It’s been said for many years the private pilot certificate is a license to learn.
The underlying intent of the statement holds that with a private pilot certificate we have the freedom to get out and fly, to gain experience, and through that experience we might become better pilots.
That was the idea, anyway. In actual practice, not all experience leads to beneficial instruction.Consider this: Every time you fly, or cook dinner, or mow the lawn, you have an experience. Whether that experience is educational or not is something of a crap shoot. To a large extent, the determining factor has a lot to do with your attitude.
It is possible to do the same thing over and over again without ever gleaning a single new insight from the process. Then again, it’s just as possible to discover something profound by simply thinking about the actions you might take, and recognizing nuances you’ve never noticed before.
Perhaps the most important thing for us to consider about learning is that it is not a one-way street. We can learn lessons that help us function better, or we can misinterpret our lessons and develop bad habits that lead us away from actual knowledge and toward simple belief.
Belief is bad. A dedication to belief in place of knowledge can put you in the hurt locker quick. And it might put some innocent in there with you.
Let me give you an example. While returning from a trip to south Florida recently, I called Miami Center to let them know my destination was in sight. I cancelled Flight Following, squawked 1200, and flipped over to the CTAF at my destination to listen for any traffic in the pattern.
There was only one aircraft up at that point. He was doing pattern work, and I heard him calling the same legs over and over as I approached. Each time around the pattern he called, Upwind, Crosswind, Downwind, Base, and Final.
Now I’m not going to quibble that Upwind is inaccurate on a takeoff. You’re really on the departure leg. Upwind suggests a go-around, when you’re flying in the direction of runway orientation, but off to the right side of the runway in order to keep a clear view of the traffic that might be coming up off the strip as you fly past. His call was technically incorrect, but it was understandable. There was a problem brewing though.
A low broken layer kept me from overflying the airport, so to get into a position where I could enter the pattern 45° to the downwind, I flew well to the east of the field, a good five miles from the departure end of the runway, headed north. That ultimately gave me a clear shot at turning into the airport, joining the pattern in the manner prescribed by the Aeronautical Information Manual, and making appropriate radio calls as I came in. All the while, the one airplane in the pattern continued to fly around the pattern.
What caught my ear most was the speed with which he transitioned from one leg to another. It was quick. Really quick. I assumed I was looking for a very powerful low wing, single-engine airplane that was moving at a high rate of speed. With eyes outside the cockpit 98% of the time, I prepared to enter the pattern.
I called that I was on a two-mile 45 to the downwind. He called downwind. I couldn’t see him and said so. I was concerned that I couldn’t pick this airplane out, so I began my turn to downwind a bit wider than I normally would, and called it on the CTAF. The other airplane called upwind.
That surprised me. He’d just called downwind 30 seconds earlier, now he was apparently going around. I called that I was looking for the traffic and established on downwind. He called that he was looking for me. I was approaching mid-field, on downwind, when I found him.
The other airplane was off my left wing, at perhaps 400 AGL, headed in my direction. His flight path was perpendicular to the runway, but well short of the departure end. Suddenly I knew how he was completing the pattern so quickly. He was turning crosswind as soon as he broke ground, turning downwind at half the altitude established for the pattern, and generally being where he wasn’t supposed to be for the entire circuit.
It was sad, but clear, from this experience that the other pilot had indeed been using his private pilot certificate as a license to learn, but he’d been learning all the wrong things. Rather than climb out on runway heading until he was 300 feet below pattern altitude and beyond the departure end of the runway as the AIM suggests, he simply turned crosswind at will.
This put him in the position to call downwind from not far beyond mid-field at an altitude well below that of the published traffic pattern. He was routinely putting himself in a position where no other pilot would be looking for him throughout his entire circuit of the pattern.
In essence, he had taught himself through experience to be unsafe, and to render the traffic pattern unsafe to others. That’s not what your CFI meant when (s)he said you had earned your license to learn. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of what they hoped you’d do with your ticket.
We all make mistakes. We all suffer from lapses of judgement. As human beings, that is unavoidable. But to learn, to truly learn we must start from a position that we all find uncomfortable; an acknowledgement of our own ignorance.
If we do that, we learn, we grow, and we become better more skillful people. If we don’t…well, as pilots it would be best if we avoid pioneering that region of the envelope.
Well this scenario seems so recognizable. After 40+ years flying as a Private/Commercial/ATP/CFI &CFII/Flt. Eng, / Pilot Examiner. I too have experienced similar situations. The bottom line is: Never expect that the aircraft that is in the pattern that you intend to enter is in the same frame of mind as you are!! Never dwell on what “he” is doing, rather what are you going to do to safely operate in an environment that you deem unsafe!
So, enjoy what you have the opportunity to do and do it safely. If you really feel that there is a “safety of flight” situation, report it to the local FISDO. This could be a singular situation or an accident waiting for a place to happen.
That is all.
ASSUME? Well this could mean; Making an … out of . and ..!
Fly safe and never “ASSUME”!
Personal bug-a-boo is the right traffic departure at a left traffic airport to get on course quicker. Or the right traffic arrival on the base leg because it is quicker than overflying or flying around he field. People keep getting away with it because they have been getting away with it. Normalization of Deviance.
Till the day a NORDO arrive in the pattern because of an electrical failure and is flying strict left pattern to be “safe”. I’m sure the NORDO’s head is already on a swivel – but the right traffic flyer just upped the ante.
What would it take to climb another 500ft above TPA and be “out the pattern” if you need to turn right? About another minute for most aircraft….
In non-towered, uncontrolled airports I will make suggested calls as the AIM details, but if I am not sure what others are doing I will ask them a DIRECT question. In short, if you were not sure what this guy was doing have a conversation with him to get it figured out. Many forget that the first purpose of radio communications is COMMUNICATIONS, that is use the device to actually figure out what others are doing if not clear….forget the formality of the calls. Also, never forget a radio is not required and there can always be someone flying in an unexpected way with no comms at all….. If not sure, stay away….take the time to figure it out before entering the fray.
In Canada I would have reported both pilots to the appropriate authorities (both the low circuit flying guy and the older fellow that cut you off). I have no patience for nonsense like that.
How do we know this person was a licensed pilot?
He probably had a flying license but with poor training.
No one will know you are a licensed pilot unless someone demands to see your flying license. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of licensed pilots around the world who act very dumb and very stupid when they position themselves in the cockpit. We see them flying around.
Happy landings !!
I hope you took the opportunity to point out the error of this pilot’s pattern work.
From my experience this does not go well. No pilot likes to hear “your doing it wrong” in any way shape or form.
My best experience in this was when I was flying into a small untowered airport. When overflying the field I noticed a wonderful looking yellow Cub moving from the apron to the taxiway. Fine by me I made sure to give plenty of radio calls on entering and being in the pattern. On downwind I noticed the Cub at the hold short line. I call Final, and Short Final. As soon as I call short final the Cub pulls out onto the runway and starts its takeoff roll. I go around, and sidestep the runway and was not very thrilled as I was somewhere between 50-75 feet off the ground when the Cub decided to pull this stunt.
On the ground I learned from the locals the pilot of the Cub was a very elderly gentleman that most likely no longer had a valid medical that took his Cub up around the pattern about 3 times a year and that was it for his flying. Once he did his 3 times around the pattern and landed I went to go talk to him and stated next time around would he mind checking final before going out on the runway. That’s when I got an earful. I was not so nicely informed that he had been flying at that airport since before I was born, and if anything I was in his way and was impeding his flying. Additionally I should have known he was going to take off and got out of his way.
After that incident most of the time all I do now is file the anonymous NASA reports when something like that happens and that is it.
There is experience and experiences. As mentioned experience can come from many different sources, study, discussion, etc. Experiences are those things you actually did and survived!
My goodness that is scary. I haven’t run into an issue like that when flying and hope I don’t.
Wonderful scenario Jamie Beckett. These incidents keep happening, whether you are learning to fly and adding hours for private pilot’s license or commercial pilot’s license. Learning is a never ending process and to enhance good retention and sustainability, doses of motivating factor is needed. When we fly airline schedules, there too, a learning process is involved. Every sortie is different than the you recently completed and there is so much to learn from it. A pilot may have ten thousand hours or more but how that time is spent in the cockpit will decide how and what that pilot is going to be like.
Jamie: How about doing a column on the Fiasco the FAA created when they decided it was a good idea to use a person’s SSN as a license number. Now there are people SSN’s out there in log books and the FAA has done nothing to correct the problem other than let people get a new number. That doesn’t remove the SSN’s from the hundreds of log books all over the country.