Who goes first?
- Thread starter ppragman
- Start date
R
Roger, Roger
Guest
Good lord, who was out there that was half the speed of a 206?
Musta been one of those Champs or Cubs that floats around out there...
Musta been one of those Champs or Cubs that floats around out there...
Guy
Well-Known Member
Why do GA pilots Insist on adding "about" when they give their distance?
ppragman said:
There is no "one size fits all" answer here.
Say you are landing 18. Slower airplane calls 5 north and faster calls 5 south. The faster has twice the flying miles to get to the same point: enter downwind, base, final VS the slower plane already being on a five mile final.
One size never fits all...
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
Damm... I was going to say that before I'd even read this thread. I just saw the title and was going to post it.
True story...
Yesterday in BHM we taxied out for CLT at about 38 past the hour. We had been given a 51 past void time. Anyhow, they were using 24 and it's pretty good taxi to the end so we'd told them we could take intersection Bravo or Alpha 7. They told us to go to the end anyway. So off we went.
About the time we got to the end Southwest called for taxi and was given instructions to taxi to intersection Bravo (as were the next two Southwest planes that called to taxi although the Eagle RJ the called was given full length).
We called ready at the end and was told there was a plane on final (about 4 miles out.... heheh) and were told to hold short. The plane lands and clears and Southwest is cleared for take off from Bravo. I *politely* asked tower if we had some sort of wheels up time we didn't know about and he sort of hemmed and hawed and then said yes, we did, it would be just a few more minutes. But when I asked him when it actually was he just said "soon". Then he proceeded to launch the two other Southwest flights off from Bravo and then cleared us to go.
I was actually pretty ticked off about the whole thing but seeing as it's pretty much SOP in a lot of places, and I hate to be one of those whiny pilots, I let it go, until this thread popped up.
As far as the OP's question... I'd guess best equipped, best served. Assuming everything else is equal.
FM_Weasel
Well-Known Member
The more straight in aircraft will typically be first unless there's a huge disparity in speeds and distances. An aircraft approaching from opposite direction will have several more miles after reaching the airport to fly the downwind, base, and turn final. So even if the guy on the straight in is much slower, many times he'll beat the faster guy from the opposite direction, or at least tie it up.
If they're from the same general direction and one is much faster, he's usually first. Sometimes as the situation develops it doesn't always work out how you originally thought it should. Then you toss one of them in somewhere else in the pattern and make a sequence, or issue a turn, or get one to see the other and let them figure it out (only in some airspaces is this allowed/safe). It's all highly fluid and variable.
If they're from the same general direction and one is much faster, he's usually first. Sometimes as the situation develops it doesn't always work out how you originally thought it should. Then you toss one of them in somewhere else in the pattern and make a sequence, or issue a turn, or get one to see the other and let them figure it out (only in some airspaces is this allowed/safe). It's all highly fluid and variable.
Bumblebee
Commodore
or maybe a VOR DME?
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
I don't think I've EVERY read back a tenth of a mile to ATC. I'd guess most of us barbie jet pilots do it the same way we'd do it in a 152.
Barty
Well-Known Member
If you actually want to fiddle with something like that when you're VFR, knock yourself out. Most airports don't have a VOR at the field, which means you're having to do some math to figure out your relationship to the nearest VOR and then its relationship to the field.
If you have a CHART (you know, those paper things) handy, you can probably locate yourself fairly quickly and come up with a good ballpark figure if you're not intimately familiar with the area.
Guy
Well-Known Member
So, if you are flying with a GPS you report your distance in tenths do you?
Nope, I generally give them a distance rounded to the nearest mile and a direction so they know where to look for me. Usually the tenths are counting away fast enough that by the time I read the tenth off, it's changed by a mile. ATC doesn't pull out a protractor and measure the distance to the tenth. If I tell them I am X miles in X direction, they know where to look for me. Ex: Van Nuys Twr, Cheiftian XXXX, 4 miles north west New Hall Pass with X-ray. If there is a concern over where I am at, they have many tools to help ID me. I guess my point is what exactally are you accomplishing by giving a distance readout to the nearest tenth when it's changing so fast?
Bumblebee
Commodore
by the time you say 9.3 miles you are 9.1 and by the time they see you on the radar you are 8.7
Bumblebee
Commodore
I never said it did!
dasleben
That's just, like, your opinion, man
If I had a nickel for each time I've been put behind a light sport, extended, spun around, broken off an approach, etc. behind someone going ridiculously slow ahead...damn, that'd be a lot of nickels. And my plane is slow! 
Actually, I got broken off an ILS a month or so ago because I had a 60 knot overtake on a Mooney. Considering I was slowed and configured at 120-130, just how slow was this guy going? Apparently he was doing 60 knots from the marker aaaaaall the way to the runway. Argh!
Actually, I got broken off an ILS a month or so ago because I had a 60 knot overtake on a Mooney. Considering I was slowed and configured at 120-130, just how slow was this guy going? Apparently he was doing 60 knots from the marker aaaaaall the way to the runway. Argh!