Rude and Entitled People #2

The longer you fly the more times things like this are going to happen to you. I can't even count the number of times that I've thought that I had been wronged at the airport, but if you let any of it get to you it will ruin something that is costing a lot of money to enjoy. Jerks can be encountered from the time that I get to the field and enter the pin code to open the gate to drive thru. The policy is one car goes in and the next one opens the gate for themselves with a sign that specifically states no piggy backing. More times than not the car behind me won't allow the gate to close and there is a choice to have a standoff or for me to blow off the security rules. I could stereotype these folks, but why? The reality is that not all pilots are nice or friendly. Heck, many don't want to know anybody outside of the clicks that they formed when I was in elementary school. Then there are the guys that double park in the hanger rows preventing anybody from being able to taxi past. They are not in a rush to get off the couch and move their cars either when a plane lands and needs to get down the row.

After beginning a flight there will almost always be a student which I try to give a pass to, or some incompetent flying bomber patterns and forcing everybody behind them to follow. There is nothing and I mean nothing that can make the blood boil more than following a slow moving plane on a bomber pattern and then trying to adust my final approach for the tour guide that just touched down at 45 knots then uses 5,000' of runway to roll out to the end. Then there is busy pattern and the guy who leaves his radio keyed up for extensive lengths of time reporting his position over the 7/11, or the abortion clinic leaving everybody on freq. to wonder where the heck this person is. Then there's the pattern police who key up their mike and announce to people who have been flying for decades longer than they have been alive on how to properly follow procedures. These types usually have no idea what an upwind or crosswind entry are. Then there are trainers flying, with 4 or more of them in the pattern doing touch and goes at an uncontrolled field not leaving room for departures without stuffing yourself into the mix and being foolishly aggressive. How about the guy with the bad radios and broken english thrown in to boot. This is the guy that usually talks, and talks, and talks. Then there's the guys who completely tie up the air to air 122.75 burning everybody up who would like to get a word in. How about the people to feeble to move their airplane by hand from a tie down at an transient row or restaurant and start their plane and knock the crap out of others airplanes. Oh, don't forget the people that turn from a hanger row and don't have the sense to reduce power during the turn and coast thru to not blast the open hanger that they are passing. Here's one that gets me and I admit I'd like to throttle the idiot who does this one. After fueling at a self serve they don't turn off the pump handle when the pump shuts itself off when their selected amount of fuel has been dispensed. Along comes somebody like me that uses an ATM card to allow a way to effectively pay cash for gas at a pump that only takes cards. So I run my card, and it puts a hold an a couple of hundred dollars. When I'm told to turn on the pump it is already on. When I turn it off to clear the previous sale and then back on the dumb thing doesn't work. The card needs to be run again which puts a hold on another couple of hundred bucks in my checking account that lasts for days.

Whew, rant over. I guess the point of this is that there is rudeness everywhere you go and then there is a lack of common sense thrown in to boot. Mix it all together and you just have to be the better man and let it go. This is a great hobby and for the most part fellow pilots are really great. Encroachments on your being will continue, but they will evolve with your flying and ownership status.
 
Okay, I try to be courteous, but at times I've F'ed up, and I hereby apologize to anybody I've offended.

To the plane at C09 on final when I pulled out for takeoff, I apologize. I didn't hear you on the radio and see you on final, and neither did my instructor sitting right seat. I apologized on the radio and tried to get out of your way as quickly as possible, and I think we left it with no ruffled feathers.

To the plane at 1C5 coming in NORDO to make a precautionary downwind landing because your engine was running rough I apologize if my instructor jumped on you for not announcing. I realize that the priority is to fly the plane. I'm just glad that I had already decided to do a go around to my own messed up approach, because a head-on on the runway could have been REAL ugly. And I'm proud I convinced the instructor to stop berating you over the frequency. :)

And to the airliners attempting to contact ground at KMDW and KORD unable to reach them because some bonehead (i.e. me) forgot to turn up the volume on COM1 after listening to the ATIS on COM2 and transmitted right over you, I apologize. Hopefully, the third time's the charm and I won't make that mistake again.

And to Kent, who was about to take off on 36 at C59 while I was taking off on 18, I apologize. I was monitoring COM2, which was tuned to CTAF, but transmitting on COM1, which had been reset to the factory default because the battery was dead in the Garmin 430. That's also what happened at 3M0 when I took off without apparently making any radio calls.

Folks, sometimes it's plain stupidity (though I may prefer oversight :)), not any sense of entitlement. And we're all subject to it!
 
Okay, I try to be courteous, but at times I've F'ed up, and I hereby apologize to anybody I've offended.

To the plane at C09 on final when I pulled out for takeoff, I apologize. I didn't hear you on the radio and see you on final, and neither did my instructor sitting right seat. I apologized on the radio and tried to get out of your way as quickly as possible, and I think we left it with no ruffled feathers.

To the plane at 1C5 coming in NORDO to make a precautionary downwind landing because your engine was running rough I apologize if my instructor jumped on you for not announcing. I realize that the priority is to fly the plane. I'm just glad that I had already decided to do a go around to my own messed up approach, because a head-on on the runway could have been REAL ugly. And I'm proud I convinced the instructor to stop berating you over the frequency. :)

And to the airliners attempting to contact ground at KMDW and KORD unable to reach them because some bonehead (i.e. me) forgot to turn up the volume on COM1 after listening to the ATIS on COM2 and transmitted right over you, I apologize. Hopefully, the third time's the charm and I won't make that mistake again.

And to Kent, who was about to take off on 36 at C59 while I was taking off on 18, I apologize. I was monitoring COM2, which was tuned to CTAF, but transmitting on COM1, which had been reset to the factory default because the battery was dead in the Garmin 430. That's also what happened at 3M0 when I took off without apparently making any radio calls.

Folks, sometimes it's plain stupidity (though I may prefer oversight :)), not any sense of entitlement. And we're all subject to it!


Thanks for the confessional. I'm sure as a low time pilot I will make the same or similar errors in my career. I just hope fate smiles on me and none result in damage, injury or death.
 
Thanks for the confessional. I'm sure as a low time pilot I will make the same or similar errors in my career. I just hope fate smiles on me and none result in damage, injury or death.
You're welcome. I try to give everyone the benefit of the the doubt. All accidents are chains. We need to try to stop them at as many places as possible. Hence checklists, so we can learn from other's mistakes. We DON'T want a bunch of hotheads out there.
 
After beginning a flight there will almost always be a student which I try to give a pass to,

Thanks for that.

And I have to agree with some other members' posts - I don't think most people intentionally try to be rude. Sometimes they just don't realize the inconvience they're costing others.

It is rude to inconvience others for your own convienience though. I hate the 'piggyback' thing. My workplace offices are secure (you need a magnetic card to get through hallway and lab doors). There's always some bozo that I've never seen before who wants to follow me in through a secure door.
 
Is he usually wearing a TSA badge?

Thanks for that.

And I have to agree with some other members' posts - I don't think most people intentionally try to be rude. Sometimes they just don't realize the inconvience they're costing others.

It is rude to inconvience others for your own convienience though. I hate the 'piggyback' thing. My workplace offices are secure (you need a magnetic card to get through hallway and lab doors). There's always some bozo that I've never seen before who wants to follow me in through a secure door.
 
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