Letters to the Editor
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Wake turbulence at Logan
Well, forty years ago I was following a Lockheed Constellation (four engine piston airliner) in my Mooney M20E (single engine four seat retractable)onto 33L. It was night and I was 600 feet over the water. The tower wanted me to be as close to the Lockheed as possible. The wake turbulence seized my Mooney and I was immediately upside down, despite full opposite aileron. Everything was on the ceiling, including my glasses. Then I was out of it and rolled rightside up. The tower never saw my roll, and I decided to land well beyond the touchdown point of the Connie, putting me above the wake. Since my Mooney could land in less than 1000 feet, and 33L is 10,000 feet long, that was not a problem. I did not have to go around in such a small plane. It was an amazing sensation looking up at the water only 600 feet away.
I had two other two experiences at Logan, while we hangared our plane there. We had fuel injector problems while coming in at night. Approach Control immediately closed the field and alerted the emergency vehicles. They were desperate to foam the runway, but I rejected that notion. The taxiway parallel to 33L was lined with every ambulance and fire truck they could muster. After an uneventful landing we taxied over to the Van Dusen hangar and parked the plane. I walked over to the tower and asked them how many reams of paperwork I needed to fill out. They laughed and thanked me for the opportunity to test their emergency response capabilities, since they could never keep their tests a secret, and evryone was ready for one. They said to go home and forget it. I was also the last plane to land the night of the great NE blackout of 1965. I wss talking to the tower and landed normally, and suddenly the lights went out and I could not talk to Ground Control. So I taxied over to Van Dusen and parked. Luckily it was a bright moonlight night and even if the lights had failed on final approach I could have still easily landed. I drove to my apartment in Cambridge through a very dark city.
I still miss those days of being a bachelor in Cambridge with an airplane at Logan, and dating smart, talented, and beautiful Harvard graduate students. I ended up marrying one and she had spent a year between undergrad and Harvard being a Norhtwest stewardess. Of course she learned how to fly.