greghughes
Pre-takeoff checklist
Here's a scenario for you for ADM Monday-morning quarterbacking purposes.
You're flying at dusk, in the area around your home airport, in an established practice area - a busy one with a charted recommended frequency. The sun is down. Essentially cold, clear skies. You observe two small two-seat airplanes flying in formation from right to left, at about your 2-o'clock and stationary angle (not good), not tight formation but also not of the half-mile variety. They're clearly paying attention to each other, but probably don't see you based on the fact that they're not turning to avoid. You make a hard right and drop the nose to avoid at about a half mile to pass behind them.
You recognize the airplanes, one's a trainer rental C150 from your home airport and the other is a two-seater that's also based there.
You watch as one of the planes suddenly pulls up hard, banks left, turns back and pulls a 180 to return to the formation behind the other plane. Suddenly you notice they're coming right back at you as you're practicing slow flight and a couple stalls. Hmm. They're not on the practice area frequency but it sure looks like they're talking to each other based on how they're flying. You start checking other frequencies and find them talking it up like crazy on 123.45. Ah hah. Well, at least now you can hear them.
They sound awfully young. Teenager voices probably. Saying things like "where are you, I lost you" and "Remind me to turn my lights back on before we get to the airport" and "do a hard right break so I can film you with the sunset behind you."
Who knows where they went, you don't see them but you hear them. One of the planes is missing its red nav light, you noticed, and now they're chattering without keying the mic the right way, cutting themselves off over and over.
You head back to the airport and plan to do a standard 45 degree entry, so you call your intent on the CTAF, coordinate with one other plane that's headed in as well. You can hear the other two - still on 123.45, talking away about cross country planning and reminding to turn lights on before getting back to the airport, etc. Make you worry where they are again and whether you'll see them.
Sure enough, as you're about to enter the 45, here they come, switching to the CTAF just as they arrive 1 mile off the airport. You call on the radio, advise you're changing your direction and will circle around and come in after the two one-mile aircraft. A long pause, and then "Okay thanks, any other airplanes in the pattern?"
They land, you land. It's next to dark. One of the planes, the non-rental one and the same one that had been chattering earlier about having a nav light out, takes off again. No lights visible except one white light on the tail. You radio a friendly "departing aircraft, your nav lights look like they're out" and get no answer. The plane flies a low, non-standard pattern and quickly lands again.
You realize and confirm that they're both student pilots, in the solo phase of their private pilot training. One of them is flying their family plane. The other the school's rental.
Primary students still in solo phase, flying loose-ish formation and a few co-maneuvers, focused inside the airplane and on each other and their cameras, flying in the practice area they frequent, but on a radio frequency that's not the standard one used in that practice area. At and after dusk with lights not working, or turned off. They've demonstrated what you think is not exactly the best judgement.
So, what - if anything - do you do or say at this point, and to whom?
You're flying at dusk, in the area around your home airport, in an established practice area - a busy one with a charted recommended frequency. The sun is down. Essentially cold, clear skies. You observe two small two-seat airplanes flying in formation from right to left, at about your 2-o'clock and stationary angle (not good), not tight formation but also not of the half-mile variety. They're clearly paying attention to each other, but probably don't see you based on the fact that they're not turning to avoid. You make a hard right and drop the nose to avoid at about a half mile to pass behind them.
You recognize the airplanes, one's a trainer rental C150 from your home airport and the other is a two-seater that's also based there.
You watch as one of the planes suddenly pulls up hard, banks left, turns back and pulls a 180 to return to the formation behind the other plane. Suddenly you notice they're coming right back at you as you're practicing slow flight and a couple stalls. Hmm. They're not on the practice area frequency but it sure looks like they're talking to each other based on how they're flying. You start checking other frequencies and find them talking it up like crazy on 123.45. Ah hah. Well, at least now you can hear them.
They sound awfully young. Teenager voices probably. Saying things like "where are you, I lost you" and "Remind me to turn my lights back on before we get to the airport" and "do a hard right break so I can film you with the sunset behind you."
Who knows where they went, you don't see them but you hear them. One of the planes is missing its red nav light, you noticed, and now they're chattering without keying the mic the right way, cutting themselves off over and over.
You head back to the airport and plan to do a standard 45 degree entry, so you call your intent on the CTAF, coordinate with one other plane that's headed in as well. You can hear the other two - still on 123.45, talking away about cross country planning and reminding to turn lights on before getting back to the airport, etc. Make you worry where they are again and whether you'll see them.
Sure enough, as you're about to enter the 45, here they come, switching to the CTAF just as they arrive 1 mile off the airport. You call on the radio, advise you're changing your direction and will circle around and come in after the two one-mile aircraft. A long pause, and then "Okay thanks, any other airplanes in the pattern?"
They land, you land. It's next to dark. One of the planes, the non-rental one and the same one that had been chattering earlier about having a nav light out, takes off again. No lights visible except one white light on the tail. You radio a friendly "departing aircraft, your nav lights look like they're out" and get no answer. The plane flies a low, non-standard pattern and quickly lands again.
You realize and confirm that they're both student pilots, in the solo phase of their private pilot training. One of them is flying their family plane. The other the school's rental.
Primary students still in solo phase, flying loose-ish formation and a few co-maneuvers, focused inside the airplane and on each other and their cameras, flying in the practice area they frequent, but on a radio frequency that's not the standard one used in that practice area. At and after dusk with lights not working, or turned off. They've demonstrated what you think is not exactly the best judgement.
So, what - if anything - do you do or say at this point, and to whom?
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