AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2022 - 26

SAFETY SPOTLIGHT
Confessions of a
self-centered pilot
A personal journey to more communal flying
BY RICHARD MCSPADDEN / Senior Vice President, AOPA
Air Safety Institute / AOPA Foundation Legacy Society member
SEVERAL YEARS BACK, I had a more individualistic approach
to my flying. I arrived at VFR patterns in whatever fashion
suited my personal situation. I'd flow into existing traffic,
but also didn't hesitate to fly a straight-in or an unorthodox
entry if I thought I could work it in. My approach worked out OK.
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
26
AOPA PILOT / November 2022
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 straightins,
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.
richard.mcspadden@aopa.org
SpadMcSpadden
PropBlast
RICHARD MCSPADDEN
leads the AOPA Air Safety
Institute.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2022

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