Pilotage

Writer Mark R. Twombly lives in southwest Florida.

When I was no taller than a prop blade, my father used to sing an Oscar Brand song made famous by Arthur Godfrey, I believe, that began, "Teterboro Tower, this is Piper Two-O-Two, I'm turning on my downwind leg, my fabric's come unglued...." It was a strange but funny little song that gave my father a twinkle in his eye and made for a permanent, pleasant image of Teterboro Airport (TEB) in my mind.

I lived in northern New Jersey from 1980 to 1983 and occasionally flew out of Teterboro, but I haven't been there since. That is, until a recent trip from southwest Florida.

Too bad Piper Two-O-Two's landing didn't end happily ("I'm sorry that I cracked her up and messed your pretty field..."), but then again, it saved him from buying fuel — $4.41 a gallon was what I was able to negotiate, and that was with a half-buck-a-gallon discount for a minimum 500-gallon upload of Jet-A.

Ah, well, I suppose you have to expect big-city prices at one of the nation's oldest (first flight in 1919) and most important general aviation airports, one with an attention-diverting final-approach view of the Empire State Building.

Given its premier location a mere 12-mile expensive limo ride from New York City, Teterboro could go by the name The Big Apple Executive Metro Business Center International Gateway, or some such nonsense. In fact, it was and still is named for New Jersey's second-smallest town, which consists of fewer than 10 houses plus the airport's 827 acres. There's something wonderful about that.

Not so wonderful is the attention being paid to the airport by the regulatory minded. A combination of a plan to launch a scheduled charter flight service, steadily increasing jet traffic, and some recent high-profile accidents involving airplanes larger than a Piper Two-O-Two has prompted calls for restrictions.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the airport, is proposing higher landing fees, lowering the maximum aircraft weight to 80,000 pounds, and making mandatory the existing voluntary midnight-to-6-a.m. curfew (10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for noisier Stage 2 aircraft). A state senator wants to reduce annual operations, now more than 200,000, by 25 percent; planned developments off the approach end of Runway 1 would pose obstruction hazards; and Meadowlands wetlands improvements to the south could result in more bird activity on the approach to 1.

No doubt the debate over what should or should not happen at Teterboro will play out in typical New York in-your-face fashion, but all seemed business as usual when we landed in a Cessna Citation at about 11:15 a.m. on a Friday, somewhat behind schedule.

The Jaike One arrival procedure we were assigned into Teterboro begins at the Flat Rock, Virginia, VOR, about 240 nautical miles southwest of the airport. It consists of a dozen fixes that stair-step us down from the flight levels to 4,000 feet msl over the last fix, Solberg VOR, before we receive vectors to the airport.

We were well into Jaike when the airplanes began to bunch up on air traffic control radar. The controller instructed us to do something rare for a "Slowtation" — reduce speed. I eased the throttles back and fine-tuned them to maintain the required 180 knots indicated. That wasn't enough to re-establish spacing, so we had to do a series of S-turns.

Miles out from the airport we were descended to 2,000 feet msl, and I had fleeting glimpses through the scattered clouds of some of my old stomping grounds in northern Jersey, including little Lincoln Park Airport.

The VOR approach to 24 became a visual, and the subsequent landing was reasonably smooth. A few minutes later the passengers were on their way to the city, and we were arranging for our "discounted" fuel and a crew car for an early lunch at the Meadowlands Diner.

This being Metro New York, I expected to spot a celebrity or two. Sure enough, Celine Dion, looking show-business thin, strolled by and boarded a nearby Canadian-registered Bombardier Challenger.

Teterboro is known for some excruciatingly long departure delays when the weather is down because of its close proximity to other big airports, primarily Newark Liberty International just five miles to the south. I was expecting just such a delay, especially since ATIS was reporting that New York-area severe weather procedures were in effect — whatever that meant. ATIS also said to call ground control before starting engines, presumably so we could be given the bad news about a long delay.

I was pleasantly surprised when ground said to start engines and call back. We were immediately cleared to taxi, and waited no longer than a minute at the runway for our takeoff clearance.

Our good luck continued after takeoff when the controller shucked the complicated Teterboro Five/Lanna transition departure procedure and vectored us around to a helpful southwesterly heading and uninterrupted climb.

With New Jersey disappearing in the fading light, I thought for a moment I heard the sound of a round-back Ovation guitar and my father's voice crooning a familiar tune: "Help Teterboro Tower, this is Piper Two-O-Two, I'm sweating out this landing, I don't know what to do...."