SNA tower deals with earthquake this afternoon...

[TheDave001]

so here's the back story...

I passed my private pilot checkride yesterday! Took my dad up as my first passenger this afternoon, Easter Sunday, April 4th. Of course we forgot the video camera in the car... we were to excited to go flying, so this video is made from the LiveATC.net feed archive from SNA.

We were just on our way back to John Wayne from Fullerton Airport, Fullerton tower handed us off to So Cal approach, and we were making our way along when the controller came on and said something like... "we ah... well, we just had a really significant earthquake right now, contact john Wayne tower and make sure they're operating." Turns out they felt it pretty good down there, Socal Tracon is in San Diego, closer to where the epicenter was.

At that point I was looking out the window waiting to see gas mains bursting into flames along with the second coming of Christ... it being Easter and all... but things looked pretty normal from 2500 feet so I gave SNA tower a call. This video picks up shortly before I checked in, earthquake in progress. it must have been an interesting ride up in the tower. I chime in about three quarters of the way through - diamond 202LS.

All in all, pretty memorable first flight as a private pilot.

[Phlux]

Fascinating stuff, great post and congratulations on the certificate!

[jmx53]

Congrats on the PPL certificate!

RE: the quake, I remember remember reports from pilots during a quake (don't remember if it was Northridge 1994 or Whittier Narrows 1987) that were talking about dust rising from landslides in the San Gabriel mountains.

[rekno13]

Nice post and congratulations!

Question, what is left traffic? I usually listen to JFK tower so, 2nd time I've heard left/right traffic.

[onesierrawhiskey]

Right or left traffic is determined by the direction of turn of the initial crosswind leg after flying the upwind leg, in relation to the active runway. Left traffic requires a left crosswind turn, right tfc a right crosswind.

From 7110.65T!
TRAFFIC PATTERN- The traffic flow that is
prescribed for aircraft landing at, taxiing on, or taking
off from an airport. The components of a typical
traffic pattern are upwind leg, crosswind leg,
downwind leg, base leg, and final approach.

a. Upwind Leg- A flight path parallel to the
landing runway in the direction of landing.

b. Crosswind Leg- A flight path at right angles to
the landing runway off its upwind end.

c. Downwind Leg- A flight path parallel to the
landing runway in the direction opposite to landing.
The downwind leg normally extends between the
crosswind leg and the base leg.

d. Base Leg- A flight path at right angles to the
landing runway off its approach end. The base leg
normally extends from the downwind leg to the
intersection of the extended runway centerline.

e. Final Approach. A flight path in the direction of
landing along the extended runway centerline. The
final approach normally extends from the base leg to
the runway. An aircraft making a straight‐in approach
VFR is also considered to be on final approach.

[rekno13]

Thank you onesierrawhiskey!

[TheDave001]

Thanks everyone! Couldn't be more thrilled to finally have the certificate in hand...

@rekno13, onesierrawhiskey pretty much got it covered... another easy way to think of it is the direction you'll be making all your turns in the pattern... if you're taking off and tower tells you to "make left traffic" all your turns are to the left, if they say "make right traffic" your turns would be to the right.

Left traffic is considered "standard", but many runways use a right pattern, either to keep planes from overflying something on the ground, or to keep planes out of each others way at airports with parallel runways. Sectional charts and terminal charts will tell you if a runway has a right traffic pattern... if there isn't any traffic pattern indication for a runway, it's left traffic... From the pilots seat on the left side of the plane, its much easier to see the approach end of the runway when you're turning downwind to base while making left traffic.

Sometimes when you're approaching the airport, tower will give you an abbreviated pattern, telling you something like, "enter left base for runway XX"