HARRISON FORD: 'I'M THE SCHMUCK WHO LANDED ON THE TAXIWAY'

tmz ^ | 3/24/2017 | tmz

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

There is someone here whose husband is a pilot who has flown into that place. Said it can be confusing.

I learned to fly at the same airport. It's not all that confusing.

[Thank You Rush]

Distracted by a plane on the runway? What did he expect?

My husband and I owned a flight operation at JWA for 25 years and this is just plain stupid. The guy is a doofus. He could just as easily have plowed into the hangar rows which are adjacent to the taxiway - one of which is where we had our flight operation.

Why would he have a Temporary Airman Certificate? That’s what the FAA issues when a person takes a check ride/passes it and before their permanent certificate is issued. Did he say he lost his pilot certificate? I can’t believe he’d gone for another rating that would have resulted in a Temporary Certificate.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

It's my understanding that John Wayne Airport is among the busiest,and most important,airports in Southern California.Several of the country's largest airlines operate flights to ORD,DFW,SEA and ATL.It's not difficult for me to imagine the chaos that a light aircraft could cause at an airport like this.

Yes, it's busy with commercial traffic, but it also has a lot of general aviation traffic with several flight schooles operating there as well as a whole bunch of privately-owned airplanes.

IOW, the tower is used to mixing both types of aircraft without chaos.

It has two runways, 20L, which is 2800' long and is used by the putt-putts, and 20R, 5200' long, which is used by the commercial traffic and the putt-putts.

He was supposed to be landing on 20L. He has flown in there on more than one occasion and was clearly distracted by something that day that took his mind off the task at hand, in this case, landing his airplane.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Did he say he lost his pilot certificate?

Actually, he said on the phone call to the tower that he'd lost his airman certificate, which I took to mean he'd misplaced it and was waiting for the replacement to arrive.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Full FAA physicals required every 6 months.

For an 1st Class, (ATP) the medical certificate lasts 12 months if younger than age 40, 6 months over 40.

See: Duration of an FAA Pilot Medical Certificate

[fireman15]

My personal preference is to avoid big busy airports. We fly our planes for fun and do not need the aggravation. When my wife and I fly into the Los Angeles area we like to land at Santa Paula which is basically the last uncontrolled airport as you are approaching from the North. We also don’t mind flying into Camarillo which is has a tower but is not very busy.

As far as what happened to Ford... this is much ado about nothing. He didn’t hit anything: he wasn’t close to hitting anything; no one got hurt or killed; nothing got damaged... who in the heck cares? I have had closer calls out in the middle of nowhere.

[expat2]

I once set up my final approach for a taxiway parallel to the runway, but I quickly realized it and did a jog over to line up on the runway. It’s hard for me to understand how he couldn’t do the same since the markings are normally quite different.
I suspect that he either had a brain fart or was getting a gratuitous BJ. You don’t get distracted on final approach to landing.

[unlearner]

I see what you did there.

[SkyPilot]

I agree with everything in your post.

Flying has a magic all its own, but it can also turn into aggravation, and even a nightmare, quickly.

I actually feel bad for Harrison Ford. I just checked the UK newsites for news on the terrorist bombing in France, and the front page has the Ford story. Talk about an global rectal exam. Enough is enough.

He has done alot of general aviation, and he seems to live his life quietly and with dignity.

Ford crashed one of his helos (they are tough to fly), and the Ryan ST3KR - during which he performed heroically in my opinion. He avoided homes and roads filled with cars and got down on that golf course. Plus, he saved a kids life once by finding him during search and rescue missions he flew himself in his helicopter.

We seem to Judge Roy Beans all over FR. "Hang Him!"

Give me a break.

[Thank You Rush]

“”I learned to fly at the same airport. It’s not all that confusing. “”

My husband’s several log books are full of student’s names he’d trained and none of them ever pulled such a trick - at JWA or anywhere else. A number of them went on to obtain other ratings and ended up at airlines after building their time flight instructing.

No one in our flight operation was allowed to fly to Catalina or into LAX without a checkout at those places first. Two accidents by members in all those years and that was caused by “density altitude” at North Las Vegas and one at Kern River. JWA might sound intimidating to some because at one time it was THE busiest in the nation but no longer as I understand it. We ourselves used to fly into LAX to pick up family flying in there.

[unlearner]

“What happened to Ford could have happened to any of us.”

It couldn’t happen to me.

Unfortunately I can not afford my own personal airplane, jet, or helo.

That, AND I don’t have my pilot’s license or any experience flying an aircraft.

;-)

[Thank You Rush]

“”Actually, he said on the phone call to the tower that he’d lost his airman certificate,””

I heard “Temporary Airman Certificate” and if he had one of those because he lost his pilot certificate, that doesn’t say much for his presence of mind. I don’t know anyone who ever lost such an important piece of paper - it would be like a veteran losing his DD214..I worked for years at an office building on JWA where B727 Flight Engineers were trained and some of those students (a ton of foreigners) were lulus but they came to training with all the proper paperwork - no excuses. Have to say the only thing they forgot to bring (again foreigners) was antiperspirant...and they always remembered their “cologne”.....

[SgtBob]

I don’t understand such mistakes. Like the C-17 pilot that landed at Knight Airport in Tampa, FL instead of MacDill AFB. Shreveport Regional, and Shreveport Downtown are very similar, and have a runway lined up much like the strips in Tampa. I can take off from DTN, turn 1 degree left, and be on final approach for SHV...but I have never mistaken one for the other, let alone landing on a taxiway.

He needs a flight review.

[SgtBob]

I don’t understand such mistakes. Like the C-17 pilot that landed at Knight Airport in Tampa, FL instead of MacDill AFB. Shreveport Regional, and Shreveport Downtown are very similar, and have a runway lined up much like the strips in Tampa. I can take off from DTN, turn 1 degree left, and be on final approach for SHV...but I have never mistaken one for the other, let alone landing on a taxiway.

He needs a flight review.

[SgtBob]

Agreed, but at least a review, and check ride is in order.

[USNBandit]

Runway 2 left and right at John Wayne are different lengths and would appear staggered with the right threshold being further away. To the left of runway 2 L is a parallel taxiway that runs the full length of 2 Left. Captain Solo obviously mistook the taxiway for 2 Left and landed there.

There have been some geezer accusations based upon him identifying Runway 1 on the radio, but that runway used to be runway 1 and changed recently due to change in magnetic variation.

Still a major mistake. I wouldn't get too upset if the FAA demanded a medical evaluation or pulled his ticket. He could have easily hit a taxiing aircraft on that parallel.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

He hasn’t been the same after losing his copilot to mange and being forced to fly Solo........

Snort!! Touché!

[SkyPilot]

Absolutely.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

My husband’s several log books are full of student’s names he’d trained and none of them ever pulled such a trick - at JWA or anywhere else.

FWIW, there's no such airport code as 'JWA'. That airport is SNA, a.k.a. Santa Ana.

JWA might sound intimidating to some because at one time it was THE busiest in the nation...

I seriously doubt SNA was at any time in its existence the 'busiest' airport in the nation. Busier than LAX with four runways? Busier than ATL? LAX? ORD? DFW? JFK? DEN? SFO?

Hardly. It's a busy little airport, but hardly the busiest in the U.S.A. (See: List of the busiest airports in the United States)

[fireman15]

You have inspired me to rant about some of the other posters in this thread. I am assuming that many are from people who either don’t fly at all or have a bunch of hours on a laptop or model airplane.

We have lived on a small airport for over twenty years. We have two airplanes and four hang-gliders. We love getting our feet off the ground. Unfortunately, we have neighbors who work for the FAA on both sides of us. They will hang you for a paperwork offense just as quickly as they will hang you for actually putting others at risk... maybe quicker.

Some of the comments I have read here remind me of the way my FAA neighbors view the world. I couldn’t care less if someone has their pilot’s license or their temporary pilots license with them in their airplane. What a joke. Do we really have regulars here who give a rat’s butt about such things?

The FAA’s involvement in aviation has held development back by generations. Regulations they claim are for safety are usually for control. Unelected bureaucrats control everything with an iron hand that does very little for safety and a whole lot of restricting advancements. Without the FAA we would be so far ahead of where we are now that general aviation flying would be more similar to the Jetsons than its current state where we are flying airplanes that haven’t actually advanced since the late 1940s only with modern electronic navigation aids and radios.

How far have affordable piston engine airplanes really advanced since the Beach Bonanza was first sold to the public in 1947? How much have general aviation airplanes advanced since the Cessna 170 in 1948, which evolved into the Cessna 172, or the Piper Comanche in 1957. The FAA has been the primary impediment to improvements in general aviation aircraft over the last 70 years. All one has to do to understand why is to read some of the comments from people on this forum. People worry about nonsense and so do many in the FAA.