Flight Training - November 2013 - 34

You’ve done your preflight, climbed in and buckled up, and
now you’re ready to start the engine. But
you notice a pilot sauntering out to the
airplane immediately next to yours on the
line. Or maybe he is at the airplane behind
yours, with the doors open and gear on
the ground. In either case, he appears
to be in no rush to pack the aircraft and
climb in.
You could shout, “Clear prop” and turn
the engine over, and be perfectly within
your rights. But that might not be the
safest alternative, or the best way to make
friends at the airport. You could just as
easily ask the pilot to clear the area so
you could start up. Or you might ask if
he would mind closing the doors for a
moment so you can start up and taxi clear
without blasting loose debris into his
cockpit with your prop wash. And there
is always the alternative to simply wait
patiently. With the engine shut down, the

Hobbs isn’t running. While this may be
the least convenient option, it is a safe,
neighborly alternative that literally costs
you nothing.

where the best spots are to do your runup.
If you’re a local, share the information
freely. Everyone benefits.

It can be tremendously frustrating to be taxiing out to take off and find
yourself stuck on the taxiway behind a
student and instructor doing the world’s
longest runup. The irritation factor can
be increased exponentially if the aircraft
waiting in line is burning Jet A and has a
clearance void time to meet or beat.
The solution of course is to find a place
to do runups that satisfy the cooling
requirements of the aircraft while leaving
you with sufficient time to work without feeling rushed. Ideally you’ll find a
spot to do your runup that still provides
a clear taxiway for others to pass by. At
some airports there are “bump outs,” or
paved areas alongside the taxiway that
allow sufficient room for an airplane to
do a runup. In other cases, a corner of
the ramp may be designated as a run-up
area. If you’re passing through, check the
Airport/Facilities Directory to see if there’s
an appropriate notation, or ask the locals

The phases of flight with the highest
workload, the most precise alignment
with the ground, and often the densest
traffic are the take-off and landing phases.
And unless you’re at a very large airport
that designates one runway for takeoff and
a parallel or nearly parallel runway for
landing, the odds are good all the aircraft
awaiting departure are sharing the same
runway with the aircraft already in the
traffic pattern.
For those on the ground this can be a
real issue. The aircraft on final has the
right of way, so the airplane at the holdshort line waits. If there are multiple
aircraft in the traffic pattern, that aircraft
awaiting departure can feel grounded on a
nearly permanent basis. This is especially
true at a nontowered field with multiple
students in the traffic pattern, all doing
touch and goes.
The Hobbs keeps racking up time, the
engine keeps burning fuel, and the pilot
of the stationary airplane begins to fume.
It’s an unfortunate and unnecessarily
common occurrence at nontowered fields
across the land.
Flight Training - November 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - November 2013
