Art Bridge: Resist authority only for very good reason

Submitted image##The original Runway 31R approach ordered for Art Bridge at Portland-Hillsboro Airport, on the left above, would have him crossing the busy 31L approach, potentially to disastrous effect. The revised order, on the right above, avoided the danger.

By ART BRIDGE 
Veteran military and civilian pilot

The strident voice of authority, or the still, quiet voice of reason?

In flight training and re-training, we learn about the pitfalls of “resistance to authority.” The simplest example is when the sober weather forecaster warns, “visual flight rules not recommended,” and a pilot relies on them anyway, with disastrous results.

Another example is when a nonchalant pilot blows off the temporary flight restriction used last weekend to protect the McMinnville air show. After endangering the demonstration airplanes upon landing, he has to explain to an FAA investigator why he shouldn’t lose his pilot’s license.

This brief note points to a subtle difference: the risks of always doing what you’re told.

Several weeks ago, I needed to take our Cessna 182 up to an avionics repair outfit at Hillsboro’s Class D airport to have an upgraded altitude indicator installed. It was “clear and a million,” so it seemed as if dozens of airplanes were out and about.

Approach squeezed us in for “flight following” for our short jaunt to Portland-Hillsboro Airport.

It features three runways, two parallel and one crossing.

A 6,600-foot runway, 31L, handles students in Cessna 172s, along with helicopters and commercial jet traffic. A parallel 3,600-foot runway, 31R, handles traffic for Hillsboro Aviation, our destination in the upper part of the airport, to the left in the schematic.

Coming in from the south, I reported in to tower, “Ten miles south with Information Hotel (the current weather, runways and altimeter), requesting a right base for 31 Right. We are going to Hillsboro Aviation.”

Tower responded, “Roger, N2078R, make a Left Downwind entry for Runway 31 Right.”

A few seconds passed as I let this sink into my mind. By then we were five miles away, still at 3,000 feet.

I responded, “Tower, do I understand this to be a “left downwind entry for 31 Right? N12345.”

That drew a strident and exasperated retort: “N12345, that’s what I said: a left downwind for 31 Right!”

By now, kind reader, you may divine the approaching crisis. Doing what I was told would take me across the final approach for 31 Left, the parallel runway busy with students and other traffic.

I would not have done it. I would not have traded my life and the lives of others to obey a tower controller’s error.

“Unable” was on the tip of my tongue when the observant Tower supervisor stepped in. In neutral tone, he said, “N12345, proceed over the airport and make a left teardrop entry to a right downwind for 31 Right.”

I did what I was told. It was right and safe.

I would not want to create a crisis, just because someone in authority told me to do something I knew to be dangerous. We respect authority, but revere reason.

McMinnville retiree Art Bridge flew military fighter jet missions pre-career, took up civilian Angel Fight missions post-career, and still flies for pleasure on the side.