By: Pat Murphy
E-mail Address: patrickm@petco.com

This one's for Michael Church:

I have always enjoyed your articles and I am certain that they have made me a better pilot. You mentioned last month the bizarre 15 degree left turn prescribed at "the Duke." As a student pilot, I had the unfortunate experience of being taken there by my instructor. The big issue for us was wake turbulence. They fly a lot of B757s there, and a Lear had been lost there some time earlier, I believe, due to wake turbulence. I have no desire to maneuver at low altitude, but I will put a significant left bias in my departure to avoid the big boys. I might even put a bias in my approach to stay as far out of their way as possible. I would liken wake turbulence in flying to avalanches in mountaineering: you can't do much to improve your chances of surviving it, you can only avoid it in the first place. BTW, in spite of my previous study of the departure at John Wayne, I requested a "straight out" departure, only to be told by the controller that there was no straight out departure. I knew what he meant, of course, but didn't know how to describe it, and the controller was no help at all. I think that they only like locals. The FAA needs to get its phraseology act in order.

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