Airmanship

[rookiepilot]

Out today on a local flight, observed the following on just one busy Saturday:

1. Desired Taxiway was occupied, instead of going down to the ramp and waiting, AC taxied through a grass area between the hangar row and the taxiway (to turn around, taxiways are narrow), rather roughly. Not to mention the big dip in the grass, which he powered through. Thought he might have a prop strike, nose fell so much. Never seen that before.

2. Taxiing to take off, in front of us someone announces, "taking position for departure rwy XX, starts moving. Seems like ample room to landing traffic, currently downwind to base.

After this, guy just turning base, says, "turning tight base leg" and does a beeline slant final for the runway, now with the other plane on it. First plane starts rolling, plane on final does a rather interesting S turn, over top of us on the taxiway, and lands, (after first person had lifted off). Interesting, anyway. Obviously neither were aware of the other?

No events on a very nice flight. 3. After coming back, at home base someone announce lining up for a straight in left downwind -- ignoring all the constant radio traffic presumably, and the fact it's right hand here on that runway, and always has been. Unicom helpfully breaks in to inform this person.


Little impatience out there on such a nice day......


The one that takes the cake a few weeks back: at our UC airport, a majority of traffic approaches from the west, to cross overhead and join a mid entry downwind for on the east side of the airport. Very busy pattern on nice weekends. So it was interesting to see someone (while I was on the ground) fly right above the airport, east to west, at or near circuit height, at full cruise speed, right into the face of anyone who might have been approaching. Rather dangerous, too.

I'd like to have a chat with that pilot.

[confusedalot]

The things you hear about on avcanada.....

From an old guy (well. not that old) now out of the business, who flew GA around 4 decades ago, I can't believe it, so to speak. In my time, you would have eventually lost your licence by doing stuff like that. But hey, I guess I'm just old and cranky. Is this the new normal?

Sounds dangerous out there, I am reconsidering that possible paradrop seasonal job just to get out of the house. May not be worth the risk.

[youhavecontrol]

They're called Weekend Warriors. :p

In the dawn of a fair-weather Saturday you can hear their transmissions drifting off on 126.7 ..."any conflicting please advise." and, "Yeah, I see you Carl. What's your groundspeed?"

[rookiepilot]

They're called Weekend Warriors. :p

In the dawn of a fair-weather Saturday you can hear their transmissions drifting off on 126.7 ..."any conflicting please advise." and, "Yeah, I see you Carl. What's your groundspeed?"

True. Though, I don't believe all amateur pilots are deliberately unprofessional in their flying.

[youhavecontrol]

I posted in jest... but to be more serious, I have seen FAR more incidents regarding traffic and near misses on Saturdays, and almost all of the incidents I've ever seen involved amateur pilots. There's nothing wrong with amateur pilots, but it happens to be that they are often the ones that are not held accountable for dangerous habits that creep into their flying. I've seen an amateur pilot take-off without clearance, in the opposite direction to the active, in a crazy strong tailwind, directly into oncoming traffic, (the controller walked-off on a stress break from that) I've seen them cut-off aircraft on final almost colliding from above, and once from below, plus a whole host of wonky circuit maneuvers and complete ignorance towards CFS circuit procedures. One guy in an RV4 buzzed my friend while he was in the middle of a training lesson, scaring the hell out of them... then a minute later they guy tried to fly beside him in formation. He wasn't even on frequency and only left when my friend waved at him to leave. I've also seen an amateur pilot skip his walk-around, only to declare an emergency engine fire because he didn't know there was a bird's nest in his cowling.

All this to say, yes there's a lot of good pilots, but there's also a lot of bad ones who treat their aircraft just like a skidoo or an ATV and think they can just kick the tires and go for a burn without consideration for the environment and people around them.

[rookiepilot]

Don't disagree with that. Gives GA a bad name.

[goingnowherefast]

There are also lots of excellent amature pilots. There are excellent and awful professional pilots too. Without the annual training/check rides, amature pilots don't have the same supervision to catch bad habits and inattention.

[northernpilot2]

I would not be surprised. Too many people out there think flying is a race to the finish line. Calm down people, enjoy the flight. If you need to rush then let someone else fly. You sit in the back.

[flyingjerry]

Long shot... but is this CZBA?

[Big Pistons Forever]

This has always been an issue. The closest I ever came to meeting my maker in an airplane was 40 years ago. I was a new PPL in the circuit about to make the base to final turn when a Piper Arrow flew right in front of me on a straight in approach. I figure we missed by less than 10 feet.

When I confronted the guy after landing he blamed me for not listening to his radio calls, which he had made on what was the frequency that had been changed 3 years ago.

The bottom line is there has been, is, and forever will be;idiots flying airplanes. When operating in or around an uncontrolled airport keep your head on a swivel and don’t rush.