Amateur night at the field

Viperdoc wrote:

Arrived at around 2200 last night IFR at our local field, and heard a pilot
doing position reports on the CTAF. I spotted the traffic (night touch and
goes), and also announced. As I established on final, she announced a full
stop, and then proceeded to land and taxi the whole length of the mile long
runway to go to her hangar.

At what airport did this occur? I wanted to look at an airport diagram to
see what options she had.

--
Peter

Isn't this supposed to be common courtesy, or am I being overly critical and
self righteous?

It is related to poor instruction that we see more common these days.
Instructors are supposed to include "judgement" training in their
syllabus. Common sense is something that cannot be taught. My
observation is that there is both a lack of judgement and common sense
among new pilots.

I've had my own stupid pilot tricks too, I just figure that pointing out a potentially dangerous (or just discourteous) maneuver might comprosmise safety at some point.

Oops, need to clarify here. I meant to say that pointing out a
dangerous or discourteous manuever might *prevent* safety from being
compromised later. Gotta be tactful and approach it from a safety
standpoint, as nobody likes a know-it-all.

On Tue, 09 May 2006 12:48:58 GMT, "Viperdoc"
wrote:

Arrived at around 2200 last night IFR

Isn't this supposed to be common courtesy, or am I being overly critical and
self righteous?

I think a bit of both...

First, I regularly see pilots get lax with procedures when traffic
flow is light (late evenings, night, etc), so this leads to things
like right hand traffic patterns, long straight-ins, and NORDO pattern
work. So I am not surprised to see others seeing the same.

While the full length taxi was not the nice thing to do (especially if
there were taxiway exits and a parallel taxiway), ultimately the fault
is on you. We as pilots have to expect the unexpected, and if we
choose to reduce our spacing on final, we have increased the
likelyhood of a go-around should the pilot be pokey on the ground.

On the 2nd event, as long as I had visual on the 3 mile final, I would
have continued and landed. If I did not have visual, I would have
extended (as you did). I never expect another pilot to slow down for
me. Too many of them are not paying attention outside of their own
plane!

-Nathan

Three miles is not on final, it is entering the traffic pattern.
I tell them to call when they are one mile, even that is big for a
pattern.

And after all, you were in a Baron, and she was in a warrior! How dare she
make you wait!

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
...
"Viperdoc" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the input. I try to not be critical of other pilots, since I
have done more than my own share of bonehead moves.

On the other hand it's hard to not get frustrated, since we had just
flown nearly three hours in night IMC, dodging thunderstorms, picked up
ice, got bounced around, etc, only to have to go around because someone
decided to taxi full length even knowing someone was on final right
behind her.

You say she's hangared at the airport, so it might be useful to send her a
polite note about the problem, citing the relevant AIM passage.

--Gary

Three miles can be on final. What if you had to extend your final because
there were straight in finals ahead of you. You could easily find yourself
on a three mile final. I remember being extended at a busy class D. They
kept putting Lear jets straight in ahead of me, and extending my downwind. I
ended up about 10 miles out. I finally told the controller he should either
fit me into the pattern or turn me over to the neighboring class B
controller whose space I was entering.

"john smith" wrote in message
...
Three miles is not on final, it is entering the traffic pattern.
I tell them to call when they are one mile, even that is big for a
pattern.

Proper procedure when other traffic is already in the pattern would be
to overfly the airport at least 500 feet above pattern altitude and
enter upwind crosswind behind any traffic already in the pattern.

Three miles can be on final. What if you had to extend your final because
there were straight in finals ahead of you. You could easily find yourself
on a three mile final. I remember being extended at a busy class D. They
kept putting Lear jets straight in ahead of me, and extending my downwind. I
ended up about 10 miles out. I finally told the controller he should either
fit me into the pattern or turn me over to the neighboring class B
controller whose space I was entering.

Three miles is not on final, it is entering the traffic pattern.
I tell them to call when they are one mile, even that is big for a
pattern.

"Viperdoc" wrote in message
...



Then, as I was turning base, another slow mover said he was on a three
mile final to the runway. Even though I had already turned base, was
inside him, and going a lot faster, I elected to extend the downwind,
since he had announced his intention to land even though he knew I was on
a tight base leg.


He may not have heard your call either from neglect or from a freq change.
Did you repeat your base call. Plus you said he was both behind you and
slower I don't see a problem .

In article . com,
"Kingfish" wrote:

John S. wrote:

Proper procedure when other traffic is already in the pattern would be
to overfly the airport at least 500 feet above pattern altitude and
enter upwind crosswind behind any traffic already in the pattern

Proper procedure? According to whom? (this thread could go on forever)
Overflying the pattern above pattern altitude would require a descent
on top of other traffic. That doesn't sound like such a good idea,
unless I'm missing your point. Whatever happened to joining the
midfield downwind at a 45 degree angle? I thought that was recommended
in the AIM?

Re-read the last sentence...

"enter upwind crosswind behind any traffic already in the pattern"