Page 14 - TNT Dec 2017

Jet Journal
I See the Traffic
And Its Wake
Wake turbulence can be dangerous at any altitude or phase of flight. Know how to visualize its location – and what to do if you find yourself in an upset. by Thomas P. Turner
There’s an Alert Area over my home airport on the northeast side of Wichita, Kansas. There are no restrictions to civilian IFR or VFR flight in an Alert Area; they exist, according to definition, “to inform nonparticipating pilots of areas that contain a high volume of pilot training operations,
or an unusual type of aeronautical activity that they might not otherwise expect to encounter. Pilots are advised to be particularly alert when flying in these areas.” Alert Area A-683 warns pilots about extensive visual traffic at McConnell Air Force Base, most notably, KC-135R heavy tankers at this, one of the U.S. Air Force’s so-called “supertanker bases.”
Every time I look up and see a tanker fly in McConnell’s visual pattern that take it almost directly over the airport where I’m based, or I sight a KC-135 on upwind, downwind or base leg when I’m in the air, I think not only about traffic avoidance, but also about avoiding that airplane’s very significant wake turbulence as well.
Some pilots might not realize that when you are in visual meteorological conditions you are responsible not only for avoiding a collision with other airplanes, you are also required to maneuver
12 • TWIN & TURBINE
December 2017