<\/p>\n
I was heading up to the airport in Madras.\u00a0 It was a session I\u2019d looked forward to.\u00a0 I was in the front seat of a PA12 \u201cSuper Cruiser\u201d giving dual on back seat flying to the owner, a talented guy who was once a primary student of mine.\u00a0 The warbirds of the Erickson Aircraft Collection were taxiing out.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see, there was a P51, a B25, a Douglas SBD and an F4U Corsair as well as some others.\u00a0 We heard them on the radio as we approached and decided that we\u2019d just hang out on the dead side of the pattern so that they could get out without delay.\u00a0 After all, they burn a helluvalot more fuel than we do<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Mateski-formation-2-1024x768.jpg\")
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Approaching the pattern at Madras.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n “..don\u2019t you think that perhaps that situational awareness ought to extend to how our actions are affecting someone else? “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4400,"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":[67,152,178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393"}],"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=4393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}and they also had the added issue of forming up once they\u2019d all taken off. I don\u2019t think that what we were doing was particularly smart or polite\u2026 it just made sense.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s why both Jim and I had so much trouble understanding the actions of a 172 which continued to stay in the pattern for the active runway and cause the fuel-guzzling warbirds to wait until he was out of their way\u2026 several times.\u00a0 I think the guy is a relatively low-time pilot, but is that really the issue?\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded of the time that a warbird pilot once taxied in front of the crowd while I was performing my comedy act several years ago.\u00a0 His explanation was \u201cI don\u2019t like the duck act\u201d.\u00a0 So it seemed to him perfectly okay that one guy could ruin an act enjoyed by thousands.\u00a0 Seems to me that common courtesy would indicate that a pilot in a plane like that 172 at Madras \u00a0would simply get the hell out of the way and let those guys go.\u00a0 But no, he just stayed in the pattern and made each warbird wait while he droned around his pattern.\u00a0 At one point, Jim said that he could tell the irritation on the part of the warbird pilots.\u00a0 He heard it in their voices on the radio.\u00a0 I think I might have heard it too.\u00a0 But not one of those guys ever said a word.\u00a0 They never asked for any breaks from the rude one.\u00a0 They simply waited and put up with his rudeness.<\/h3>\n
<\/h3>\n
Did you notice the title of this little \u201crantlett\u201d?\u00a0 We so often think of situational awareness as the knowledge of our aircraft\u2019s amount of exposure or navigational situation or a myriad of other details.\u00a0 But don\u2019t you think that perhaps that situational awareness ought to extend to how our actions are affecting someone else?\u00a0 I sure do.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"