Straight in caused a delay, std pattern would cause more

John Baker said:
Any runway could become the active in a no wind.
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Again - EVERY RUNWAY IS ALWAYS ACTIVE. Think that way, it'll save your hide.

For example, one fine October day at Ames this year, winds were howling at about 29018G28, and I was practicing landings in the 182RG on runway 31. All of a sudden, shortly after takeoff some dude in a green Cessna 140 pipes up "blah blah blah base to runway one. Great day to practice crosswind landings, guys!" Yeah, it was Sawhill (foka4). :rofl: So we did a couple of crosswind landings too. :yes:

Another common situation at Ames is for the gliders to be using 13/31 while the powered traffic uses 1/19. Lots of reasons for there to be more than one runway in use. :yes:

I think if it was me, I would be using the UNICOM and an overflight. If you can get a hold of someone at the airport to tell you what runway is being used, that would negate an overflight.
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Why? :dunno:

If I was the overflyin' type or it was one of the situations where I would normally overfly, and if they told me what the winds were as well, okay. If they just tell me what runway is in use, I'd still overfly the field. I'm not abdicating my PIC decision making authority and responsibility to anyone. What if they said "xxx is the active" and it turned out to have a gusty crosswind and you went off the runway and damaged the plane? What if it was nice and smooth, but there was a tailwind and it's a short runway and you go off the end? The FAA/NTSB man is going to say "Why did you choose to land on that runway?" and they are unlikely to be pleased with an answer of "Because the UNICOM person said it was the active." Remember, the person answering UNICOM can be anyone - Doesn't have to be a pilot at all.

Not pickin' on you specifically John, just pointing out the potential weaknesses of these methods. :yes:
 
ted gilbertson said:
Ya guess I should replace them. I never carry an expired sectional in my flight bag, so the a/fd shouldn't be any different. Still learning that the fun thing about flying. Thanks guys:smile:
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Being a pilot and an environmentalist aren't always compatible. You're gonna go through a crapload of paper as a (good) pilot. ;)

Of course, you can reuse it as wrapping paper, for starting fires, hand the expired charts out to Young Eagles you fly (or donate time to the Chicago area 99's for their annual youth program), or many other uses more environmentally friendly than the local dump. :yes:
 
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