Confessions of a self-centered pilot

I don’t ever remember conflicts, but I am likely unaware of stress I caused other pilots or events where other pilots modified their patterns to accommodate my custom arrival. I’ve come to appreciate the value in a more consistent, predictable, and communal approach to my flying. It’s a work in progress.

The fundamental problem with my previous approach is that it didn’t embrace general aviation’s milieu. We’re part of a varied collection of hundreds of thousands of individual pilots flying thousands of different airplane types into some 5,000 airports nationally. We conduct more than 20 million operations a year safely by adhering to procedures and protocols that optimize our community. The procedures or guidelines may sub-optimize my personal situation on occasion, but holistically, these guides optimize our community and our overall safety, which in turn comes back to benefit me personally. My fundamental shift—still underway—is to embrace the notion that I’m an individual pilot flying as part of a thriving, friendly, passionate, and concerned GA community. By adhering to basic procedures my actions benefit all of us.

I have the great fortune of flying into several sizeable GA events every year in different types of aircraft. Time and again, impressive volumes of aircraft flown by wide-ranging pilot experience levels flow safely, without professional traffic control. Kitfoxes to Pilatuses, flowing into a pattern and landing on a single runway—and we do it working in unison. Having that same mindset every time we arrive at any airfield—particularly nontowered fields—will help us reduce the number of midair collisions we have in GA, some six every year, 80 percent of which are in or near the VFR traffic pattern.

A couple of tragic midairs this year, each that involved nonstandard pattern entry from an airplane in the collision, brought VFR traffic patterns into focus (see “Disastrous Course of Action,” p. 78). Our regulations and guidelines in general aviation are broad. It doesn’t take much to adhere to them, and when we remember we’re acting as participants in a broader community, they seem even less onerous. FAR 91.126 mandates left turns in patterns at nontowered airports in Class G airspace, unless the airport signals otherwise. FAR 91.113 gives right-of-way to the lowest of two aircraft when both are approaching the airport for landing, while an aircraft on final or landing has right-of-way over others in flight or operating on the ground. As if reading pilots’ minds, the regulation goes on to prohibit a pilot from taking advantage of these rules to cut another aircraft off or pass them in the pattern.

Other publications offer guidance and techniques in supporting our goal to fly as a community. Predictability in aviation has time and again proven to be an elixir for safety. Guidance in chapter four of The Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) directs pattern entry from a 45-degree angle that intercepts downwind at midfield, at pattern altitude, and at pattern speed. An accompanying note encourages pilots to use this standard entry, although it acknowledges some pilots will still choose a straight-in approach. AIM guidance is clear that straight-ins should not disrupt the flow of arriving and departing traffic. Both the Airplane Flying Handbook chapter eight, and FAA Advisory Circular 90-66B reinforce the FAA’s views on pattern operations by clarifying the 45 cut to downwind as the preferred pattern entry, and clearly stating that IFR arrivals do not have priority over VFR traffic. AC 90-66B specifically warns against the dangers of climbing or descending at downwind entry because of the limits of visibility in both arriving and established pattern traffic.

Guidance for VFR traffic patterns seems appropriately balanced: not too restrictive, and yet enough for all of us to fly anywhere in the country and to be able to predict pattern behavior from pilots we’ve never met and never flown with.

I still fly straight-ins on occasion. I may choose a straight-in if I’m sure no one else is in the pattern or about to depart. But experience has taught me to be wary of that “surety.” ADS-B In helps, but it doesn’t paint all traffic; good radios help, but not everyone flies with a radio; I’ve long since realized the limits of visual scans and “see and avoid” to detect all traffic near me. So, I rarely fly straight-ins, and instead choose to embrace this friendly and supportive GA community I’m a part of and contribute to it by flying predictably.

My name is Richard, and it’s been 13 flights since my last nonstandard pattern entry.

[email protected]

Instagram: SpadMcSpadden, TikTok: PropBlast