17% of Runway Incursions
There must be a whole lot of statistical anomalies happening on Roost Air’s airport, not just the one about runway incursions. And Chuck probably has a hand in most of them. By the way, I tried to write something funny on the subject of runway incursions, but when I googled it, I found a whole lot of not-so-funny stories. Did anyone of you ever experience (or cause) one? Must be one of the most heart attack-inducing things to happen in the world of flying …
Actually I caused one , unfortunately. At least I achieved that without even entering the movement area. We had an open doors day at our local airfield and I was manning AFIS when a pilot in a Super Cub stated he was ready for departure and queried if there would be approaching traffic. I replied that the final would be clear but completely forgot the Archer there. The Super Cup pilot took my advise for granted and was about to commence takeoff when, fortunately, the Archer pilot recognized the situation and went around.
Bottom line, I was task saturated to a point where I lost my situational awareness. I assume that, as we AFIS guys are only mildly trained volunteers, a day which over 250 takeoffs and landing got over my head since on a good day we usually have only 40. On the other hand it was a prime example why you should ever look outside your window before you enter a runway, regardless what comes over the radio!
At least for me it was a lesson!
The “You can always go around” song comes to mind here. In all honesty, most runway incursions I see are caused by “line up and wait” at non-towered airports where the procedure is not constant with good practice or common sense. When flying an airplane, be patient, ask WWCD (What Would Chuck Do?) and do the opposite.
I had a bear walk across the runway during my takeoff roll once. For a moment there I thought bear burgers were on the menu.
A heard of about 30-50 goats ran out of the woods and proceeded to run up the side of the runway, while I was landing a new plane, welcoming me to one of our favorite country strips🤪❗️