{"id":2508,"date":"2013-12-05T09:39:03","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T17:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=2508"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:57","slug":"go-freakin-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/go-freakin-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"# 91 After You!"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Or, \u201cGo to the Freakin\u2019 Airport!\u201d)<\/b><\/p>\n

(written September 11, 2012)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When this article was sitting in the folder where I keep unfinished articles, it had a note at the top.\u00a0 It said, \u201cI\u2019m not sure that this article will be understood\u201d.\u00a0 Well, the article is finished now and shuttled off to the Tailwheeler\u2019s Journal queue.\u00a0 I hope it will be understood.\u00a0 If it is not, it will be because its writer failed to express his thoughts well or that his readers just weren\u2019t up to understanding it.\u00a0 You be the judge.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\"roll<\/a>
Bill Warren in his Stearman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I will always remember one of the few times that Bill Warren was actually giving me dual.\u00a0 Most of the instruction I got from Bill was in the form of osmosis, gained while we were doing something else, like filming or simply going somewhere.\u00a0 But on this occasion I was entering a traffic pattern.\u00a0 I was evidently going to some point from where I could join a pattern leg.\u00a0 Bill didn\u2019t hide his annoyance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere in the hell are you going?\u201d he asked with obvious irritation.<\/p>\n

I may have stammered an explanation, but Bill set me straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re going to the airport, then GO TO THE FREAKIN\u2019 AIRPORT!\u201d (Bill didn\u2019t actually say \u201cfreakin\u2019\u201d. I’ve just cleaned it up for my more easily offended readers.\u00a0 You know who you are).\u00a0 I’ve never forgotten the lesson I learned that day, nor its foundation in logic.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

\"Kelly<\/a>
Brian and Kelly in Kelly’s Stinson. Kelly’s a well-known rigger, whose site is www.velocityrigs.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kelly and I launched off of the airport where he hangars his Stinson 108-1.\u00a0 Our plan was to arrive at a nearby airport at about seven thousand feet so we could execute a simulated engine failure and practice a circling approach to a nice, long runway.\u00a0 This is a really important maneuver and one I try to make sure that every one of my students comes close to mastering.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those maneuvers which I feel can save your life.<\/p>\n

But convincing you of the value of the <\/b>power-off, circling overhead, <\/b>accuracy approach is not why I\u2019m writing this.\u00a0 When we were at seven thousand feet and calling our intentions on the radio, we were immediately answered by a guy in a high-performance single. I knew he was there and I knew what he was doing.\u00a0 <\/b>I saw him way out there, actually flying away from the airport so he could come in on that ridiculous five-mile-long forty-five (\u201cWhy don\u2019t they just go to the freakin\u2019 airport?\u201d). That\u2019s why at first I was surprised to hear him transmit and say, \u201cI\u2019ll go around out here and wait for you to finish your maneuver.\u201d<\/p>\n

I did a mental double-take, but I\u2019ve got to admit that I\u2019m no longer THAT surprised by this move on the part of another pilot.\u00a0 This guy had time to write a letter to all of his friends, send it to them by pigeon and then wait for them to form up in echelon formation and land before he\u2019d have been in our way.\u00a0 But why didn\u2019t he see that?\u00a0 Probably for the same reason that so many power pilots used to do the same thing to me when I was flying the Big Yellow Glider at Sunriver.\u00a0 I\u2019d call my position just so people would know where I was.\u00a0 They, on the other hand, would immediately stop their approach and tell me that they were going to get the hell out of my way.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a huge weakness in the ability to grasp situational awareness on the part of so many pilots.\u00a0 They will burn untold gallons of gas and spend gobs of increasingly<\/b> expensive flight time because they simply have no idea how long it takes them to land.\u00a0 They also are, for the most part, unable to execute a short approach.<\/p>\n

\"Dale<\/a>
Dale and Cori in the 2-32<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Glider pilot Dale Masters and I would often explain to other pilots that there was a huge window of time in which we could land and clear the runway. We would explain to them that, even in the absence of lift, we could go to minimum sink (they normally don\u2019t know what that is) and loiter while they continued in to land. <\/b>Or we could dump the nose, open the spoilers and swoop in, using a fraction of that time in order to land ahead of them without causing them any delay.\u00a0 They could not grasp it.\u00a0 And we were flying a sailplane!\u00a0 THEY were the guys with the engine!\u00a0 It was hopeless.\u00a0 They\u2019d drone around out there forever waiting for the guy who had just told them that it wasn\u2019t necessary.\u00a0 Oh, and then \u00a0they\u2019d complain about \u201cthat damned glider\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here are the things I\u2019ve learned from that and similar experiences:<\/p>\n

There are several things that the overwhelming majority of amateur general aviation pilots cannot do or understand.\u00a0 They can\u2019t land long; they can\u2019t make short approaches; they can\u2019t fly formation and they can\u2019t figure out when they can swoop in ahead of another guy without \u201ccutting him off\u201d.<\/p>\n

These are just a few of the reasons that general aviation is plagued by such abysmally low flying skills on the part of such a large segment of its population.<\/p>\n

Just the other day, I was doing a transition course with a good pilot.\u00a0 We did a touch and go behind a Cessna 172 at a busy Central Oregon airport which will remain nameless.\u00a0 The guy we were following just kept departing straight out, even though he was in a closed pattern.\u00a0 We turned out and our crosswind was executed at just about the same time as his.\u00a0 As we turned on downwind, I transmitted that fact.\u00a0 A few seconds later the guy in the Cessna called his downwind, \u201cbehind that Stinson that went in front of me\u201d.\u00a0 I think I detected the old \u201cyou cut me off\u201d tone in his voice.\u00a0 We continued to do that landing, which was our last landing of the day, cleared the runway and taxied to the hangar.\u00a0 As we neared the hangar row I looked back to see the Cessna on final.\u00a0 That would be the Cessna that we \u201ccut off\u201d.\u00a0 In case you missed it, let me say it again:\u00a0 We were at the hangar and he was just turning final.\u00a0 And yet, he probably felt that we\u2019d \u201ccut him off\u201d.<\/p>\n

I hope that I will never unfairly criticize an individual for what I see as deficient skills.\u00a0 I will, however, blame such a pilot for failing to work to increase his level of skill and to learn to judge his place in the pattern.<\/p>\n

If you recognize yourself as one of those underskilled pilots, don\u2019t beat yourself up over it.\u00a0 Simply go out and practice.\u00a0 Practice until you can do those things.\u00a0 Do your part to make us all look qualified to wear the moniker, PILOT.<\/p>\n

And while you\u2019re at it, enjoy\u2026<\/p>\n

HAPPY SWOOPING!<\/p>\n

Brian<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to the airport, then GO TO THE FREAKIN\u2019 AIRPORT!\u201d (Bill didn\u2019t actually say \u201cfreakin\u2019\u201d. I\u2019ve just cleaned it up for my more easily offended readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,67,166,171],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}