report a near-collision to FBO owner?

I'll buy all of your argument except the rant about high wing/low wing. Done
it many times without swapping paint. Can't imagine a DE getting upset about
it.

Bob Gardner

"gatt" wrote in message
...

While preflighting the Arrow yesterday afternoon I watched a C172 pull up
through the tiedown T right next to me. Not sure why he didn't stop right
at the chains. Instead, he pulled ahead and stopped.

As he was beginning to push the airplane back, the other FBO C172 darted
in
from behind and took the first guy's parking spot like it was a friggin'
shopping mall parking lot at Christmas.

So, for a second, while I watched, one pilot was pushing his airplane
back,
toward the other, who was moving up on his tail at greater than walking
speek with his engine running. When his prop stopped about 2 feet from
the
first airplane's tail. To the immediate right of the airplanes was the
other FBO tiedown spot, which was perfect empty, because that's where the
2nd aircraft was normally tied down.

The pilot of the first plane decided to walk off his anger. The pilot of
the second acted absolutely oblivious, as if it was the other guy's fault
for almost pushing his airplane back into the guy's prop. He just shrugged
the whole incident off and went about his business. No harm, no foul.
Another pilot came along a bit later and helped the first pilot drag the
airplane to the empty spot right next to them.

Here's the catch: The FBO owner explicitly forbids taxiing in from the
back
because of clearance issues. Specifically, because a newly-minted private
pilot had tried to hotrod the 172 into the tiedown a couple of months ago
and banged wings with the other 172. The damage was between spars, so
the
repair was $900 and some Bondo. Three weeks ago his instructor was
terminated for doing the SAME THING, except, fortunately, he didn't hit
the
wing. Made such a racket jockeying the brakes and the throttle between
airplanes, though, that people complained.

It turns out the pilot who had the collision had done nearly the same
thing
returning from his checkride...except, fortunately, the other plane was a
transient Bonanza. DURING THIS GUY'S CHECKRIDE, his wingtip passed right
over the Bonanza's, and he PASSED.

So in the last couple of months I've seen four people not just break the
FBO
policy, but taxi like idiots all but parallel parking their airplanes
around
others, and near prop-strike that would have showered me with debris, and
both of the FBO Cessnas scratched or dented by a guy who nearly collided
with a Bonanza while passing his checkride.

WTF is going on here?! And how can you even pass a checkride if your wing
passes over the wing of a parked aircraft?

The fellow who runs the FBO is a retired cop, mayor and career Marine.
He's
gonna blow a gasket when he hears about it, but I believe it's my duty to
report what I saw almost happen to his airplanes. Thoughts?

-c

Ditto that.

"Bob Gardner" wrote in message
...
I'll buy all of your argument except the rant about high wing/low wing.
Done
it many times without swapping paint. Can't imagine a DE getting upset
about
it.

Bob Gardner

"Bob Gardner" wrote in message news:0fKdndt-

I'll buy all of your argument except the rant about high wing/low wing.
Done
it many times without swapping paint.

Interesting. Wouldn't have even considered it myself. Do you think it's
something you'd want a newly-minted pilot to do?

(I'm biased...it's the same guy that banged the two Cessnas I fly together
only a couple of weeks after his checkride, so I'm not giving him much
slack.)

-c

gatt wrote:

I'll buy all of your argument except the rant about high wing/low wing.
Done it many times without swapping paint.

Interesting. Wouldn't have even considered it myself. Do you think it's
something you'd want a newly-minted pilot to do?

Yes. Our students learn to look out of the window and to taxi carefully
right from lesson 1.

Stefan

"gatt" wrote in message
...

"Bob Gardner" wrote in message news:0fKdndt-

I'll buy all of your argument except the rant about high wing/low wing.
Done
it many times without swapping paint.

Interesting. Wouldn't have even considered it myself. Do you think it's
something you'd want a newly-minted pilot to do?

Just out of curiosity, are you near a densely-populated area where people
need to know how to actually park their cars? I live in Boston and always
get a kick when watching some out-of-towner trying to parallel park who
obviously hasn't done so in at least ten years. The relevance is that the
FBO I used to rent from in the area discouraged "driving in" to tiedowns but
it was not really enforced and even all the instructors did it.

(I'm biased...it's the same guy that banged the two Cessnas I fly together
only a couple of weeks after his checkride, so I'm not giving him much
slack.)

Fair enough. If I was that guy I'd refrain from it for a while too.

-cwk.

"Colin W Kingsbury" wrote in message
news:ziZCd.1521

Just out of curiosity, are you near a densely-populated area where people
need to know how to actually park their cars?

Pretty much. Portland, OR.

I live in Boston and always get a kick when watching some out-of-towner
trying to parallel park who obviously hasn't done so in at least ten years.
The relevance is that the
FBO I used to rent from in the area discouraged "driving in" to tiedowns
but
it was not really enforced and even all the instructors did it.

The FBO had no problem with it until the accident occured. Guess the owner
was generous enough to leave just enough rope out there for people to hang
themselves with, and finally somebody did. There's only a few spots where
you can't drive into because of the narrow space between parked airplanes
and a cyclone fence. Further down the line you can park however you want,
but there's a twin and a 182 there, so they have more experience pilots
handling those anyhow.

-c

When I was learning to fly, I was learning at two different airports,
one quite crowded and the other quite spacious.

The CFIs in both situations showed me how to manuover past low wing
planes while operating a high wing plane (e.g., our wings overlapped a
few feet).

Now that I fly a Piper, I do the same thing with Cessnas. But I don't
do it at any speed. With the CFIs and now solo this is done at 1/2
walking speed or slower.

Later,
Steve.T
PP ASEL/Instrument

gatt wrote:

The fellow who runs the FBO is a retired cop, mayor and career Marine. He's
gonna blow a gasket when he hears about it, but I believe it's my duty to
report what I saw almost happen to his airplanes. Thoughts?

A few years ago, somebody crunched the left aileron of my Maule. Damage was over
$1,000 and I missed a couple months of good flying weather. Never did find out
who did it or how.

Report it.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

Report it to the FBO. But don't worry about the high wing passing over the
low wing. It is the natural order of things.

C J Campbell wrote:
Report it to the FBO. But don't worry about the high wing passing over the
low wing. It is the natural order of things.




LOL!

Maybe I am easily amused but I think that "natural order of things"
comment is pretty good.