"Guilty" of Flying the Wrong Pattern?

Maybe if more pilots knew about this action, these minor (but
potentially dangerous) infractions would stop?

Do =you= do any "minor" infractions that other pilots may consider
potentially dangerous (but you don't consider dangerous, else you
wouldn't do them)? How much "governmnet down our necks" do you want?

I don't want ANY government down our necks. But neither have I found a
good way to stop pilots from performing stupid pilot tricks like
landing at our airport on an opposing (unpublished) traffic pattern,
simply because it saves them some fuel. It happens so often that I
have to believe that it's become standard policy for some charter
operators to land in whatever way saves the most fuel, damn the rules.

Quite frankly, I don't think we need *any* more enforcement action.
(And I'm not commenting on the merits of the case in question, BTW.)
What we need is to PUBLICIZE that enforcement action has already taken
place. I'll bet that would give some of these prima donna pilots
second thoughts before they ignored everyone else in the pattern...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

This is where a good airport manager or grandfatherly figure can politely
inform the offending pilot what they happened to notice. It's surprising
what a subtle hint between pilots can accomplish.
Jim

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
Maybe if more pilots knew about this action, these minor (but
potentially dangerous) infractions would stop?

Do =you= do any "minor" infractions that other pilots may consider
potentially dangerous (but you don't consider dangerous, else you
wouldn't do them)? How much "governmnet down our necks" do you want?

I don't want ANY government down our necks. But neither have I found a
good way to stop pilots from performing stupid pilot tricks like
landing at our airport on an opposing (unpublished) traffic pattern,
simply because it saves them some fuel. It happens so often that I
have to believe that it's become standard policy for some charter
operators to land in whatever way saves the most fuel, damn the rules.

Quite frankly, I don't think we need *any* more enforcement action.
(And I'm not commenting on the merits of the case in question, BTW.)
What we need is to PUBLICIZE that enforcement action has already taken
place. I'll bet that would give some of these prima donna pilots
second thoughts before they ignored everyone else in the pattern...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

This is where a good airport manager or grandfatherly figure can politely
inform the offending pilot what they happened to notice. It's surprising
what a subtle hint between pilots can accomplish.

Agreed -- except in our case it's the FBO's charter pilots who are
quite often the offenders.

Our airport manager was fired by the airport commission two years ago,
and replaced with a part-time guy who does only what he's told -- so
I'm not looking to rock the boat.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
This is where a good airport manager or grandfatherly figure can politely
inform the offending pilot what they happened to notice. It's surprising
what a subtle hint between pilots can accomplish.

Agreed -- except in our case it's the FBO's charter pilots who are
quite often the offenders.

Our airport manager was fired by the airport commission two years ago,
and replaced with a part-time guy who does only what he's told -- so
I'm not looking to rock the boat.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Is the airport commision apointed or elected?

Jay Honeck for Airport Commission in '07 !!

Vote Early, Vote Often!

Jay B

Is the airport commision apointed or elected?

Jay Honeck for Airport Commission in '07 !!

Vote Early, Vote Often!

It's appointed by the city council.

As founder of "Friends of Iowa City Airport" (FOICA) -- the group that
stopped the city council from seizing direct control of the airport
(from the commission) two years ago -- I think it's safe to say that I
will NEVER be appointed to that august body.

So, instead, I attend every commission meeting, and sit in the peanut
gallery taking unofficial meeting minutes, which are sent to all 200+
people on our FOICA mailing list.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
Is the airport commision apointed or elected?

Jay Honeck for Airport Commission in '07 !!

Vote Early, Vote Often!

It's appointed by the city council.

As founder of "Friends of Iowa City Airport" (FOICA) -- the group that
stopped the city council from seizing direct control of the airport (from
the commission) two years ago -- I think it's safe to say that I will
NEVER be appointed to that august body.

Never say never...LOL...

So, instead, I attend every commission meeting, and sit in the peanut
gallery taking unofficial meeting minutes, which are sent to all 200+
people on our FOICA mailing list.

Good job by you. We just had a meeting here in Chandler, AZ regarding a
plan to extend one runway by 900' but judging by some people's reaction,
you'd think they wanted to extend both runways to over 10,000'.
Unfortunately, I was out of town and unable to attend but I did find the
public comments section of the website they'd set up and sent in my $0.02
worth (in the affirmative!)

If they choose to not follow through with the expansion, I hope someone
shows the NIMBY crowd the balance sheet from the Glendale Airport on the
Monday after the SuperBowl slated for the new Cardinals stadium in Feb of
'08. Glendale (and Goodyear) are gonna make a killing off the high dollar
bizjet crowd. It would be nice if our airport was able to maybe siphon off
some of that action.

There is also a semi-closed, private field named "Memorial" that is just
southwest of Chandler and the local Indian tribe just sold it and a bunch of
land to a developer. The developer wants to bring Memorial up to a usable
standard and give Chandler Muni a run for their money as well.

Grow or die...grow or die.

Jay B

Jay Beckman writes:

If they choose to not follow through with the expansion, I hope someone
shows the NIMBY crowd the balance sheet from the Glendale Airport on the
Monday after the SuperBowl slated for the new Cardinals stadium in Feb of
'08. Glendale (and Goodyear) are gonna make a killing off the high dollar
bizjet crowd. It would be nice if our airport was able to maybe siphon off
some of that action.

Aren't you right next to Williams Gateway Airport, the old Williams
AFB? I thought that was already receiving a great deal of traffic,
including overflow from Sky Harbor (which is apparently too big for
its britches today). What's the advantage of using Chandler's
airport?

FWIW, KCHD is currently my home airport in simulation, since I'm from
the area and Sky Harbor is a bit too big for small plane traffic (and
a bit slow in the sim).

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Jim Burns wrote:
This is where a good airport manager or grandfatherly figure can politely
inform the offending pilot what they happened to notice. It's surprising
what a subtle hint between pilots can accomplish.
Jim

At the end of one lesson a few years ago my flight instructor had me
stop outside the FBO instead of going back to the flying club, so he
could have a chat with the charter/biz pilots who had just done a right
had pattern landing. I stayed in the plane (C150) while he chatted to
them for about 10 minutes, explaining the error of their ways. I think
it worked, I have not seen it happen again.

James.







"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...

Maybe if more pilots knew about this action, these minor (but
potentially dangerous) infractions would stop?

Do =you= do any "minor" infractions that other pilots may consider
potentially dangerous (but you don't consider dangerous, else you
wouldn't do them)? How much "governmnet down our necks" do you want?

I don't want ANY government down our necks. But neither have I found a
good way to stop pilots from performing stupid pilot tricks like
landing at our airport on an opposing (unpublished) traffic pattern,
simply because it saves them some fuel. It happens so often that I
have to believe that it's become standard policy for some charter
operators to land in whatever way saves the most fuel, damn the rules.

Quite frankly, I don't think we need *any* more enforcement action.
(And I'm not commenting on the merits of the case in question, BTW.)
What we need is to PUBLICIZE that enforcement action has already taken
place. I'll bet that would give some of these prima donna pilots
second thoughts before they ignored everyone else in the pattern...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jim Burns wrote:
This is where a good airport manager or grandfatherly figure can politely
inform the offending pilot what they happened to notice. It's surprising
what a subtle hint between pilots can accomplish.

It's all in the way that you approach the person... If you approach them
in a confrontational manner, confrontation is what you'll probably
get... Which do you think is going to work better:

1. "Hey ****head, are you so stupid that you didn't know that this is a
lefthand pattern airport?"

2. "Excuse me... But, just in case you weren't aware of it, this is a
lefthand pattern airport. If it's not too much of an inconvenience for
you, would it be possible for you to fly a lefthand pattern from now on?
Thanks..."

Not that I have a problem with being confrontational though... It might
not be the best way to get things done all the time, but sometimes it's
necessary for certain situations...