KRnetHeads, OK, maybe it was a near hit, in some languages. This time I'm pretty sure there were no FAA violations involved (not that any were violated on the last one either). I did another one of those "let's fly up the Tennessee river and land at the some airports up that way" (Guntersville, Stevenson, Scottsboro, etc)...a gorgeous series of flights over Guntersville Lake and the river, including the nuclear power plant and other notable landmarks. This year has been the best I can remember for fall colors, although I'll admit it can't hold a candle to Vermont. Check out Guntersville airport (left of middle, upper in the photo at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/flights/061122221m.jpg). The approach is over the lake (when the wind is the other way), and if you don't mind dodging the geese, it's a real blast.
Anyway, as I enter downwind for M38 fifteen minutes after sunset, I see the lights and a big cloud of dust as a giant green JD cotton picker tries his best to get the last few bolls out of the pathetic crop we got this year (his second time through the field). It looked like at my present speed and his present position, he was going to line up perfectly with my final approach, and he'd be maybe 30' from the end of the runway, running perpendicular to it. Sure enough, we couldn't have timed it better, and if I'd kept going on my usual shallow glideslope and put it on the very end of the runway, I'd have taken the top off of the thing. Who's got the right of way in such a situation? I don't know either, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't qualify as "lighter than air". I was hoping he'd stop and watch me go by in front of him, and he had to have seen me as I had those "Laser Blaster" landing lights (direct from Walmart) turned on. Dodging him would have put me too far down the runway for comfort (the proverbial 15' obstacle), so I went around in about a minute, and since he was doing some really short rows at the end, it looked like we were going to meet again at exactly the same place again! But this time he stopped early, in an effort to make it clear that he wasn't going to screw up my landing again, and I went by right in front of him. I'll bet that was a rush for him, and I believe it was my first "near miss" with a cotton picker... Mark Langford, Harvest, AL see homebuilt airplane at http://www.N56ML.com email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
