On May 10, 7:19 pm, C J Campbell
wrote:
On 2007-05-09 23:35:14 -0700, buttman said:



I had two recent situations where other pilots thought they'd be cool
by being condescending jackasses over the radio, which effected my
ability to teach my student.

The first time was when I was at a local uncontrolled field with one
of my students to introduce solf-field takeoffs and landings. When we
were turning downwind, I heard a Cirrus call "On the ILS at the outer
marker". I haven't flown any approaches for months, so I had no idea
how exactly far out he was. There were at least two other people in
the pattern, so instead of asking him to give a more accurate position
report, I just went on. Just before I got abeam the numbers on
downwind, the Cirrus guy called 3 miles out, so I told my student to
just do a short approach instead of extending which would have screwed
everyone else up.

I'm looking out the window like crazy to find this Cirrus guy but I
don't see him anywhere. Then suddenly I hear him say in a snappy voice
"Cessna on base at *** do you plan on cutting me off?" Startled, I
looked around but couldn't for the life of me see him. I responded
"uuhh, Cirrus on ILS I don't see you", then he snaps back
sarcastically, "oh 45 seconds before impact..."

Well, he was reckless. He saw you, but bull-headedly continued anyway
despite the risk of collision. It no longer matters who was right; he
was willing to kill both you and him simply to prove a point. It
appears he even sped up in order to make sure he stayed in front of you
or to intimidate you.

All pilots make mistakes, which is all the more reason we cannot allow
air rage to overcome our good judgment and sense of courtesy. Pilots
should be understanding and tolerant of each others' mistakes, if for
no other reason that no one is perfect.

People who cannot control their anger or other emotions in the cockpit
are a danger to both themselves and everyone around them. For this
reason alone I find the Cirrus pilot's behavior alarming.

However, that does not relieve you of your duty to both see and avoid
other aircraft, to follow the rules of right of way, or to communicate
more clearly on the radio. A little cooperation while the Cirrus was
still at the outer marker would have been more appropriate. A
preemptive "I don't see you or understand where you are; we are on base
about to turn final" might still have elicited a sharp response, but it
is one more thing you could have done to prevent the incident.

I think filing a NASA form is also a very good idea any time aircraft
communication (or the lack thereof) poses a hazard to operations. This
could go a long way toward improving communication in the future and is
a good resource to instructors.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

THANK YOU for actually reading my post and understanding my point. I
know in the case of the Cirrus, I could have done more to avoid that
situation. There were a few other planes in the pattern so it's not
like we could have just freely opened up an dialog between one
another. I hope my post didn't come off as "wah wah a mean cirrus cut
me off what a meany head wah wah" like some others are making it out
to be. No one is perfect, and I don't know why some people can't
accept the fact that I'm not...

My point was that rage over the radio is ABSOLUTELY NEVER
constructive. EVER. All it does is cause more problems.