Midfield Entry HOBBS 658.0 hrs

http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/sa08.pdf

I wanted to take a minute to discuss operations at nontowered airports. Over the weekend, as you know, I was part of a flight of 5 aircraft that flew to Greeley (GXY) for breakfast. Scott and I, along with Gary were a flight of two. Rudy and Chuck were also a flight of two, and I believe Jerry was flying as a single bringing up the rear.

Greeley airport has a restaraunt right on the field and is very popular with the local pilots for breakfast. I had heard that is was one of the ten busiest GA airports for weekend breakfast traffic...not sure if thats true, but it does get busy. Since saturday had great weather and everyone had spring fever it was particularily busy even for them....the busiest I have seen it in my two dozen times flying there. Greeley, mind you, is also nontowered.

Here's the scene. As we approached, Scott made his call, as all pilots should at about ten miles out. "RV flight of two going to be entering midfield left downwind." There wasnt much chatter on the radio when we made that call so pattern congestion wasnt a major concern at this point. We were the first of our group of five so we were leading the pack. As we got close to the airfield and had a visual, we started hearing more traffic calls. It was getting busy.

We crossed over the runway at midfield and made our call announcing our position. Right after that, we hear of a Cirrus executing a go-around and also someone else makes a radio call and says they are also at midfield for left downwind. That always gets your attention, so Scott and I have our heads on a swivel looking for that traffic that is supposedly occupying the same airspace as us?

After a few tense seconds...I spot a yellow Cub, right off our left nose not more than what looks like about 500 ft away...BELOW us...we couldnt see him because they were below traffic pattern altitude and right in our blind spot! Very dangerous and is exactly why its so important to be disciplined with your TPA. Low and behold, things were getting intense as another Cub appears flying in trail behind the first. I couldnt help but think of the line in Top Gun, "there were bogeys like fireflies all over the sky." :)

Now that we have the traffic in sight, Scott makes a call to say we are going go go wide to give the slow flying Cubs some spacing for landing. The Cirrus calls immediately after us that "he has the RV flight of two (us) in sight and will slip in behind them in the pattern." So, some semblance of organization is taking shape although we now have approx 7 planes in the pattern at the same time.

Well, then the organization dissapears quickly as the Cirrus--with no radio call announcing his 'new' intentions--cuts inside our flight of two and turns base and proceeds to climb right up the backs of the two Cubs that are now on short final. Now it starts to get testy as the Cirrus comes on the radio talking about an RV cutting him off in the pattern (might've been referring to Chuck and Rudy's flight of two behind us? Since it was behind us I cant comment on what happened there?... Chuck said he didnt think he cut him off). So Gary responds with, "thanks for cuttting US off!" Apparently according to the Cirrus pilot if someone cuts you off, its somehow ok to cut someone else off? Not sure about the logic there but thats a good attitude to have when people's lives are on the line?

Anyhow, to wrap this up, a Bonanza landed...followed by the two Cubs, then Scott and I, then Gary...and then the last three of our group came in behind us. It was the most congested pattern flying this young pilot had ever experienced.

We had breakfast and talked about the events quite a bit. We all felt like we had excercised good airmanship and had done the right things. After we got back to home base...as I said, we hung out at the airport for several hours. The guy that had been flying the Bonanza and landed ahead of us stopped by to talk to us and deliver a serious message to us. He apparently knows most of the guys in our group at least in a casual sense...this was the first time I had met him. He is a retired air traffic controller as well so you figure he knows what he is talking about?

Basically, he says that what we did, executing a midfield entry into the pattern was 'illegal'. We, as a group, were kind of like...really? We didnt think that was accurate but no one had a FAR/AIM laying around to prove him wrong. So we listened to his message and didnt say much.

Well, later several of us did check and it turns out he was wrong...a midfield entry is a perfectly "legal' alternative way to enter the pattern at a nontowered airport. You can read all the details in this AC. In fact, all traffic pattern entries shown in the AC are "advisory in nature, not regulatory"...so nothing illegal occurred.

But then the question then becomes...ok, so it wasnt illegal, but was it safe? Thats the bottom line...losing your life, even if you're not breaking the rules is not the outcome we desire. ;) Thats a good question. Should we have done a midfield entry with that much traffic present? I'm not sure?...but as pilots, you should be thinking about it yourselves and developing your own strategy to such an event if it occurs. Read the Advisory Circular...educuate yourself and fly safe. And if you are going to lecture your fellow pilots about right and wrong, make sure you have your facts straight.



http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/sa08.pdf