding of weather forecasts every few hours by radioing in to FBOs (fixed base operators) at various stations along the way. Sometimes ATCs would help with comments on weather if they were not too busy directing traffic.

An extremely important part of weather data is the current barometric reading at a nearby station. Changing weather patterns occur frequently, and barometric pressure can change rapidly. It is the barometric pressure that is used by the altimeter in the aircraft to let the pilot know the altitude of the plane above the ground. Upon getting new data from the ATC or FBO, the pilot quickly changes the altimeter by dialing in the current pressure readings. Only then can he have the confidence that the altimeter is accurately displaying his altitude. With changes in the barometer, the altimeter can be off by hundreds of feet in short order. Virtually every communication between the pilot and the ATC includes a current barometric reading. Failing to update the altimeter can be disastrous for the pilot, causing him to misjudge the height of mountains or power lines or the drop in elevation on a landing approach. Our pilots, Bob and Gil, constantly updated our altimeters with new reports of barometric readings from ATCs along the way while we were over US soil. Unfortunately, there were no ATCs in Mexico where we were going. We would not have the benefit of knowing for sure what our altitude above ground really was once we crossed into Mexico.

The carrying capacity of each plane is determined by the manufacturer and is not to be exceeded. If more weight is attempted, the plane will not fly according to specs; for example, rate of climb, speed, and stall speed will be affected negatively. Bob and Gil, responsible pilots, carefully calculated the load for each of our planes. With the tanks full of avgas, the weights of the people and their luggage were added and compared to the published specifications. Since the six of us were all full-sized adults, not much leeway was left for luggage. Having weighed the luggage and the passengers, Bob and Gil gave the go-ahead for the flight. Each plane was within a few pounds of the allowed maximum limit.

The panels in our planes were full of gauges pertaining to engine operations, oil pressure, engine heat, exhaust gas temperature, RPMs, propeller pitch, electrical output, etc. There was also an array of instruments pertaining to the plane itself: fuel remaining, flap position, orientation (climb or descend) and banking (left or right), stall indicator, landing gear retracted and locked, cabin temperature, headlights on/off, safety lights on/off, strobe light (for extra safety) on/off, and a glide slope indicator. A standard magnetic compass stood on top of the dashboard, to be used if the aircraft lost all power and the pilot had to rely on it for direction.

Right in the middle of the panel were two nav-comms, identical radios stacked one on top of the other. These were the only instruments that were important enough to have duplicates for the sake of redundancy. Navigation-communication radios were expensive but formed the heart of the flying experience. They permitted the pilot to communicate with ATCs and FBOs. They also permitted the pilot to speak to other airplanes. Voice communication was an important factor in flight safety. The radio’s ability to send a clear signal was critical, and the farther it could reach, the better.

The headphones worn by the pilot completed the effective communication system. The airplane cockpit is very noisy, with the engine located only a short distance in front of the pilot, so being able to hear instructions and speak clearly is critical. Air traffic controllers tend to speak very rapidly, as they are very busy. They like to be heard and understood the first time and get frustrated when a pilot asks them to repeat information. Fortunately, Bob’s Cessna and our Mooney had high-quality dual radios and headsets.

With two radios, a pilot could tune in to two different frequencies, so with one switch on his headset, he could toggle between two different conversations. For instance, he could be monitoring chatter between a nearby ATC and other air traffic while the other radio was pre-tuned to a frequency of another airplane/pilot he wanted to monitor. Turning the dials to obtain a frequency had to be done carefully, as each frequency was composed of five digits, like 122.89. A dialing mistake would not connect the pilot to his intended audience.

The other function of the nav-comm radio is navigation; that is, it serves as a tool to help the pilot stay on his planned course, or at least to help him find out where he is if he gets off course. It operates by receiving a signal from the tower of an AM radio station, but instead of playing music, the radio determines the compass direction of that tower from the current location of the aircraft. The pilot can then look at his chart and determine the direction to that particular tower. The pilot selects a tower that he thinks is near and inputs the frequency of that AM station by turning the knobs on the nav-comm. How does he know that frequency? The frequency of every AM tower in America is published on the chart in small...