It only takes one...

This evening, one careless, clueless, oblivious, inattentive (choose one)
pilot made a shambles of the pattern at my home field for 10 minutes.

It was 20 minutes before dusk and the flock was returning home - there were
aircraft in the pattern and at least 3 inbound. A guy (in a Cessna)
announced a midfield crossover entry into the pattern for a touch and go,
but indicated that he'd have to extend his downwind because he was 500'
above pattern altitude. Fair enough, I thought - the guy is gonna fly a
normal downwind + 1/2 mile.

Long story short, the guy flew a normal downwind plus 2.5 miles, and his
downwind was literally a mile wide to boot...

So the airplane behind him (another Cessna) had to fly the same B-52
pattern, the Grumman behind *him* had to fly a B-47 pattern, and I followed
with a B-29 pattern. Two inbound aircraft recognized that the traffic
pattern was a mess and opted to do loiter outside the pattern to let things
correct themselves.

Then the original Cessna flying doofus flew an abbreviated upwind and
crosswind after his touch and go and cut off the folks who had loitered
waiting for everything to sort itself out. Aargh! I don't think I'll ever
understand this type of pilot...

The question in my mind was... Did the Cessna flying doofus even realize
that A) he was flying a dumb and dangerous pattern, being outside of gliding
range from the field, or that B) he caused a bad chain reaction in the
pattern.??

As I said: It only takes one.

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message


Long story short, the guy flew a normal downwind plus 2.5 miles, and
his downwind was literally a mile wide to boot...
...
The question in my mind was... Did the Cessna flying doofus even
realize that A) he was flying a dumb and dangerous pattern, being
outside of gliding range from the field, or that B) he caused a bad
chain reaction in the pattern.??

What kind of Cessna? 150? 182? 206? Caravan? My point is the higher
performance the plane, the larger the pattern. I wasn't there, so I'll take
your word the pattern was wider than it needed to be. Still, I consider
"gliding range in the pattern" a goal, not a rule with a "dumb" label
applied to violators.

Even if he was wide and long, why did you guys let it affect your pattern?
You could've entered slow flight and/or used shallow S-turns, for instance,
to eat time.

My real point is "flying doofi" will always show themselves at the pattern
(and elsewhere). The only thing we control is our reaction to them.

--
John T
http://sage1solutions.com/blogs/TknoFlyer
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____________________

"John T" wrote in message
m...
"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message


Long story short, the guy flew a normal downwind plus 2.5 miles, and
his downwind was literally a mile wide to boot...
...
The question in my mind was... Did the Cessna flying doofus even
realize that A) he was flying a dumb and dangerous pattern, being
outside of gliding range from the field, or that B) he caused a bad
chain reaction in the pattern.??

What kind of Cessna? 150? 182? 206? Caravan? My point is the higher
performance the plane, the larger the pattern. I wasn't there, so I'll
take your word the pattern was wider than it needed to be. Still, I
consider "gliding range in the pattern" a goal, not a rule with a "dumb"
label applied to violators.

The guy was flying a 172, and turning 500 extra feet of altitude into a 3x
sized pattern put him and everyone behind him at increased risk.


Even if he was wide and long, why did you guys let it affect your pattern?
You could've entered slow flight and/or used shallow S-turns, for
instance, to eat time.

You saw the part where each successive airplane flew a smaller pattern?
There is only so much you can do when the origial spacing is 3/4 mile (?) or
thereabouts. Airplane one (a Cessna) flew the downwind at 75 knots,
airplane two (another Cessna) could comfortably slow to 65, airplane three
( a Grumman) probably needed 70 or 75 knots to be happy, and I was OK at 65
knots.


My real point is "flying doofi" will always show themselves at the pattern
(and elsewhere). The only thing we control is our reaction to them.

You're right, but the problem with flying doofi is that we (you, I, and
everyone else) *expect* other pilots to act in a "normal" manner. If a guy
radios that he's gonna extend his downwind, we understand. But nobody
expects a downwind extended by 2 miles. I'm sure everyone in tonight's
pattern expected the guy to turn base ANY SECOND once he was a half mile
beyond the normal pattern, and as the downwind extended and extended, I'd
bet everyone behind the first guy was wondering.... What the heck is that
guy doing???


--
John T
http://sage1solutions.com/blogs/TknoFlyer
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____________________

Kyle Boatright wrote:
You're right, but the problem with flying doofi is that we (you, I, and
everyone else) *expect* other pilots to act in a "normal" manner. If a guy
radios that he's gonna extend his downwind, we understand. But nobody
expects a downwind extended by 2 miles. I'm sure everyone in tonight's
pattern expected the guy to turn base ANY SECOND once he was a half mile
beyond the normal pattern, and as the downwind extended and extended, I'd
bet everyone behind the first guy was wondering.... What the heck is that
guy doing???

Oh man that would suck. I could totally see myself following someone
that perhaps decided to abandon his plans and depart on the downwind
and not announce his intentions. Merrily flying along wondering what
the hell am I doing here???

On May 1, 7:13 pm, "John T" wrote:

My real point is "flying doofi" will always show themselves at the pattern
(and elsewhere). The only thing we control is our reaction to them.

--
John Thttp://sage1solutions.com/blogs/TknoFlyer
Reduce spam. Use Sender Policy Framework:http://openspf.org
____________________

Ah, what the heck. He may have been new, and not really realized the
distances and effects he was having. Or, he just did what he was
taught.

I'm glad to say I've never screwed up in a pattern. (snicker. I
screwed it up so bad I turned 180, changed my callsign and came back
later.) (No, actually, I didn't change my callsign. But I think
they're still looking for me...)

I guess the more important thing isn't what HE did, because HE will
always be out there. The important thing is how you/we respond to
the unexpected.

wrote:

I'm glad to say I've never screwed up in a pattern.

Me either.

But I don't count the time I totally brain farted and flew a right
pattern (vs. the published standard left) at my home base. I correctly
made radio calls of RIGHT downwind, RIGHT base, and final. G

I've been ribbed enough about it that it no longer counts!

I correctly
made radio calls of RIGHT downwind, RIGHT base, and final. G

I've been ribbed enough about it that it no longer counts!

Barry, I frequently fly RH pattern to the unused cross wind runway..
Of course I announce my intentions and keep a sharp eye for anyone
that might get confused by me... But this IS an uncontrolled
airport... Training maneuvers and practicing emergency procedures is
legal... No one ribs me about it they don't even mention it...

denny

Denny wrote:
I correctly
made radio calls of RIGHT downwind, RIGHT base, and final. G

I've been ribbed enough about it that it no longer counts!

Barry, I frequently fly RH pattern to the unused cross wind runway..

Understood.

I did it to the in-use runway at an uncontrolled field, with other guys
in the published pattern. They took it in stride, and spaced me right in.

What I did still deserved a "poke" or two, because of the intentions
involved. G

Kyle Boatright wrote:
This evening, one careless, clueless, oblivious, inattentive (choose one)
pilot made a shambles of the pattern at my home field for 10 minutes.

We shall term this the "McNicoll effect", for while being entirely
within the bounds of the law, was being a complete ass and mucking it up
for the rest of us.

Which, of course, means that he wasn't a danger at all and how dare you
question his piloting ability based on his obviously legal performance
(sub-quote, you ugly tit).

Sorry, can't resist.

---

It sounds as though everyone else had the forethought to do the right
thing, however I am concerned about the progression of the patterns.
Shouldn't it be just about Global Hawk-sized by now, if indeed it kept
on the same decay curve?

TheSmokingGnu

We shall term this the "McNicoll effect", for while being entirely
within the bounds of the law, was being a complete ass and mucking it up
for the rest of us.

Excellent. Well done.

Actually, I think you are really on to something here. This newly
coined phenomenon could explain much about what happens in the air --
and on the ground.

In fact, this "McNicoll Effect" just might explain everything that is
wrong with our society -- and even the world! There is so much of
this sort of thing going on -- often completely unexplained -- that
some sort of a blanket explanation was just begging to be discovered.
And you did it!

Dang, Gnu, you may have just tipped the sociological and political
world on its ear today -- good show!

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"