From: patter@dasher.cc.bellcore.com (patterson,george r)
Subject: Re: Radio procedures at controlled airports
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 05:58:13 GMT

In article <CSTACY.93Jan20171923@corn-pops.ai.mit.edu> cstacy@ai.mit.edu (Christopher C. Stacy) writes:

>My friend has been taught that since he is flying at an non-towered
>airport, he doesn't have to really worry about looking for traffic or
>using any radios.  After all, it's not very busy, and the pilots flying
>the jump planes *sure* know what *they* are doing,
>
>Having learned at a fairly busy place (BED), I am left wondering if,
>outside the elite pedantic confines of rec.aviation, that sort of
>instruction could perhaps be the usual practice at non-towered fields.

It's not the practice at Kupper, Princeton, Solberg, or Somerset airports
here in New Jersey. I trained at Kupper. My instructor preferred that we
only announce position once during the approach, usually on downwind. I
prefer to announce three miles out and downwind, and maybe base and/or
final if things are busy.

However, my instructor would have had a cow if I had gotten into the
habit of making straight-in or right hand approaches, and she would have
whacked me over the head with a sectional for forgetting to check for
idiots who do this sort of thing. On the one occasion that I had to
avoid traffic which she didn't see, she just asked why I was turning,
rather than assuming poor judgment on my part..

I have friends who trained and fly out of Princeton and Somerset, and
they say it's much the same.

>He then described an incident the other day where his instructor had him
>back-taxi for another takeoff, but failed to see the airplane on short final.
>The student became a little alarmed, taxied off the runway onto the grass,
>and turned around to wait for the landing traffic.  The instructor still
>didn't see the problem and demanded to know why he had done this.
>Meanwhile, the landing airplane went around, probably alerted by his taxi
>gyrations.  He didn't give me the impression he was praised for his vigilence.

He may not have been. Sounds to me like this may be an airport with single
runway and no taxiway? I have been into such airports (Mt. Pocono comes to
mind) and, if the upwind end of the runway has no exit, the proper procedure
is to land, turn around, and back-taxi until one reaches a point where
one can safely exit the runway (that's *not* into the grass). If this is
the situation, the aircraft on short final should not have been that close,
since the pilot cannot legally or safely land until the first aircraft
is clear. It's possible his instructor should be criticising him for
panicking.

Of course, it's a sign of either inattention or poor breeding to pull
out from the taxiway or ramp onto the runway in front of an aircraft
on short final, and, if this is the way the instructor is training him
to behave, he should go elsewhere for training.

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                    |
George Patterson -  | Revolution - n; An abrupt change in the form of
                    | misgovernment.
                    |         Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary
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Newsgroups: rec.aviation.piloting