Eye of Experience #22:Operations at Non-Towered Airports

I was recently making a straight-in final to a non-towered airport. Monitoring the Unicom frequency, I was aware of another airplane in the pattern flying touch-and-goes with a student. Since I was approaching from the west from a cross-country flight and the other aircraft was using runway 09, a straight-in approach seemed appropriate. The airport does have a left-hand pattern established. I made position reports several times using my GPS for accurate distance reporting and indicated I was on a straight-in final. I had the other airplane in sight the entire way. Shortly after I reported approximately a one-mile final, the other aircraft turned base. I was about two hundred feet lower at the time and with his turn to base we were headed on a collision course. I radioed this instructor to ask if he saw me on final and he acknowledged that he did. I radioed back that I would be aborting the approach.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/eye-of-experience-22operations-at-non-towered-airports

This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.