ASRS Reports

I suggest more information to general aviation pilots about making radio calls and listening to the CTAF frequency when near an airport to gain situational awareness about what is going on.

I no sooner started moving when the plane jerked to the right. We got out and saw that someone had parked an SUV car between the hangar and the taxiway with the rear hatch door up.

Upon landing and on the rollout, the worker entered the runway and walked slowly across, forcing us to use maximum braking action to prevent colliding with him, as a go-around was no longer a safe option due to minimal speed and obstacles to clear on departure.

The PA-25 was not maneuvering prior to the merge nor after the merge, implying that the PA-25 pilot did not see the ultralight.

The Aircraft Y cowboys seem to think this kind of behavior is normal and acceptable. It isn’t. Landing or taking off into opposing traffic, overtaking and passing on downwind, using non-standard procedures at a one runway non-towered airport, cutting off traffic on final all have been all too frequent at KSOP.

Throughout the entire pattern we were ahead of the traffic but he was VERY close to our tail following behind us, with very little spacing. Our traffic alerting system was going off for the entire downwind, base, and final.

When I spoke to the pilot while he was refueling, he insisted I had done something wrong and dangerous. I asked if he wanted to talk about it to see if there was anything to be learned. He was hostile, angry, and said “no” several times, finished refueling and left via 36, again with a tailwind.

Preparation, planning, implementation, and mental focus were lacking in this case.

I had very little control of the plane. I felt like I was in a dust devil or some other type of turbulence.

I’m very disappointed in how the Tower was not helpful in my situation. Even on a normal day, that controller seems overwhelmed and stressed out, spacing airplanes on 5+ mile finals, yelling at planes to widen the base leg to abnormal sizes, then when I experienced my problem, gives me instructions contrary to what I felt was the safest course of action and unhelpful overall.

The improvement I am hoping this report will bring is more vigilance on behalf of the tower controllers at KFCM, as well as all the flight instructors and students. Even in a tower-controlled environment, operational errors are present with the saturation of flight training that occurs at this airport.