non-towered airport question

"Bob Gardner" wrote in message news:KAIMb.37603$8H.86299@attbi_s03...
No holds barred at an uncontrolled airport...but we all have to get along
together. If the preponderance of the traffic was using the short, my
feeling is that you should have joined them or gone somewhere else. Student
pilots (and I have to assume one or two in the pattern) have enough to be
concerned about without someone doing the unexpected. This applies to the
CFI flying with the student as well....although this is a learning
experience: "Look at that guy! What he is doing is legal, but not smart.
Keep your eyes on a swivel and expect the unexpected!!!"

Well, I dunno what you consider "preponderance". When I arrived,
there was one chap who announced for the other runway, no other
observed traffic. He said "full stop", which led me to think he
was landing and tieing down and it didn't make much difference. I
realized after he took off again, he was just trying to differentiate
from "touch and go", and I'm not sure what he could have said which
would have made his intention to land and taxi back for continued
pattern work clear. "full stop, continued pattern work" might have
done it.

A second airplane which showed up said the same thing "full stop"
which again, led me to think he was landing and taxiing to his hangar,
not planning to taxi back and do pattern work.

After it was clear what they were doing and a third airplane called
in, I called them a preponderance and I did join them.

Frankly Bob and meaning no disrespect, if you're telling your
students this is unexpected or "not smart", you might be doing
them a disservice IMHO. I can remember my initial CFIs saying
similar things, and it led me to have a little "attitide" about
what people "ought" to do which later, more experienced CFIs
squelched, pointing out there are sometimes good reasons.

I used to be based at that airport, and twins regularly use the
longer runway while singles are on the shorter runway, because it
gives them more options -- I'm not a multi pilot, but I read about
"balanced runway length" and yadda yadda, so I assume most multi
pilots think it's smart to use a 3500 ft runway instead of a 2000
ft runway when it's available.

OTOH, if there's a kicking crosswind, is it smart for a Piper
pilot to just join the pattern with the long runway at a wind
level maybe he's not comfortable with, or to space himself
properly and land into the wind? I think one could argue the
latter as "smart".

At my home airport, many of the antiques and taildraggers prefer
to land on grass. So they'll use the grass runway even if the
wind favors the paved or is "6 of one half a dozen of the other".
I'm not a taildragger pilot either, but I assume some taildragger
pilots would think it's smart to land on grass if there's an Xwind
either way and the pilot/plane is more comfortable on grass.

In any case, it's common enough that I think it has to be considered
"expected".

Sydney