Mictheslik wrote on Nov 6^th, 2012 at 4:13pm:


That was an example, not a comparison! Solo, as opposed to dual, brings a different perspective too, pertinent to this incident.

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To quote the great Hercule Poirot, exactement, mon ami. A student can't be criticised if he is doing what he's been taught. Most students will do exactly what their instructor teaches them.

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So was he fit to be sent on his solo cross country?   Innumerable questions that could need answering!


The complex world of aviation.

In the airport world, which I work in, runway thresholds get displaced for a reason.  However I have seen plenty of pilots that will always shoot for the end of the pavement, and the result is...

alrot wrote on Nov 6^th, 2012 at 10:43pm:




I don't have much sympathy for the acting PIC of the airplane... regardless of where the road is, if it crosses the approach path, you have to look for vehicle traffic not just ahead, but on either side. You have to look on downwind, on base, and on final. If the road is blocked at any time by the nose, you have to know what's there, or go around.
  As for the driver not heeding a stop sign or warning sign... well, I think it's pretty reasonable for a driver to expect the pilot of an airplane, which can move vertically a lot easier than a car, to be able to maintain adequate clearance, and to be using his aerial vantage point to look for them, whereas the driver has to look mostly ahead to follow a road.

Of course, it all gets easier if you descend a little more steeply- regardless of the view straight ahead, if you know your approach path will take you over the road at, say, 50 feet, you don't have to worry about cars. That approach looked too flat to me, just enough to hit a car on that road.

the saddest part of all is that the displaced threshold is there for overruns landing the other way, or for increasing the amount of runway for the takeoff roll. Not for landing on, as this pilot was trying to do. This displacement probably had something to do with the road, as well as obstacles beyond it.
So the pilot has no excuse, really.