Never Ever Ever Again

My primary training was that at unfamiliar airports (sounds like where you went), to overfly at least once to check winds and look for anyone on the ground that might be doing a run up, might be either getting on or off the runway, may be taxiing, or anything that might be a conflict. After my PP, those lessons have stuck and even though I may do a straight in, it's normally when I do have the winds and few of the airports I use have sight-line problems where I can't see the other end of the rwy on final.

It could be that you were transmitting and receiving just fine but the other plane wasn't. I'm not the first one that's used the wrong numbers for the rwys.

Lessons learned? Figure out the winds even if you have to use intuition, head on a swivel, eyes moving, expect there to be other airplanes, and expect radio calls to be either missing or incorrect.
 
WannFly said:
Things happen at “pilot controlled” airports, be vigilant. There is no reason to negate straight in approach .

If I didn’t do straight in, I won’t be going anywhere much .

Let the discussion begin about entering traffic patterns ....
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"Pilot controlled" airports are a myth, IMO. I've heard and seen too much out-of-control stuff at such airports.
 
Thursday I was at local non towered airport practicing cross wind landings . I announced every pattern entry , runway usage . 13 times . My last traffic pattern and landing I saw no traffic, heard no traffic . I landed and taxied to Hanger . When I looked there was another airplane at tie down by the office. It some how came in behind me with a straight in. No announcement on radio. Later visiting with the pilot and his wife he said he could clearly hear my radio announcements . After he left office I asked airport manager if he had heard any calls from him . Nope.
He is a retired airline pilot , over 25000 hours time.
Manager said that is very common for out of area pilots to do straight in arrivals with no radio announcements at these small town non towered airports .
He had to been just in behind me on final.
He was from Atlanta Ga. Heading to a RAF fly in at Ryan field by Glacier Park.
We had a nice visit the next morning while they were waiting for the weather to clear at Ryan field .
Can see the Rocky Mountain Front from the airport here . He asked how many miles ?
It's 60-90 miles looking up and down the range. He was amazed at how clear the air was.
 
Southpaw said:
Thursday I was at local non towered airport practicing cross wind landings . I announced every pattern entry , runway usage . 13 times . My last traffic pattern and landing I saw no traffic, heard no traffic . I landed and taxied to Hanger . When I looked there was another airplane at tie down by the office. It some how came in behind me with a straight in. No announcement on radio. Later visiting with the pilot and his wife he said he could clearly hear my radio announcements . After he left office I asked airport manager if he had heard any calls from him . Nope.
He is a retired airline pilot , over 25000 hours time.
Manager said that is very common for out of area pilots to do straight in arrivals with no radio announcements at these small town non towered airports .
He had to been just in behind me on final.
He was from Atlanta Ga. Heading to a RAF fly in at Ryan field by Glacier Park.
We had a nice visit the next morning while they were waiting for the weather to clear at Ryan field .
Can see the Rocky Mountain Front from the airport here . He asked how many miles ?
It's 60-90 miles looking up and down the range. He was amazed at how clear the air was.
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What’s going on in the heads of these guys? Complacency? They’re used to vectored approaches at class B and just lost the instinct to worry about other traffic themselves? They figure there’s that much more “big sky” at little bitty airports? It’s the copilot talking to ATC all the time so they just forget to talk on the radio when flying single pilot? What??
 
I don't know what happened with the radio calls, but my question is simply, why would the CFI do a straight in approach on a windy day without knowing the winds? Doesn't sound like a very safe CFI to me.
 
Bart Goins said:
I don't know what happened with the radio calls, but my question is simply, why would the CFI do a straight in approach on a windy day without knowing the winds? Doesn't sound like a very safe CFI to me.
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It is possible he had a good idea of the winds by comparing gps ground speed. Not saying that it’s a good idea to leave the student in the cold though, if that was the case.
 
woodchucker said:
It is possible he had a good idea of the winds by comparing gps ground speed. Not saying that it’s a good idea to leave the student in the cold though, if that was the case.
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Having "a good idea of the winds by comparing gps ground speed" is a bit different from knowing what the windsock is doing. When you're responsible for teaching a student how to do things the "right way," you must first do things the "right way" yourself. There is no excuse for cutting corners where others' lives will be at stake based on what you taught them.
 
Bart Goins said:
Having "a good idea of the winds by comparing gps ground speed" is a bit different from knowing what the windsock is doing. When you're responsible for teaching a student how to do things the "right way," you must first do things the "right way" yourself. There is no excuse for cutting corners where others' lives will be at stake based on what you taught them.
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Never claimed it was a good idea. Just speculating. Not disagreeing with anything you said and if I was a CFI not something I would do. In my recent flight review both my cfi and myself were not confident in the local AWOS at our practice airport and I suggested an overflight to check the sock and he agreed. There was another plane in the pattern flying opposite wind direction and we suggested switching directions based on the windsock.
 
Yes, always good to look at the runway a bit before landing.

Back to wind direction, most should have a handle on expected winds before arriving. Besides some weather checks ahead of time, one sees waves on lakes, smoke stacks, along track AWOS, flags waving, whatever. If the airport has a rwy 29, NW breeze all afternoon, one expects to land on 29. You really don’t need to see the windsock to know the wind favors that runway.
 
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