FAA History Lesson -- November 27, 2013

I am happy to report the only item in the FAA's history that mentions Thanksgiving is the following one from November 15, 2013. Let's keep it that way shall we?

For the non-controllers reading this, the day before Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest day of the year for air traffic controllers. We always pray for really good weather...or really bad weather. The rationale is (of course) safety. We want weather good enough for the inexperienced (or rusty) pilots. Or we want weather so bad that the only ones that will consider flying are the professional pilots. In short "got-to-get-there-itis" is the number one cause of accidents in aviation. Y'all be careful out there.

From the Update to FAA Historical Chronology 1997-2012 (A .pdf file)

"November 15, 2007: President George W. Bush announced an agreement between the FAA and DoD that temporarily released military airspace for Thanksgiving holiday travel. Under the airspace agreement, the Department of the Navy released airspace, above 24,000 feet, off the east coast from Maine to Florida. FAA was allowed to use that airspace from 4 p.m. eastern standard time on Wednesday, November 21, to 6 a.m. eastern standard time on Monday, November 26. The Navy continued to control airspace off the east coast below 23,000 feet for training operations."

For my long-time readers, you might remember this little piece of history happened shortly after I retired and I was able to weigh in on the subject. And thanks to James Fallows, a lot of people got to read about it.

Don Brown
November 27, 2013

The Need For a Photography Park

My wife and I went on a weekend trip with another couple to Carters Lake, in the North Georgia mountains. As always, the place we pick is a compromise. The girls want to shop. I want to take photographs. My friend wants to fish. Carters Lake is near Ellijay and looked like fun for everyone.

Carters Lake is a pretty place. It's an Army Corp of Engineers project. That made the encroachment of private homes somewhat surprising to me. Trophy houses in the mountains ceased to surprise me a long time ago. What did surprise me was how close they were to a Federal facility. The approach roads to the various picnic areas, fishing docks and boat ramps were littered with expensive homes. And they were, of course, visible from all over the lake.



I'll never accept the stupidity and arrogance of trophy houses. No one comes to the mountains to enjoy the view marred by trophy houses on the hills. Yet everyone wants to own (or rent) a house they know will ruin the view of others. And they'll keep building them until they have spoiled the very beauty of the place that attracted people to the area in the first place. Oh well. Let's get back to the subject at hand.

After arriving the first afternoon (check in time was 3 PM), I'm stuck with the typical photographer's dilemma: I need to find a place for the rapidly-approaching sunset and find a place for the sunrise. You have to think about the details. After sunset it's dark. To get to a place before sunrise, you have to be able to find it in the dark. There's nothing like getting up two hours before sunrise, driving (or walking) to an unfamiliar place, stumbling around in the dark, waiting for many minutes in the cold, and then finding out you've chosen a horrible place for a sunrise picture. Another detail that escapes non-photographers is that the Sun "moves". It doesn't set at 270º West and 90º East all year. Currently (around here) it rises at 115º and sets at 244º. (The U.S. Naval Observatory will calculate it for your location.) I carry a compass with me wherever I go so I can make an educated guess as to what might make a good sunrise/sunset location.

The trail from our rental cabin to the lake is about a 10 minute hike. Not a problem. My buddy and I take the short walk to the lake. The "big" view is to the north (with the trophy houses on the mountains) and a more limited view to the southeast. What are you going to do? By the time we unpack, grab our gear and walk to the lake, it's too late to get anywhere else for the sunset. I'll make the best of it and maybe it will work out for the sunrise. My friend fishes until the sunset and we both enjoy the view as the streetlights start coming on in the dusk. Nothing reveals the beauty of nature quite like a mercury-vapor lamp. (Or sodium vapor if you prefer.)



Sunrise was a little better than sunset. One thing you can say about a "little" view; there's less room for trophy houses.

The next day, we did a little scouting for better fishing/photography places. "Scouting" is an ugly process. You waste an awful lot of time and gas. I guess that keeps the guides (both fishing and photography) employed. (I'm pretty sure you could find a fishing guide for Carters Lake. Not so sure about a photography guide.) To make a long story short, neither Doll Mountain Recreation Area nor Harris Branch Recreation Area provided a place that was promising (that was also open.)

Once again, we were out of time so we just drove blindly down the road to whatever was next around the lake and run into this sign.



In case you were wondering, sunrise was at 7:18 (42 minutes before the park opens) and sunset was at 5:30 (30 minutes after it closes.) It was a nice sunset but there wasn't even a place to pull over off the road from which to photograph it. We drove home in the dusk dejected -- fishless and photoless.

I hope the need for a photography park is obvious from this little story. I also hope it's obvious that the needs of photographers can coexist with other park users. You can fish in a lake designed for photography. You can picnic in a park designed for photography. As a matter of fact, these things would only enhance a photography park. Sailboats are photogenic. People playing in a park are a favorite subject of some photographers. Kites look spectacular in photographs. People riding horses? Yes please.

But all parks are not conducive to photography. As a matter of fact, many seem designed to prevent decent photographs. Wether it's utility wires strung willy-nilly, trophy houses littering the view, blindingly-white boat buoys visible from two miles away on the lake, day-glow yellow trash cans, reflective trail markers or sickly-green street lights....there are hundreds of fixable things that would make a park more photogenic. But that wasn't the most important lesson I learned this weekend.

I didn't get a great photograph. My friend didn't catch a single fish. But the weekend was deemed a resounding success. Our wives found tons of junk to buy. If I have to make a photography park commercially viable, I'll have to work trophy houses and an outlet mall into the master plan.

Don Brown
November 26, 2013

FAA History Lesson -- November 19, 2001

From the Update to FAA Historical Chronology 1997-2012 (A .pdf file)

" President George W. Bush signed into law the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (Public Law 107-71), which, among other things, called for the establishment of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the Department of Transportation, to be responsible for security at airports. The act also broadened AIP eligibility to include costs for additional security-related activity required by law or the Secretary of Transportation. The period of eligibility for such projects was for FY 2002 and could include only those additional costs incurred from September 11, 2001, to September 30, 2002. February 13, 2002, TSA took over responsibility for aviation security from FAA. (See October 18, 2001; December 6, 2001.)"

Don Brown
November 19, 2013

Sky Raft

Sky Raft, a photo by Get The Flick on Flickr.

Practice makes perfect.

Don Brown
November 18, 2013

Photography Park -- Economic Data

One of the things I'll need to "sell" this photography park idea is the economic portion of it. So do me a favor and be on the lookout. If you see some economic statistics that might be of interest, do me a favor and just pass along a link to me.

Here's a "for instance" I stumbled upon the other day when I was looking for a chuck wagon cook off.

Cowboys and Chuckwagon Cooking

"Pigeon Forge Mayor, David Wear met with the City Hospitably Association stating, "Every business sector was up having a phenomenal year during 2012."  Gross receipts total were $905.8 million for last years tax revenues breaking their previous record of $872.5 million 2007 prior to the recession."

"Pigeon Forge, with a population around 6,000 attracts over 10 million tourist each year nested on the banks of the Smokey Mountain range."

If you stumble across some stats like that in your daily reading, do me a favor and email me a link to the web page. You can find my email under the "View My Complete Profile" link on the righthand side of the page, or if you're comfortable enough just typing it in, I'm still using atcsafety@ the gmail domain (amongst about 5 other addresses.)

Specifically, I'm looking for the economic impact of:

Photography -- the entire industry, outdoor photography, professional photography and/or amateur photography.

Parks -- Pigeon Forge (for those that don't know) is a gateway town to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. A billion dollars for being located next to a park tends to get the Chamber of Commerce's interest.

Thanks for whatever help you can provide.

Don Brown
November 16, 2013

A Photography Park

Some of you may have caught the hint a week or so ago. It doesn't matter. I think I have hit upon a simple -- yet unique -- idea that I would like to pursue. And under the heading of "no good deed goes unpunished", you my faithful readers get to follow along as I think out loud on my blog.

Come now, you've followed me from Safety Rep to retiree. You can follow along this path too. Because, the more I explore this idea, the bigger the possibilities seem. The more avenues I see it can go down. The more possibilities of all sorts.

I want to build the first park dedicated to outdoor photography. That's your first challenge (should you care to check.) Is there another park purpose-built for photography? In a quick (and very casual) search I didn't find one. I'm all for being the fist guy with the idea (and this post is indeed my claim stake saying, "Hey! Look at me! I was first!). But it isn't really important to the idea whether I'm first or not. And, as you'll quickly realize, anybody could steal this idea. Instantly. So what? So what if every single State in the Union wound up with their own photography park? That would be a good thing, right?

So, back to the idea. The photographers that follow me already have this idea in their head. There's no need to even explain it. They get it. Instantly. The General Public needs a little help. "Aren't all parks photography parks?" That's understandable. So here's an explanation. Follow along for a moment.

I photograph the sunrise every single morning (that my body will let me.) I'm fortunate enough to have a neighborhood where I can do that. But suppose I wanted to photograph the sunrise in the local park? Most parks are closed. I need to be on location one hour before sunrise. A lot of parks don't open until after sunrise. A lot of parks close at "dusk". That's the first thing that would be different about a photography park -- the hours. You'd be able to get in long before the sun came up and stay until long after it had gone down.

Quick, if I was to come spend the night with you and said, "I need a place to shoot the sunset", where would you take me? What location? Unless you're a photographer (or happen to be very, very lucky) I bet any place you take me would have either a utility wire or a streetlight marring the picture. Especially on the East Coast, it is hard to find a vista without a street light in it. In a park built for photography, there won't be an overhead wire. Or a streetlight. Getting the picture?

I've broached this idea with a few people already. I talked to a painter today. He, like photographers, immediately "got it". If a park is created to be "photogenic" you can be assured that painters will enjoy the scenes just as much. I'd be interested in hearing whether you "get it". Or not. I don't know where this is going to take me, but I'm excited about the journey. I've got a hundred ideas about it already but I think the first thing I'll need to look at is non-profit vs. not-for-profit. I don't know a thing about it. If you do, I'd love to hear from you. And then there's the fundamental problem of all ideas -- what do you call the thing? Well talk more. A lot more.

Don Brown
November 15, 2013

FAA History Lesson -- November 15, 2001

From the Update to FAA Historical Chronology 1997-2012 (A .pdf file)

" FAA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made a new tool available to convey advanced storm information to pilots. The National Convective Weather Forecast (NCWF) product, designed and developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory, in Lexington, Massachusetts, provided pilots with a plotted map depicting the current location of convective hazards and where they would be an hour later. Pilots, federal aviation weather briefers, air traffic control specialists, and airline dispatchers who routinely made operational decisions associated with thunderstorm hazards routinely were turning to the NCWF for essential information."

If you'd like to see my opinion on how this bit of history played out, read this.

Don Brown
November 15, 2013

FAA History Lesson -- November 11, 2008

From the Update to FAA Historical Chronology 1997-2012 (A .pdf file)

" The new Indianapolis International Airport opened. Construction funds came from $120 million in federal grants, airport revenue bonds, and passenger head taxes. More than 1,100 residences were bought for the $220 million project, which started in 1987. Parallel runways opened in the 1990s, and after 9/11, the terminal design changed to accommodate improved security. A new air traffic control tower and TRACON opened in 2006."

Don Brown
November 11, 2013