My primary flight training was accomplished at a towered airport with airline service. I often wonder whether this was a plus or minus. Long runways, complex taxiways, and delays in getting into the air because of heavier traffic all contributed to two-tenths of an hour — or more — of taxi time each lesson. To me this was burning up valuable dollars that I had put aside for flight training, not ground training. Once I received my certificate, I was somewhat intimidated by nontowered airports, and 3,000 feet seemed like a short runway for the Cessna 172. I was almost jealous of my friends who trained at the local nontowered airport. Were they better equipped to handle the wide variety of general aviation airports?
Obviously, as I flew more I became comfortable with nontowered fields, and realized that long runways could be used for short-field practice by merely touching down on the numbers. But some 30 years later there is another aspect that makes me glad I had the fortune to learn to fly from a towered airport.
A little more than a year ago, I was invited by the FAA administrator to participate in what she termed a "high level" meeting with her management team — associate administrators overseeing the various disciplines of the agency. The meeting covered a topic on which AOPA and the AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF) have worked for more years than I would like to acknowledge — runway incursions. The administrator considers the subject so critical that she holds this unique kind of meeting every month to six weeks, and I regularly participate — the only industry representative invited to do so.
As a private pilot, and not an instructor, I was shocked by the data shared at the most recent FAA meeting, so I turned to ASF for more analysis. The foundation produced a report that covers all surface deviations by pilots. What it showed is that entering a runway or taxiway without a clearance accounts for almost two-thirds of all deviations. They happen during the day and in VFR weather, not at night as I would have expected. Some 56 percent of these involve single-engine aircraft, so although air carriers do have surface deviations, it's also a major general aviation problem. Leading the list of deviations are Cessna 172s, with almost double the number of errors as Piper Warriors and Archers. But, once again, these are GA training and entry-level aircraft. A majority of the pilots causing these incursions are students, private pilots, and flight instructors. They happen most frequently to those with less than 100 hours total time, or time in type. These figures sure made me glad that I learned to fly at a towered airport, but most primary students do not.
We can, whether students or seasoned pilots, prepare better for ground operations at all airports, particularly those with towers. My preflight regime is to look at not only the route I will fly, but also to study the airport diagrams of any facility I plan to use. Several commercially available printed guides offer these at a reasonable price. Some 2,600 airport diagrams are contained in AOPA's Airport Directory and AOPA's Airport Directory Online; both are free to members. And as a result of the FAA meetings, the agency and ASF have provided VFR pilots with more than 460 detailed airport diagrams that depict taxiway identifiers. These free diagrams, covering a majority of the towered airports in the United States, have been on the ASF Web site ( www.aopa.org/asf/publications/taxi/) for almost a year.
Check the runway and taxiway diagrams before you ever leave your home. I often use a copy machine to enlarge the airport diagram and then highlight the area where the FBO or GA parking is located. The forecast winds for the destination airport, or one nearby, usually indicate which runway will be active. Predicting a touchdown point based on the type aircraft I am flying, I then determine which taxiway off the active will lead me to parking. Unless winds are really a factor, many towers will allow you to request a runway, and in this case, I always ask for the one with the simplest and shortest taxi route.
Obviously, this doesn't always work at large air carrier airports. On a recent business trip into busy Dallas/Fort Worth International, some 30 miles out I requested a parallel runway that would put me right into GA parking. Instead, I got a crosswind runway several miles from the FBO, and taxied for 20 minutes! It is rare that I use airports this size, unless they are close to my intended business stop. In hindsight, I could have used a close-in GA airport and driven back to DFW in the time it took to taxi.
My personal philosophy is that it is often more difficult on the ground than it is in the air. Altitude gives you the advantage of looking down and getting a perspective on where you are in relation to where you want to go. Take a night operation at a large towered airport, and from the close-to-the-ground cockpit of today's lightplane, you lose much of your reference. Become familiar with taxiway/runway signage and markings — airports have spent millions to equip with simple and readable signs. Anticipate what the controller will ask you to do. Plan your way to and from the active runway before you enter the cockpit.
Of those incidents labeled as pilot deviations, 75 percent involved GA aircraft. Keep in mind that the GA fleet comprises 90 percent of all aircraft. Surface deviations are not just a general aviation problem, and I would like to see our improvement equal or better that of the airlines. In all cases pilots are key to the solution, and critical to preventing a catastrophic event from occurring.
AOPA will continue to work at the national level to avoid further regulations or more expensive training solutions — but all of us who are pilots must increase our preparation and awareness when taxiing.
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