What you mentioned is definitely a reality. I was going to mention just that. I was doing pattern at P08 on RWY 23 for half hour early in the morning alone. Then another pilot comes in 10 miles away and start announcing landing on 05. I kept flying my patterns announcing 23 at every turn, must have done at least 2 patterns announcing upwind for 23, left crosswind for 23, downing for 23, left base for 23, final for 23, touch and go, all over again! The guy still announcing landing on RWY 05! I was watching his C172 like a hawk. When comes to enter the pattern he finally veered off and did not say a word anymore. Didn’t hear me? Didn’t see me? Expected me to change pattern because? I chose the pattern for a simple reason. Sun rising on my face on RWY 05. Wind nonexistent. Did he expect me to change pattern just because he did not wanted to enter to the opposite RWY from where he was coming? Unbelievable. Some pilots are just like that. They hear you, they hear other pilots and they keep announcing their own ways against what is already established by others. I have in my hands four more weird cases that are hard to believe. Just this weekend at CGZ. Pattern: IFR Student in for approach myself on the pattern and another guy after me also on the pattern. We are all landing on RWAY 05. Then suddenly this pilot with his Cherokee about 5 miles to the north calling landing on RWY 23. I couldn’t believe. I am here watching traffic like a hawk. The IFR is gone I am on left base for 05 and the pilot behind me on downwind for 05. I announced final for 05 the Cherokee announces final for 23 just after my announcement! I was baffled! I thought well if this son of a gun does not change his ways I will have to veer off. He finally realized his stupidity and announced he was changing his landing to 05. That’s the world we are living today. Pilot’s making mistake of all sort. Some are conscious of their ways others are not. In any case we have to have a backup plan for every situation so we can move away and not get too close to anyone. I do not trust, ADS-B, Tower, and Pilots 100%. I always think that mistakes could be in for a trap and when all those line up! BUM! Too late.
SA is always a salient factor. Too, the FAA plays its’ part. Bear in mind: traffic on final essentially has right of way according to CFR. My little story was being roundly castigated for “cutting off” (I am assuming) a student pilot turning base towards me while I was on one mile final, despite numerous announcements from both of us. Lack of proper training? Not related to these accidents, but it IS strange that radio communication is not required at public use non towered airports. A J-3 pilot who can afford to fly these days can no doubt afford a handheld radio. Also, straight in is a necessary hazard: instrument training being a primary example. We need to be very careful up there.
Frank L.
The obvious thing to me in the Watsonville accident is that the 340 pilot was lining up for a low pass. At 170 knots on short final there would have been no possibility of stopping the 340, he likely was not even going to get the gear down by the time he passed the end of the runway.
The 152 pilot’s family should hire a good attorney. The 340 pilot certainly exhibited willful negligence.
Having spent much of my career flying airplanes with performance like the 340 (all the King Airs, all the twin Cessna’s from the 310 to the Conquest I, and the Citation) I quickly learned to be cautious around the slower traffic, and to either fly a bigger pattern or do my best to keep my speed down, but above all fly a pattern, my favorite was a crosswind to downwind. Straight in approaches at uncontrolled airports are just stupid. How do you know what airport and runway conditions are if you haven’t seen it? Why the FAA hasn’t figured that out is beyond me.
Practice approaches are an exception, but instrument flying in mixed airspace should be approached with extreme caution, and in most cases can be done at controlled airports just as well.
I know this will offend some, but I am astonished by the number of pilots who denigrate the importance of their radios in developing & maintaining situational awareness. It is the first layer in your layered defense.
Yes, those excessive transmissions on CTAF may be annoying, but don’t tune them out. In the “uncontrolled” airport environment, listening to what is going on and incorporating that information into your SA is absolutely your best tool for having advanced knowledge of what you will be dealing with. In accident after accident, advance warning of what happened was right there, being delivered right to the pilot’s ears but ignored, discounted or misunderstood.
Situational Awareness (SA) is one way to prevent midairs but the ‘Big Sky Theory’ (BST) is most likely the reason there isn’t more midairs. The BST is that: the odds of sharing the same spot in the three dimensional sky at the exact same time is very low. The odds obviously go up with airport environments were we share the same airspace. Airports have a track/pattern that we are all trained to follow and timing then becomes the separator.
The reason I believe Midairs are so studied and conversational is because your Experience levels is not a preventable factor. Midairs happen to the lowest and highest time pilots.
When engine manufactures recommendation’s on engine maintenance is followed failures are very rare. Yet, Experience is a factor for having a safer power-off landing when an engine does fail. Experience can land an airliner in the middle of the Hudson river without a life lost. Experience doesn’t prevent having a Midair with a flock of geese.
For about 20 years now I’ve been intending to write a story titled “Outta my way, Peon Piston!” which Paul green lighted years ago. Oh well.
One thing not mentioned is the use of lights. I learned very early to turn on all of my aircraft lights when a few miles out from pattern entry. Let’s face it, most aircraft are difficult to see in the daytime whether with an earth or sky background. LED lights especially last forever so there is no excuse not to light up if you got ‘em.
Modern LED lights are also much brighter than incandescents.
I wouldn’t use the blanket statement that straight-in approaches are always a bad idea. There are times when they make sense and are perfectly safe. The attentive pilot should always be evaluating the runway conditions regardless of what point in the traffic pattern they are in; even when flying a full pattern to a non-towered airport, there could be wildlife that suddenly enters the runway when you’re on short final. Keeping an eye out for that is no different than keeping an eye on the runway during a straight-in, as long as it was safe to do the straight-in in the first place.
I would add “and don’t let the other guy hit you”.
and then there’s the Saturday 9 am mob…
Excellent real life story of situational awareness and lack there of. Great piece. Situational awareness is everything.
Don’t fly in the mornings on Saturday’s.
I’m probably just pissing into the wind, but just for the record, s is plural, ‘s is possessive.
“10,000 and FL 180 where see-and-avoid doesn’t work and there is no regulatory protection other than an insignificant increase in minimum visibility.”
Again, not supported by evidence. If this were true, there would be collisions every day. There are not. See and avoid is just not bulletproof at these altitudes, or anywhere.
Worse, you’re pissing into the wrong wind.
This accident reminds me of this old ditty:
Here lies the body of William Jay,
Who died maintaining his right of way—
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he’s just as dead as if he were wrong.
“Burma-Shave”
…and then there’s the Sunday incoming flock.
“ I wouldn’t use the blanket statement that straight-in approaches are always a bad idea”
That is not what he said - he said at UNCONTROLLED airports. And he is right - straight in at uncontrolled airports, if not a practice IFR, is stupid. It’s just being lazy and bad piloting.