Saturday I was down in Sarnia flying my Cessna 150 getting ready to take my CPL flight test, when I witnessed a near mid-air collision. I had just joined the downwind circuit for runway 32, and there were 2 other airplanes in the circuit. One was a rental pilot out flying the school's 172, the other one, also a 172 was from somewhere else, as I didn't recognize the callsign.
The rental pilot was flying ahead of me in the downwind (parallel to final approach leg, but flying opposite direction), with the other pilot on his base leg (90° to final approach leg). The rental pilot made a radio call indicating he was doing a gliding 180 maneuver, which is a commercial level maneuver that involves pulling all the power off in the downwind, and gliding down in a 180° turn to land. The rental pilot's first ignorant mistake was to practice things like that with other aircraft in the circuit. His second mistake was his complete and total disregard to where those other aircraft were. During his manuever, I watched the airplanes come easily within 2 wingspans of each other as the rental pilot cut off the other pilot as he turned to the inside of the other airplane. He was just not paying attention. He ended up landing to do a touch and go, and the other pilot decided at that point to overshoot.
Talking to the rental pilot afterwards I learned that he never even saw the other airplane until he was down and rolling on the runway as the other aircraft flew over top of him in the overshoot. I've never seen airplanes so untintentionally close to each other in flight. The rental pilot has a passenger onboard, his wife, who was completely oblivious to the whole incident until we mentioned it to the pilot on the ground. The worst part about it was the rental pilot thought it was funny when we mentioned it to him, and he never admitted any wrongdoing or took any responsibility for his actions at all. Apparently he has a reputation among the flight instructors for being ignorantly reckless. Even thinking about it now, 4 days after the event, it gives me a knot in my stomach. I almost saw people die - a pilot who had done nothing wrong, and a completely innocent passenger. All from a ignorant pilot's actions.
When I mentioned it back at the flight school after we were both on the ground, I asked him very gently if he had seen the other airplane, and didn't really comment on anything other then what I saw. I regret being so kind. The more I think about it, seeing how he reacted with no remorse, and with no intentions on making sure the event doesn't repeat itself, the more I wish I had chewed him out in front of his passenger and everyone else in the room. It very well could have been me he nearly smacked into. Ignorant, self-righteous pilots like that with no respect for the responsibility they carry should not be aloud to hold a license, and the flight school should not be renting airplanes to him. At least it ended safely, if only by sheer dumb luck. It makes me sick just to think that I could have witnessed the collision of two airplanes from a birds-eye-view, I'm not sure how I would have handled it had it actually happened.
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I've been practicing 180 power off approaches as well but make sure no one else is in the pattern in front first. I would ask the instructors why, if they feel this pilot is "ignorantly reckless", they approve hem for renting the plane.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think the school would have some legal culpability if they knew the pilot was reckless. Perhaps you would have more luck speaking to them; clearly the pilot has no remorse for his recklessness. Of course, it doesn't give me any comfort knowing you were sharing the sky with this clown.
ReplyDeleteI think when you're running a business the line can be hard to draw sometimes between safety and revenue. The instructors know the situation better then I do, and I'm not in a position to make the flight school's business desicions.
ReplyDeleteKnowing we may very well share the skies with pilots like this just serves as a reminder we need to always be on top of our situational awareness. Not much else we can do. Just like having to deal with irresponsible drivers on the road occasionally there are also the rare instances where the same goes for flying. That's just life I guess.
I'm far from suggesting you make any decisions on behalf of the school. However, they need to be better acquainted not so much with their business decisions as with their legal exposure. Even this blog, which recognizes their potential risk, raises the stakes for them. But, as you say, not much else you can do for the school or the pilot. You can rarely save people from themselves.
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