New Guy

There's a new guy working in the tower. Oh, that won't mean much to most of you, but this is a small town and the tower chief, whom everyone calls "Tower Dan" is a good buddy. For example, I have seen him and his wife in some pretty outrageous Hallowe'en costumes. So a new guy needs to be treated with care.

I heard the new guy while taxiing out for my weekly commute. (This is not Frank's epic commute we read about at N631S, but still...).

New Guy: "Taxi to runway 3 via A and F, give way to the Mooney passing right to left."

Me: "3 via A and F, Mooney in sight."

Mooney? Oh, look, there's Jon, just leaving his hangar half a mile away. There would be time to do a runup (nothing was behind me) while I waited. Rather than chastise the new guy for making me wait, I had all of my pretakeoff checklists done before Jon waved on his way by.

So I start following Jon to runway 3. I'm thinking there's a good chance that he'll block my way while he does a runup, and I have a class to teach. (Yes, there's a touch of get-there-itis here.) I'm coming up fast on intersection D, 6000 feet TORA. This is the time to exercise the judgment I mentioned in the previous post, because I could get a big gain for minimal risk.

Me: "Ground, we'd like to depart from D." I was going to do my first intersection departure in years!

New Guy: "Taxi to runway 3 at D." I'm already there, so I quickly switch to tower.

Me: "56X, ready runway 3 at D, straight out."

New Guy: "Clear for takeoff."

I was almost clear of the Class D before Jon departed.

I wonder what the new guy will wear at Hallowe'en?