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Just another day at Oakland


Conrad

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I have a little bit of a love hate relationship with KOAK. It's been a difficult time learning to fly - in a Mooney - out of an airport in class C airspace nestled under the 3000 shelf of a Bravo. I rented a hangar at one point and never put my airplane in it because it was rusting, falling apart, and my the plane was going to be far safer outside. Keeping a North Field badge active is a pain, and mine is expired right now so my Mooney has been on the ramp at what is now Signature.

That said, as far as I know there's actually no comparable airport that combines GA and commercial service so closely in such close proximity to a major urban area and without so much as a landing fee. The view just from the pattern is breathtaking.

And then there's days like the day I looked up from reading charts in my parked plane to see an Airbus A330 wing over several stories over my head. There are days like today when instead of sharing the ramp with flight school airplanes and Fedex, it's the Canadian Demonstration CF-18 (I literally had to taxi around it), the Breitling Jet team, the Blue Angels, the Lucas Oil Pitts, a P41, and two F-22's. I keep wondering if there has been some kind of mistake. Who would let me walk around and much less operate heavy machinery in such close proximity to [back of the napkin math based on wikipedia numbers] at least 503 million dollars worth of the world's top military equipment?

Aviation lives. There is magic out there!
 

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Edited by Conrad
when
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  • 4 years later...

Know what you mean about KOAK. I used to teach at Sierra Academy there, and then flew for Cal-Air, canceled checks at night while in college. It is a great airport, well laid out with the ability to mix GA and the heavies without it going sideways. One of my favorite things when I instructed with instrument students was doing repeated NDB approaches to RWY 29 when the field below minimums. This was before CAT III and before Southwest so we basically had the 29 complex all to ourselves. The NDB took you down to 250'. HAT, the lowest NDB in the nation. Since the approach was over water, the student could mess up pretty badly and no real danger. We would do approach after approach to a missed then box around for another. When I flew checks, and 27 was tight in fog, I could always go over to 29 with the blow torch ALS lighting and get on the ground. Lot's of great history there. One character I will never forget is Ed Daly, owner of World Airways. He helped fly the last flights out of Saigon. If you knocked on the door of his trailer and he liked you he would invite you in. You would sit on a sectional couch and he would pour you a scotch and regale stories that are legendary. One of a kind. An aviation legend

Here is a sample. Ed himself beating people off the rear stairs of a 727

 

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Just now, GeeBee said:

It was also a very heavy 360 people, they were carrying a lot of gold.

It really was, "if you can close the doors, it will fly" airplane.

 

That's just it, the doors weren't closed. The rear airstair was deployed and cargo doors were open, in addition to the bi-fold landing gear doors. This was one "dirty" aircraft.

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