Piper Cherokee (N7824W)

For any licensed pilots who may view this photo, be assured that the pilot of the Piper had been advised by the tower that the Southwest was on approach to the parallel and was behind him ... and closing. The pilot of the Cherokee had visually sighted the SW jet (Southwest's pilots also had the Cherokee in sight) and advised that he would be down on 16L before the pax jet came over the keys for 16R. The tower agreed that he (Piper pilot) had enough time to land ahead of the Southwest. There was never any danger of the Cherokee getting tumbled around in Southwest's jet wash turbulence.

Wow...great write up Gman__if the 737 had been closer, would the Tower, GA Pilot or SWA Pilot made a decision on a go around? 5x Trophy's.

Gman__ I forgot Congrats on the 2 photos of the week this/last week! 5x5!

Great capture and backstory, Gary.
Just for interests sake, how much leeway did the P28A have after touchdown before the B737 contributed slightly to the coffers of Goodyear or Bridgestone? Are we talking a few minutes here?

Alien & Viv ... A brief bit of info relating to the "perspective" of this snap. My 70-300 was at maximum reach and to be truthful, the 737 was easily beyond its intended reach. The original of this pic is 96% sky and only 4% airplanes so I cropped it way down to this so as to eliminate the empty space and bring the two aircraft "closer." And it was a hot day so the entire long, long distance between them and my lens was rising heat waves which explains the heat distorted aircraft. OK. Having clarified the circumstances of the shot .... Alien, prior to this pic, the tower had cleared the Cherokee to discontinue his base leg and turn immediately to short final for 16L in order to get down before the SW. Otherwise, the Cherokee would have had to do an extended base to kill a bit of time to let the turbulence dissipate. The SW pilots were advised that the Piper was abandoning base and turning to short. (16L is 9000 feet long so the Cherokee probably could have turned even earlier and landed by me -- I was at the 4000 foot marker of 16L.) But in authorizing the left from base to very short final, the tower had told the Cherokee pilot to be attentive for possible instructions to go around and make a left turn out. That's when the Cherokee pilot told the tower he would be down and rolling on 16L before the SW came over the threshold of 16R. Viv, to answer your question; No, not a few minutes. The Cherokee did land first, but ... I was standing 4000 feet down 16L -- which means I was also 4000 feet down 16R -- and the Southwest went past my position well before the Cherokee did. I know this for a fact because I clicked a quick shot of the SW as it went by in order to get the reg number, and THEN I turned my attention back to the Piper and clicked a shot of it as IT came by for the same reason ... and the timestamps show I took the SW pic several seconds BEFORE the Piper pic. However, the Piper had slowed to turn off 16L at Juliet whereas the SW was just in the process of reversing and braking. So the Cherokee was down and easily safe by the time the pax jet went by it on the parallel.

Wow, super cool pic. I own N7824W but would not have been the pilot as the aircraft is on leaseback with our flight school. Reno tower is VERY vigilant about announcing wake turbulence warnings especially in an aircraft they know is used for instruction. Since 16R is typically used for the bigger traffic and 16L for GA and our winds normally are from right to left we have a big chance of the Wake Turbulence from 16R rolling over to 16L and the instructors make sure to drill this into the students.
I've tussled with Wake Turbulence just once and it really is a huge factor. I was taking off 16L in a PA32RT turbo and there was landing traffic for 16R, I was pretty sure I was going to get off the ground not only before the landing traffic but past their touchdown point. I was wrong and he ended up long and just as I rotated they passed me and touched down shortly after my rotation point. I had a good bit of a handfull from the wake turbulence and let it settle back onto the runway and then rotated again a few hundred feet futher down, past the Airbus's touchdown point. I will never again assume anything, if I had not assumed I still could have taken off, but fast taxied a thousand feet or so and then hit the throttle once I saw their touchdown point and stayed on the ground till then.
Thanks for taking the cool pic.

Bryan H. >>> very much appreciate your recollection. I'm not sure if you were here in 2016; in just a couple of days it will be exactly 4 years to the day that wake turbulence caused two men to lose their lives as they were about to land on 16L. I had been out that morning taking pics (my photo of FDX's N304FE as it is about to pass directly over me was taken that morning) and I spent many hours spotting that day, but I did not stay in the same place all day. In the dinner hour, a Beech with two men aboard was inbound to 16L. A UPS 757 had landed on 16R and a Fed Ex 757 was on final behind it. The pilot of the Beech had been advised that a 757 was landing on 16R and he had advised that he had the "airliner" [his wording] in sight. (There is controversy; however, as to whether he had sighted the UPS well out ahead or the Fed Ex that was much closer.) The UPS had landed and was taxiing off 16R when the Beech turned for home but the Fed Ex was still on s/final off to his right. (The controversy stems from the possibility that the Beech pilot had spotted the UPS - NOT the Fed Ex - and therefore thought it was down and taxiing so he would not have too much to worry about.) Anyway, when the Beech turned to an abbreviated final for 16L, the Fed Ex was then ahead of him to his right. The Fed Ex had just landed on 16R and was rolling out when the Beech was about to pass over the Truckee River at about 200 feet for 16L. Witnesses saw the Beech suddenly flip inverted and go nose down. At an altitude of just 200 feet or so, the pilot had no chance whatsoever. The nosedive into the trailer park was so vertical that the entire wreckage field was less than 100 feet wide. Had I been standing at the spot where, eight hours earlier, I had clicked that Fed Ex DC-10, the Beech would have come down directly in front of me and only a couple hundred feet away. The subsequent investigation concluded that the Beech encountered the wake turbulence from the Fed Ex Seven Five. I, myself, am not a pilot so I've never had anything similar to the situation you described that you experienced. But I CAN say that I've been so close underneath several different commercial jet aircraft that within moments of them passing above me I have been buffeted quite strongly by the wake turbulence from them. In fact, it happened when I took the pic of N304FE, the Fed Ex DC-10, earlier that day. I've had little pebbles and sand cause minute-sized chips on my lens glass when turbulence blew that stuff around. Every pilot of a small aircraft should not only be verbally warned about such turbulence, they should probably be subjected to the experience of it (although I have no idea how that could safely be arranged). What I DO know is that from my ground-based experience with such turbulence, I would never be a passenger of a small plane pilot who would tell me that wake turbulence is no big deal. Because I know it is. Thanks again for your comment. And PS - I've got other photos of Two Four Whiskey. If it is yours, you may be interested in having some. If yes, do NOT reply here. E/M to [email protected]