Yesterday while flying back from an aviation seminar at a nearby airport I was forced to abort my landing when another plane took a few minutes to go from "cleared for takeoff" to actually rolling down the runway. I believe the controller's initial words to the other plane included a mention of a Baron turning base to final and he made two or three more calls to the pilot asking for "no delay" and repeating the fact that I was getting ready to land. But the progress from the hold short line to the runway was very slow and then the plane just sat there on the end of the runway until I offset to the left and started climbing back to pattern altitude.
I recognized the airplane as one I had often flown (and actually helped purchase) when I was in the club it belongs to many years ago so when I heard the plane coming back in on the radio in my hangar I went over to the club's hangar to have a chat with the pilot. I had suspected this was a CFI with student but it turned out to be a solo student. I explained that his actions had required me to abort a landing and waste $10 of fuel and advised him that when cleared for takeoff he should either do so without undue delay or stay put and decline the clearance, especially when the tower is telling him about traffic on final and asking him to expidite. He told me he didn't understand what the controller was saying and was trying to get the tower to clarify.
Even though I suspected as much, I didn't actually know he was a student until another club instructor (not his) who was about to go on a flight in the same airplane showed up and said he'd mention the episode to the student's instructor for further discussion. And as a student I know I have to cut him some slack (I sure needed some when I was learning to fly) but I'm hoping this student has or will learn something from this experience, especially given that I learned he's only a couple weeks from his PPL checkride. He did have a middle eastern appearance and slight accent so there might have been a language issue involved as well although his conversation with me was by no means impaired by language.
At this point my only concerns are that he seemed pretty emphatic that the problem was with the controller who "kept saying something" the student didn't understand, not the pilot's own actions. He did offer an apology but it too involved blaming the controller. I had thought of asking the tower manager for a copy of the relevant radio recording and asking the student's instructor to review that with the pilot to help him learn what to do better next time but that seems like a lot of bother for such a minor transgression.
I recognized the airplane as one I had often flown (and actually helped purchase) when I was in the club it belongs to many years ago so when I heard the plane coming back in on the radio in my hangar I went over to the club's hangar to have a chat with the pilot. I had suspected this was a CFI with student but it turned out to be a solo student. I explained that his actions had required me to abort a landing and waste $10 of fuel and advised him that when cleared for takeoff he should either do so without undue delay or stay put and decline the clearance, especially when the tower is telling him about traffic on final and asking him to expidite. He told me he didn't understand what the controller was saying and was trying to get the tower to clarify.
Even though I suspected as much, I didn't actually know he was a student until another club instructor (not his) who was about to go on a flight in the same airplane showed up and said he'd mention the episode to the student's instructor for further discussion. And as a student I know I have to cut him some slack (I sure needed some when I was learning to fly) but I'm hoping this student has or will learn something from this experience, especially given that I learned he's only a couple weeks from his PPL checkride. He did have a middle eastern appearance and slight accent so there might have been a language issue involved as well although his conversation with me was by no means impaired by language.
At this point my only concerns are that he seemed pretty emphatic that the problem was with the controller who "kept saying something" the student didn't understand, not the pilot's own actions. He did offer an apology but it too involved blaming the controller. I had thought of asking the tower manager for a copy of the relevant radio recording and asking the student's instructor to review that with the pilot to help him learn what to do better next time but that seems like a lot of bother for such a minor transgression.
