My second flight as a licenced pilot took me to Stanhope/Haliburton airport (CND4) with a friend who has a cottage up there.
Departing Runway 15
We departed Buttonville at about 8:45 and headed up the 404 to Newmarket (my set heading point) direct to Haliburton. The weather was great, light winds and great visibility.
The flight up was uneventful and we enjoyed the smooth ride. The winds at CND4 were coming out of the south/south west according to the Unicom guy so I planned for runway 27.
This is where things got interesting. As I was on the downwind, I heard on the radio that a plane was backtracking down the runway for takeoff on 27. As I was on final, he lined up to take off. I was preparing to overshoot when on short final he saw me and decided to haul ass into the holding bay. As I was rolling down the runway after one of the worst landings ever, he apologized and explained that he had his radio volume turned down.
Just after arriving at CND4
We parked the plane and headed to my friends cottage for breakfast. His mom made some tasty eggs and back bacon. We chatted about the flight and the airport before heading out on to the water.
We went for a spin in a 115hp motor boat when:
*engine sputters and dies*
Friend: “uhmm.. this is not good, because I’m not doing that!”
Turns out we ran out of gas on the middle of Maple Lake. We needed to head back to the airport in about 20 minutes in order to head back to Buttonville. We fired up the 10hp trawling engine and putt-putted back to the cottage.
The ride back was bumpier, even at 4500′, mainly due to daytime heating as the winds were still on the calm side. We got back just before 1pm.
All in all, it was a great way to spend a summer Sunday morning.
You can see more photos in the gallery.
Unfortunately I’ve experienced similar stupidity at uncontrolled airports.
It seems that the nature of sleepy uncontrolled airports breeds pilots who no longer feel the need to follow the most basic of rules thereby putting others at risk.
This actually taught me a lesson. Because I’ve made the same mistake before, except it was at Buttonville while trying to call up ground.
Doing a radio check with unicom (if possible) is a good idea before heading out.
Sadly there are more “I don’t need to bother” situations at uncontrolled airports then there are genuine mistakes.
On more then a few occasions I’ve seen foolishness at uncontrolled airports (People taxing with no radio calls, making the calls they do actually make improperly/incomplete, joining/exiting the circuit in a variety of unsafe methods, etc) and in more then a few of there’s lax safety happening more-so then mistakes.
There’s plenty of excellent pilots that fly out of uncontrolled airports, but there’s also frequently a few cowboys who think that just because there’s nobody watching them they don’t need to follow the rules.
These are the often the same people who are scared of controlled airspace, or when they do wander into a controlled airport make everyone ask “How did this guy get his pilots license?” while he/she bumbles through what should be basic procedure.
I hate to be negative, but with few exceptions, every unsafe, dangerous, or in my case, a few downright scary moments have happened at uncontrolled airports, courtesy of others who haven’t been following the basic rules of airmanship. That speaks volumes in my mind.
I know exactly how you feel. I’ve heard these “cowboys” on the radio in Buttonville’s CZ and have thought the same thing.
In this particular situation, the pilot was making all the right calls, he just wasn’t hearing any of mine.
This is a situation where I think learning to fly in a controlled airpsace helps. You are *forced* to follow procedure. As with uncontrolled airports there is nobody around to slap you on the wrist if you do something wrong.