So There I Was...

On Apr 10, 11:15 pm, "Kyle Boatright" wrote:
"Crash Lander" wrote in message

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"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
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"NXXYY 30 miles North, inbound" responds on the radio and says "NXXYY is
on a 9 mile straight in, doing 180 knots".

Just thinking out loud here. Not trying to be a smart arse, and no, I've
never had this happen to me - yet!
At 180kts and 9 miles out, that means he'd be at the field in 3 minutes.
He's not in the pattern as such, so he can't see what's where. You're
still on downwind when he calls, so I'd have extended my downwind by a
minute to allow him through. Also, if you could see him a couple of miles
to the North when you turned base, at 180kts, he's on top of you in under
a minute, so it's obvious he's going to need to go around. Having said all
that though, you're right. If he pulled the throttle back a bit he could
have saved himself the go around.
Were any words exchanged once you were both on the ground?
Oz Lander

Naah, no words, and I did several stop and go landings to conclude my
evening. I don't think the traffic conflict was a huge deal. It wasn't
like I was upset about the situation and he shouldn't have been either. I
just can't figure why he didn't try and blend into the light traffic. All
he had to do was pull the noise lever back a little. As far as extending my
pattern, you're right that it was an option. However, I was on a post
maintenance flight and wanted to stay close to the field, which meant I
didn't want to fly a big pattern. Also, I didn't think I needed to yield to
someone who didn't seem to be playing by the "rules of the road", whether
formal or informal.

Well, its been a few years since I've posted anything here, but I
gotta play devil's advocate here a bit.

You're on downwind, and see traffic on final. You then start your
base turn to cut him off and make him go around, even when you were
planning on doing pattern work? That's a pretty a**hole thing to do.
You could have extended your downwind by 30 seconds and he'd have been
past you, or done a left 270 to base and let him through.

When I was freight doggin' it, we'd often look for ways to save as
much time as we could, and often times it was much easier to land
straight in, than to fly overhead, then circle around, descend and
enter the pattern on the 45, especially when we could keep our speed
up the whole way down and scrub it all off on short final. On the
same note, if there was faster traffic on final it was easier for all
to extend by 30-45 seconds to let the faster guy just land; it's
called common courtesy.

The traffic pattern is no place to by playing chicken, which is
exactly what you did when you turned your base in front of faster
traffic, then continued to turn in front of overtaking traffic on
final, hoping he'd go around or slow down. Sometimes slipperier
airplanes can't just "slow down" as soon as somebody calls that
they're going sequence themselves first. In the Lear, we have to take
1 mile for every 10 knots we want to lose, until we get down to 180
and can start throwing the gear and flaps out. Unless we want to shake
the **** outta the guys in back with spoilers.

Just food for thought; the sky is no place to be playing the same "F-
U, it's MY turn!" games that go on in traffic every day.

Mike