On 11 Oct 2005 15:47:53 -0700, "Brien K. Meehan"
wrote:

zatatime wrote:
No where that I know of. At a towered airport you need trust in the
tower.

I must say this is unsafe advice.

I've avoided being squished by landing aircraft TWICE by checking
before taking the runway at towered airports.

Always, always, always make sure no one is landing before you take any
runway. YOU are responsible, not the tower controller, for the safety
of your flight.


My comments were directly related to doing 360's on an active when
issued a position and hold clearance. I didn't go through every
detail of what should occur before that clearance was issued. I too
have refused a clearance with an airplane on short final at least once
in my life. I'm not trying to start a flame war for the thread since,
as is typical in usenet, comments are made and taken out of context,
however Mike W. summed it up very well:

snip
Always a good idea to approach the runway, or stop at the hold line,
at an
angle that allows you a clear view of final. When I am done doing my
run up,
and I call tower and am rolling up, I do kind of an 'S' turn so I can
see
for myself that there is nothing there. And I look both ways before
going
out onto the runway.

As far as 360s on a position and hold clearance, I wouldn't do
it....There's a better way to see oncoming traffic than that.

z