Great topic and it is good that it comes up every once and a while.

The issue is bigger than just allowing new pilots time in the air. It applies to us seasoned flyers as well and (depending on your field layout) how planes and helis share the air.

When I fly, there are guys in the club that I just will not go up when they are up. They aren't rude or inconsiderate. They may be a little loose in following the pattern or other similar flying habits. Watching out for them makes for an unenjoyable flight for me so I'll wait, then go up. No big deal.

There are some highly skilled and impressive flyers in the club as well. I'll wait for them too or at least take up a separate part of the airspace. It is enjoyable to watch an airplane fly in the hands of a truly good flyer and I can't do that when I am in the air as well.

I think those that are doing maidens and other shake out flights also deserve a little courtesy as well. The other club members want to help and also encourage a new plane in the air so we'll wait.

If a newbie is up, then most of us wait. The distraction of another plane taxiing out and taking off can make a new flyer uncomfortable. I have no issue with that. It is great to watch new flyers as they learn more and grow as pilots. Now if a newbie goes up when there are others in the air, then they accept that there is traffic and should be skilled enough to fly the pattern and not be bothered by other planes doing the same.

It may sound like all I do is wait at the field. Well certainly I am not the kind of flyer that flys, lands, fuels, flys, etc. I do enjoy the social parts of the hobby and I do get plenty of opportunty to fly. I do not recall ever leaving the field thinking that I didn't fly as much as I had wanted to.

For the most part, I too am afforded the above courtesies. When I flew the Sopwith Pup, most others waited and watched the less that usual kind of plane in the air. When another flying buddy and I would take up the Pup and Fokker or the two Eindeckers we had, we were given the sky to ourselves. Just last weekend when we went up with his WACO and my Giant Aeromaster (both equiped with smoke), we were also given the whole sky. But when I'm just sport flying around, then it is an "all skate."

A little common sense, courtesy towards your mates, and modest guidelines from the club would go a long way. If your field isn't flying that way, then at least it should come up at a club meeting. Not as a vicious hollering match but just to review whatever guidelines are in place.

Happy Landings....

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