Some people...

[Ghery]

I got up this afternoon (for the first time since the end of February). Sure felt good. Grabbed the Arrow and shot a few T&Gs and then departed to the north. No particular plan, but thought a T&G at PWT would be a good idea before heading back to the barn. Monitored the ASOS and CTAF from a good distance out. Two other planes were approaching the airport ahead of me and I wound up being #3 for the left downwind for rwy 19. ASOS was reporting the wind from 230 degrees.

While we all were making our calls and setting up for the pattern a Bo on the ground called out that he was taxiing to rwy 1. 1? Here are three planes calling rwy 19 with winds from 230 degrees and this guy heads for 1. Finally one of the pilots ahead of me called him and mentioned that we were all landing 19. The Bo pilot came back and said that he had landed on 1 a bit ago, so what gives? I called out that ASOS was reporting winds from 230 degrees. Nothing more was heard from the Bo, but I saw him taxiing to rwy 19 as I was turning final. Guess he finally got the message. Must have been in a hurry as he reported position and hold while I wasn't much past the flair and he called out that he was rolling very shortly after I broke ground on my T&G. I was afraid he was going to fly up my tail, but I guess he went elsewhere as he didn't pass me while I was returning to OLM.

Gotta love uncontrolled fields. At least everyone was talking and listening (more or less).

 

[SkyHog]

While I agree that he was being a bit reckless, technically, as PIC, he does have the option to pick what ever runway he wants, as long as he's smart about it.

In this case, following you right off the T&G was probably not very smart.

 

[tom.]

ASOS was reporting the wind from 230 degrees.

What was the wind speed? That might explain what happened.

 

[Ghery]

What was the wind speed? That might explain what happened.

Around 6 knots, if I remember correctly.

When this guy said he landed on rwy 1 earlier, let's consider that he was taxiing from the parking at the airport cafe (a great place to go, BTW). If he ate there, it had been a while since he landed and the winds could have shifted substantially during that time. Poor planning on his part to not get the latest off the ASOS before leaving his tie down.

 

[Ken Ibold]

I'm sure he intended to verify the tailwind takeoff numbers out of his POH.

 

[Ghery]

I'm sure he intended to verify the tailwind takeoff numbers out of his POH.

Probably. If you're going to do that, a 6000 foot runway at just over 400 MSL is a good place to try it. Personally, I think I'll skip the test pilot gig.

 

[EdFred]

6 knots. That's no big deal. I've taken off with that much of a tail wind before because I didn't want to taxi to the other end of the field. 2kts = 10% increase in ground roll or so. A 30% increase in take off roll still puts me under 1000' the way I am usually loaded.

 

[AirplaneIt]

The pilot may have been using a procedure that you may not have been aware of. Many uncontrolled fields have a designated calm wind runway. From my experience, it's usually "When wind is less than 6 knots, use runway x". The thing is, local users of the airport aren't often good at telling other people about a designated calm wind runway. Perhaps they put it on the the terminal bulletin board. Maybe it's difficult to get into the A/FD, I don't know. Now do I agree with the use of a calm wind runway? Not really. For two reasons. First, wind speed at the airport surface is nowhere near the wind speed it is up two or three hundred feet. It makes for a very fun final approach. I've watched trainers in the pattern happily landing with a light tailwind. I don't think the CFI was realizing why his student couldn't make it onto the ground in the first half of the runway. Have you ever landed with a tailwind? It takes a huge power reduction to maintain a good glide slope, and that's if you catch it in time. You may be full idle and still floating further above your normal glide path. The second reason I don't like landing with a tailwind involves my experience in tailwheel airplanes. There's a certain speed where there's not enough air flowing over the tail for the rudder to be effective, and you're still too fast to be doing an effective job of steering with the tailwheel. I've seen my friend refer to it as "the speed at which interesting things happen". Now if you land with a tailwind, your ground speed will be more, but airspeed will be normal. That means as you decerlate, your rudder will lose effectiveness at a higher ground speed. You're exposing yourself to that sensitive speed for a longer period of time. I've done this a few times. Enough to know I'd rather land into the wind, no matter how light.

 

[Ghery]

The pilot may have been using a procedure that you may not have been aware of. Many uncontrolled fields have a designated calm wind runway.

Perhaps, but this is an airport I've been into many times and I don't recall anything in the A/FD saying anything about a calm wind runway. Anyway, he was outnumbered, 3 to 1.

 

[MSmith]

In this case, following you right off the T&G was probably not very smart.

Did he know that you were gonna do a T&G before he went into position and hold? (Did you state such on the radio?)

If yes, then it was a bad move on his part. If not, he might have just been trying to get out of everybody's way as fast as possible once you cleared the runway. Since you didn't full stop, and he was in position he had the choice of going back to the taxiway/turnaround or getting off the ground and staying out of your way.

When my local airport does it's O'Hare impression and I'm just leaving the pattern, I'll position and hold as long as you are on the ground and nobody is on final and get my tail off the ground so as to avoid messing everybody else up or waiting a long time to get off. I wouldn't do that if there was a guy on base who announced a T&G.

 

[Ghery]

Did he know that you were gonna do a T&G before he went into position and hold? (Did you state such on the radio?)

Yes, he did, because I announced it (more than once). Also stated my intent to depart to the south on the go. I was a bit surprised to hear him announce that he was rolling "very" shortly after I broke ground. The plane ahead of me landed and was clear of the runway well ahead of me (about 1/2 mile final as he taxied clear). Not sure about the guy ahead of him, but he couldn't have been more than midfield on the downwind, so there really wasn't a hurry for this guy, other than his Hobbs was running.

 

[Everskyward]

Gotta love uncontrolled fields. At least everyone was talking and listening (more or less).

Speaking of that, I'm wondering what people's feelings are about those who fly around busy uncontrolled fields with no radio, or at least not using one. I know that it's perfectly legal and within their right to do so but it doesn't seem all that wise.