Aviation Etiquette

- Keep your A&P well fed, warm, and happy, for your life is in his hands. Coffee and donuts can go a long way.
- After you pass your checkride, it's courteous to present your CFI with a gift as a token of appreciation. Depending on how difficult a student you were, this can vary from a restaurant gift card to a new Breitling.
- Being kind to the line crew will help ensure careful treatment of your plane.
- Dropping off Christmas cookies and candy for the airport staff can also get you a little extra courtesy in return.
- Be complimentary about the other guy's plane; it's probably the love of his life, even if it looks like it flew through a hailstorm en route to a crash. Remember: not everyone gets to fly a Beechcraft. ;)
- Get to know your hangar neighbors, keep an eye out for them and their stuff. Lending a tool or a helping hand when needed will be reciprocated.
 
k9medic said:
Remember that you never know who you might be talking to when you are shooting the breeze in the FBO... Don't assume that the guy who is mowing the grass is just the FBO lawn guy.
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That’s good advice for anywhere.

And even if he is the FBO lawn guy, it’s a good idea to treat him well, because he probably has better connections and more juice at that airport than any transient pilot does.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
This is a great thread!
I've always been a bit put-off by the following repeated scenario. Could be that I have it wrong but it seems like B) is readily available to us and much simpler.

Descending out of cruise into quiet non-towered airport & cavu (as most of my flying is) - with full intentions of cancelling, ie it's not a charter or medivac, or a company that requires cancellation on the ground:

A)
ATC: N123, airport is 12 oclock, 15 miles (mild hint)
N123: field in sight, N123
ATC: N123 do you want an approach or? (slight annoyance, major hint) *Sometimes a Visual Approach might be offered.
N123: Negative, N123 (*or the Visual might be accepted)
ATC, a few mins later: N123 airport is 12 oclock, 7 miles, no traffic observed between you and the field (*cleared visual approach). Report cancellation on the ground or with me change to advisory, good day.
N123: N123 cancel ifr.
ATC: ("omg") N123 cancellation received, squawk vfr change to advisory good day. (we could have knocked this out 40 words ago)

Or

B)
ATC: N123 airport is 12 oclock, 15 miles
N123: In sight, cancel ifr, N123
ATC: N123 cancellation received, no traffic observed, squawk vfr change to advisory good day. (you, sir, are welcome back)
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Not for me. Not cancelling IFR is not an mis-etiqutte.
That is good airmanship imo.
 
ateamer said:
That’s good advice for anywhere.

And even if he is the FBO lawn guy, it’s a good idea to treat him well, because he probably has better connections and more juice at that airport than any transient pilot does.
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I treat a lawn guy with the same respect as I treat any other working individual… whether it’s at the airport or my personal house.
Earning an honest living should be respected. Period.

I’m shocked this even came up.
 
ateamer said:
That’s good advice for anywhere.

And even if he is the FBO lawn guy, it’s a good idea to treat him well, because he probably has better connections and more juice at that airport than any transient pilot does.
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Or ……. Treat everyone well, even the lawn guy even if he’s “just” the lawn guy. Not because I can get something, but because it’s just another chance to make another person feel well treated.
 
masloki said:
At the fuel pumps, before rewinding the hose and grounding clamp, bring both close to you so they don't drag across the pavement.
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And walk the grounding cable back in, don't let it go flying lest it detach. In fact, treat all the equipment well! The most economical places to fuel are generally municipal self serve pumps, let's keep them in business and help keep their prices cheap by treating the equipment with respect and making it last - It's not cheap.
masloki said:
Update/confirm fuel prices on Foreflight and others. Nothing like a 3 month old fuel price to give you the casino feeling during flight planning.
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Yes! I even took a flight to several of the normally well-priced fuel stops in WI right before Oshkosh last year specifically to update the prices for people coming to the show.
masloki said:
Tell ATC what you want or need. If you can do something faster, better, safer, tell them - they aren't mind readers. And if you don't know what they are cleared you to do, probably wouldn't hurt to speak up there. (Cruise clearances was one for me).
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Hey, I was there about 10 miles behind you IIRC! And after you dropped it, they gave me the cruise clearance. I only kept it because it was the first one I've ever gotten, and probably was the last too!
Kritchlow said:
I treat a lawn guy with the same respect as I treat any other working individual… whether it’s at the airport or my personal house.
Earning an honest living should be respected. Period.
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Abso-friggin-lutely. Anybody who takes pride in their work and cares enough to do a good job of it deserves respect, no matter what "it" is. Our society should do a lot better at that.

If the POTUS can do it, so can you.

President Obama fist-bumps custodian Lawrence Lipscomb in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
 
Kritchlow said:
Not for me. Not cancelling IFR is not an mis-etiqutte.
That is good airmanship imo.
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You mean you land, taxi, park, unload, hit the rest room, then cancel when approach calls the FBO to see if you are on the ground??????? And yes, I have seen this done.

Cancelling IFR AS SOON AS IT IS SAFE TO DO SO is good etiquette.
 
Kritchlow said:
Not for me. Not cancelling IFR is not an mis-etiqutte.
That is good airmanship imo.
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My suggestion (not dragging atc through the mud at the end of a flight) does not apply to you at all.
Perhaps you'd change (or remove) your response if you had seen this part:

Let'sgoflying! said:
Descending out of cruise into quiet non-towered airport & cavu - with full intentions of cancelling,
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flyingcheesehead said:
Your 10 is what I was getting at with my 3. Lots of great additions though!
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To me, they are different. Your #3 concerns propwash/jetblast. That’s a really important consideration. My #10 is more concerned with the nuisances of noise and exhaust fumes, and the potential for a person or pet to tangle with a propeller.
flyingcheesehead said:
When we stop getting new material, I'll try to reorder the original post in some sort of more organized fashion with everyone's contributions.
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You’ll have a lot of material to sift through, much of which seems to fall into the category of pet peeves instead of etiquette. Say, isn’t there already a thread about pet peeves somewhere on this site?
 
As a student / when doing your run up turn the plane so your instructor isn’t in the sun.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
My suggestion (not dragging atc through the mud at the end of a flight) does not apply to you at all.
Perhaps you'd change (or remove) your response if you had seen this part:
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Why would I ?
 
If you are doing something on the ground that requires your head to be down such as tuning radios and NAV gear, LOOK AROUND every so often. You may be blocking someone else from taxiing back to their hangar.

12 minutes I waited for this guy to pull his nugget out of his arse
 
Timbeck2 said:
If you are doing something on the ground that requires your head to be down such as tuning radios and NAV gear, LOOK AROUND every so often. You may be blocking someone else from taxiing back to their hangar.

12 minutes I waited for this guy to pull his nugget out of his arse
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Same thing happened to me this morning - TWICE! Two school planes.

The first one parked on the main taxiway parallel to the active runway when I was trying to taxi back from getting fuel. Nice. Not terrible, though, I just taxi'd around via the main ramp.

Next, I turn off to go to the hangar to find a 172 parked in the taxiway in front of their hangar, doing their pre-flight. I spun and parked out of the way to wait....and the plane I had just gone around pulled in front of me to create a full-bore gridlock. LOL.
 
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Kritchlow said:
I treat a lawn guy with the same respect as I treat any other working individual… whether it’s at the airport or my personal house.
Earning an honest living should be respected. Period.

I’m shocked this even came up.
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I happened to be the "lawn guy" that it happened to.

I would go out to the airport late on a Friday or early on Saturday mornings and run the great big tractor around or the zero turn. In turn, it covered my hangar rent while they were looking for a new maintenance guy at the airport and allowed me to decompress after a busy week.

On more than one occasion I had a pilot fly in on his trusty Cessna or Piper 4 place and proceed to talk to me as though I was the local village idiot.
 
Palmpilot said:
Some people say respect must be earned. I say respect is a birthright; DISrespect must be earned.
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Truth. I once flew a couple to the Bahamas who felt that they were on top of the world. They were nice for the most part but felt the need to flex that their "financial situation" allowed them to fly privately to a house they were renting there. The husband quipped "have you ever been to the Bahamas outside of a cruise?" in a demeaning manor.

My reply was curt and to the point - "yep, I rent my house in the Bahamas to folks like you and typically fly over at least once a month in my own plane."

The wife just smiled...
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
My suggestion (not dragging atc through the mud at the end of a flight) does not apply to you at all.
Perhaps you'd change (or remove) your response if you had seen this part:
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I mean… if it’s that quiet, the guy can just depart VFR and pick up. Why put the onus on the inbound??
 
Kritchlow said:
I mean… if it’s that quiet, the guy can just depart VFR and pick up. Why put the onus on the inbound??
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the key is "that quiet". Bunch of places they make it quite difficult to pick up. NY Tracon that isnt available at all. Also Jax makes it difficult as well as Im sure quite a few others.. .

Had someone forget to "close" their flight plan going in to SSI and three of us were waiting to depart and on the ground until they finally got to the FBO and FBO people notified them. For some reason, they couldnt be hailed on ANY frequency (including ground).
 
My lesson learned. I cancelled IFR in the air, and squaked 1200. But I didn’t hear the confirmation from ATC before I switched to CTAF. They called the FBO so that I could call ATC. They did see me sqauk 1200 and did hear me cancel, but didn’t like that I cancelled and then switched to CTAF.

So — cancel in the air, and hang with them until you’re sure ATC is done with you before switching.
 
Bring the FBO fudge. I was visiting the grandchildren in Valparaiso and we then drove up to Mackinac Island. Brought the FBO “lady behind the desk” a box of fudge for keeping an eye on the plane for a week.

Also brought the local KRYY office staff a box of “Crumble Cookies” on behalf of our local plane club.

It’s a kick to do “random acts of kindness”.
 
mryan75 said:
A courtesy that an old instructor taught me: if you’re in a line of planes taking off, tell the tower you can take an early turnout if you can. No need to climb for ten minutes on centerline with 5 planes waiting behind you to take off.

I had the cool experience of doing my first class C departure in front of a 121 flight and I just felt cool asking for the early turnout so as not to make an entire planeload of passengers wait for my pokey Cherokee to get the hell out of the way.
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It takes you 10 min to get to 400' AGL?
 
At our airport one day, I noticed a 172 at the fuel pumps with a man and a woman next to it. They had finished fueling and I was shocked to see him throw the fuel handle up in the air and let the reel pull the hose in, the handle slamming the ground. He did this several times before I got to him and stopped him. He was angry and wanted to know why I thought it was any of my business. I told him he was destroying equipment at our local airport and I wasn't going to let it happen. He got in my face, yelling at me to walk away, and I laughed and told him he'd better rethink what he was about to do.

I thought he was a local freelance instructor, so as he walked back to the plane, I told the woman she needed to find another instructor. He turned around and said, "shows what you know, she's the instructor." She was fired, and he was no longer allowed to rent the planes. It was all on video and people couldn't believe it. Why do people act like animals?
 
Lowflynjack said:
why I thought it was any of my business.
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Because I need gas and I don’t want dirt and crap in my fuel tank, as well as refuel with a potentially broken fuel hose, as well as have to pay more for fuel to pay for fixing a broken fuel hose.

Oh - and watch a fuel fire as a spark from a dragging fuel nozzle ignites gasoline vapor.
 
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Well, my definition of an adult is when you can control your emotions. He’s just not there yet. Give him time…
 
WDD said:
Because I need gas and I don’t want dirt and crap in my fuel tank, as well as refuel with a potentially broken fuel hose, as well as have to pay more for fuel to pay for fixing a broken fuel hose.

Oh - and watch a fuel fire as a spark from a dragging fuel nozzle ignite gasoline vapor.
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I really couldn't believe it. I wish I had the video. He had to be throwing it up 10 fee in the air.
 
Anthem said:
Had someone forget to "close" their flight plan going in to SSI and three of us were waiting to depart and on the ground until they finally got to the FBO and FBO people notified them.
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I was in the air coming into Gallup one night. ATC notified me there was one plane on the approach and I might need to do a couple turns in the hold.

Well, it was a cargo plane, C-402, and he tried the VOR approach 7 times as I kept building ice in the hold. I could not climb because there was 3 more planes in the hold above me. After the 5th approach I did suggest he go to his next stop.

With the ice I did the approach at 130 instead of 120, first notch of flaps. As I leveled off over the runway I reduced power and the plane fell (stalled) the last foot onto the runway.

Apparently he was using the VOR approach. The GPS approach was 100 feet lower so myself and the other planes were able to get in.
 
“Courtesy” is in the name of the car. Do leave your contact info in case they need it back. Do bring cupcakes or cookies to the staff at the FBO if they let you use it longer than the normal limit. Don’t take it off road through a river and destroy the engine. Don’t drive it out of state for the month. Don’t drive it to another airport and leave it in the long term parking lot for the FBO to try to track down and recover. Don’t drive it 3 hours away to a solar eclipse fly-in at another airport. Do buy some fuel even if you don’t need it. Do be the kind of person who, when you have to divert for weather and ask the FBO to help with a rental car to drive 200 miles to your meeting, they offer the courtesy car and waive the usual fee for taking it more than a couple hours. Don’t ignore the placards about weird battery disconnects.
 
iamtheari said:
“Courtesy” is in the name of the car. Do leave your contact info in case they need it back. Do bring cupcakes or cookies to the staff at the FBO if they let you use it longer than the normal limit. Don’t take it off road through a river and destroy the engine. Don’t drive it out of state for the month. Don’t drive it to another airport and leave it in the long term parking lot for the FBO to try to track down and recover. Don’t drive it 3 hours away to a solar eclipse fly-in at another airport. Do buy some fuel even if you don’t need it. Do be the kind of person who, when you have to divert for weather and ask the FBO to help with a rental car to drive 200 miles to your meeting, they offer the courtesy car and waive the usual fee for taking it more than a couple hours. Don’t ignore the placards about weird battery disconnects.
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And put gas in it. More than you used if a longer use. At least a bit for a lunch run, especially if it is low.
 
Pinecone said:
And put gas in it. More than you used if a longer use. At least a bit for a lunch run, especially if it is low.
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I've considered throwing an OBD-II code reader in my flight bag and making "Hey, that guy turned off the check engine light in the courtesy car!" into my calling card.
 
Half Fast said:
- Don't argue with other pilots on the radio. Just agree to meet in the street at sundown, fifty paces apart, and settle it there.
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You don't like the method where two pilots both think they have the right-of-way and neither gives way until they end up in a fireball? Hey, at least the NTSB can decide who won the fight.
 
Lowflynjack said:
You don't like the method where two pilots both think they have the right-of-way and neither gives way until they end up in a fireball? Hey, at least the NTSB can decide who won the fight.
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A little bit of courtesy and common sense would go a long way in this world. Sadly we are running short on both these days.
 
Lowflynjack said:
You don't like the method where two pilots both think they have the right-of-way and neither gives way until they end up in a fireball? Hey, at least the NTSB can decide who won the fight.
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Hmmmm.......

Y’know, if we all armed our planes with guns and maybe a Sidewinder or two, I’d bet there’d be a lot more courtesy in the air. An armed society is a polite society.
 
All the above pretty much logical, acceptable, and sometimes humerous. But… how about this ? Let’s base our common courtesies on the reminder of how blessed, lucky, and privileged we are to have the aviation freedoms that we do in the good ol’ US of A…. juz sayin’
 
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