Tunnel-vision: a solid example

[Jan Olieslagers]

Today I made a grand excursion, three hops of +/- 30 minutes each, give and take, and straight home from the furthest point. The first destination was known to me, i.e. I had been there before, one time flying and a few times driving. The other two destinations were completely unknown, but well-documented.

My blooper came at destination 2: as it is a PPR field, like most round here, I duly called, and had some trouble getting an answer. The two phone numbers on the club's website did not answer; but I found a third number where, after passing from one person to a second to a third, I was told that yes ok I could come, and likely it was the 12 runway in use but I could check that for myself on the signal square. Person apoligised for not being at the a/d - sounded indeed like might well have been in bed, or at breakfast at best.

So off I went, found the field after a not so brief search, then made my best effort of checking the signal square without overflying the local nimby's - well documented - and found indeed the 12 active. Some awkward circuiting to get in the downwind, made a quite presentable landing, taxied to the bar/clubhouse/C and shut down. Wondering all the while that it was so QUIET. It was not a perfect day for flying, but quite doable, yet here was a nice airfield with +/- 30 based planes and nothing was moving.
I soon found out why: the field WAS NOT OPEN! And indeed the signal square showed a more than obvious yellow St Andrews-cross on a red background.

So I had been peering frantically for that signal square, but only to get the bit of information I wanted - never reading it in full. How's that for tunnel vision?

For those interested, it all worked out well enough. Soon after my impromptu landing, there finally turned up someone who could legally open the field, so that a little time-twiddling in the logs settled the matter. Could have been worse, though.

[G-F0RC3]

Well a lot of people look at things but don't actually see. I imagine the psychology behind your example is that you were so convinced that the field was open (having spoken to the guy on the phone) that you weren't looking for confirmation of that. You - therefore - subconciously ignored that there might be other useful information on the signal square and only took in the information you expected/wanted to see. Probably made more difficult by the fact that you had other things on your mind other than actually looking for the information - such as controlling the aircraft at reasonably low level etc.

Glad it all turned out well in the end.

[piperarcher]

I did something similar on Saturday. After postponing a trip to Belgium, I thought where would I like to go instead. Ah, I know, Bristol Filton - I can can continue my quest to visit as many Concordes as possible, and land there before the place closes down at the end of the year. I spent a good deal of time getting excited by this and planning it.

We spent Saturday morning in the plane trying to get through to Ops at Filton. No answer. Tried again, still no answer. I found an email address so emailed them and said we will contact on Radio when nearby. Just before lining up, we called them once more on the phone. Still no joy. I had a look at the plate once more and there in fairly clear terms was the line "Op hrs: PPR Mon - Fri 0630 -1900" :*

Now, I had read all the other important details like circuit height etc, but my tunnel vision and assumption that no large airport like Filton would be closed on a Saturday, led me to miss this vital piece of information. We decided to route to Gloucester in the end, which I have to say is a very nice Airport indeed :)