Courtesy. Professionalism.

Eighteen miles Northeast of the field. Two other aircraft have reported inbound already, I'm about to be the third. One will land well ahead of me, but I didn't catch the position of the other one.

Val-d'or airport is equipped with an MF radio service, which is halfway in between a tower and an uncontrolled airport. With a radio service there is at least one person, sitting somewhere, monitoring and communicating with traffic going in and out of the airport. They could actually be physically sitting in a tower at the airport, or even be located off-site somewhere. The main difference between a radio service and a control tower however is the principle that they do not provide controlling instructions to aircraft, but are only an advisory service. They are able to assist in the safe separation of aircraft as well as provide reports on current weather conditions. Sometimes they are radar equipped, like at Thompson, MB, but usually not, so they keep track of current traffic by asking for pilot position reports.

I make my report, "Val-d'or radio, this is XXX, 18 miles to the northeast of the field, 2100 ft, inbound for landing estimating the field in 8 minutes.".

I remind myself to use proper terminology and speak clearly and directly. I'm speaking English over the radio in Quebec, and even though the radio operator's english is very good, it is still clearly his second language. Radio communications can have enough clarity issues before you introduce multiple languages into the mix.

He responds and advises me of the location and estimated arrival times of the other two aircraft. The first one as expected will land well ahead of me and won't be a factor. The other one however, a Dash 8, is reporting 30-something miles north-east as well, with an estimate to the field at the same time as myself.

My spidy-sense tingles as I recognize my level of situational awareness is going to have to be elevated now that there could be a potential traffic conflict. The Dash 8 is making an approach onto the south facing runway despite the winds favouring the north direction. Its probably for instrument approach reasons. I choose to land in the opposite direction which means I'll join a straight in right-hand downwind.

The radio advisor asks me to slow it back and remain to the east to land number 2. Technically speaking since I'm the aircraft that is closer to the airport and at the lower altitude, I have the right of way to land first, but as a courtesy I comply and confirm that I'll slow it up to give way to the larger, faster, and thirstier aircraft. Not that the 206 already doesn't fly painfully slow, but its all relative. I pull the throttle back a hair and start to set up for joining my downwind leg.

I'm mid-downwind now, directly abeam the runway. From here under normal circumstances I would be on the ground in less than two minutes from now, but I know I'm probably going to have to extend my downwind a little bit for the Dash 8. Val-d'or radio advises me that the Dash 8 is now on 10 mile final. What?! Still? If his initial estimate to the field was accurate he would be just touching down by now. Its not an uncommon scenario actually - highly optimistic reports for eta to landing made by faster aircraft. Its all really a result of lazy airmanship from the pilots. The initial eta reports are made when the aircraft is in their descent phase at a high rate of speed. At 220 knots and 30 miles from the field the GPS is going to tell them they'll arrive in 8 minutes, but they're not going to be flying all the way into the airport at 220 knots. At some point between when they make that report and landing they're going to have to slow down to approach speed - 80 to 90 knots slower! As they slow down obviously their eta is going to increase significantly, which they didn't bother to account for. Meanwhile waiting for them to land, I've extended my downwind leg so far now that I've almost cleared the 5 mile control zone out the other side!

The weather was a VFR day, which for them as an IFR flight, still means they have to conform to VFR traffic rules in and around the airport. If an IFR aircraft is cleared for an approach into an airport by their IFR controller, it is still the responsibility of the aircraft to conform to the rules regarding VFR traffic separation. Unfortunately its been my experience that airliners don't tend to play nicely with VFR traffic, and they'd almost rather just pretend that we don't exist so they can continue to fly like its a purely IFR environment. In this case it seemed like they were happy to let me take the entire responsibility of getting out of their way, despite the fact that I technically had the right of way.

I could have easily landed and cleared the runway well before the Dash 8 if they had made a proper eta report, because I was actually almost 5 minutes ahead of them. But now I'm forced to go way out of my way as a courtesy to them. The least they could have done was hurry it up a little. Finally I land, and the radio service operator thanks me sincerely for my cooperation. That dissolves my annoyance significantly.

Its amazing what a thank you can do, but ultimately my annoyance is not with the radio operator, as he was only operating with the information he was given, and I have only ever experienced excellent service from all of those guys/girls. It is the Jazz Dash 8 pilots who displayed lazy airmanship because of the discourteous assumption that the little guy in the Cessna will let them go first, even if they're actually 5 full minutes behind him. Next time I'm half tempted to assert my right of way to land number one, but that wouldn't be courteous, nor by extension, professional. I'm sure going to rant about it on my blog though.