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Old 22nd Aug 2022, 01:14
  #28 (permalink)  
PiperCameron
 
Join Date: Aug 2022
Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Posts: 547
Received 80 Likes on 62 Posts
Thanks all, good discussion here - please keep it up so we can all learn something.

To answer a few questions:
1. The purpose of my flight that day was to nav to YLEG with a pilot friend of mine for some touch & goes, since
(a) it was a nice day, and
(b) because of (a) I couldn't get a YMMB circuit booking. The wind was 3-4kts (ie. fairly calm) at YLEG, favouring RWY 04, but not excluding RWY 36 as a suitable alternate.

2. LB, I'm not going to discuss my flight in detail, since it's not relevant here, but suffice to say I had obtained PPR and the airport was not closed. There was no-one else on the CTAF nor anyone to be seen anywhere airside at any time whilst I was there. I'm well aware of the dangers of what the Americans call the "Moose Stall". I had a safety pilot friend with me, qualified to take the controls and our flight profile was, at no point, unsafe.

2. My intent for this thread, as indicated in the OP, had nothing to do with the incident as such which happened some time before I got there, or anyone associated with it, other than to:
(a) Provide full disclosure (date, location, description) of a situation I found so bizarre that if I didn't see it for myself I would never believe it would happen (surely no-one just leaves an aircraft sitting on an active runway, shuts the door and walks away - do they??), and
(b) Highlight (especially for low-time pilots like myself) expecting the unexpected - even if it's something so out there that you can't quite comprehend the reality of it at the time, and
(c) Go over my thinking processes from the initial "WTF?!?" through to my reasons for not calling it in and whether there's anything I should have done different (refer posts #11 & 12).

3. In my experience of other public forums, "no pics and it didn't happen". It's very easy to post about how "I survived flying through a raging cyclone!!" just to get a reaction, when in reality you're just making stuff up to get likes. All: I've deleted the close-ups from the OP, but left the wide angles to show how difficult it is to spot a white aircraft parked on a white centerline if you're not looking for it.

4. All I'll say about the incident aircraft is that I think the pilot did an excellent job, landing right on centerline!! I wish my all landings were that accurate all the time and hope that I could do that well in the same situation.

For a non-flying analogy: I'm sure we've all seen cars parked off the side of rural highways and driven past unthinkingly at 100kph.. but what would we do if said car was parked more toward the middle of the lane instead? Would we stop? Or simply go around it and continue our journey?? Food for thought.

Summary: It does seem with lots of hindsight, that the right thing to do in a similar situation is to climb up to altitude and report it to ML CTR, NOTAM or not... because:
(a) even though (fortunately) not the case in this incident - we looked - there might have been someone in the aircraft, unconscious and in need of medical help, and
(b) somebody else might have planning to arrive soon after and it would be safer for their arrival planning if they knew RWY04 was, at that time, not useable.

Agreed?

Last edited by PiperCameron; 22nd Aug 2022 at 01:35.
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