Page 29 - TNTApril2018

From the Flight Deck
by Kevin R. Dingman
Incursion
Runway hold-short lines, surface movement areas & pilot deviations
You are on short final when tower directs a go-around. Maybe it is day VMC and you see the airplane, ground vehicle or creature that tower is worried about. Maybe they see a formation of geese or some deer headed toward your runway. Perhaps there’s a taxiing aircraft that is not responding to a hold-short call, maybe somebody pulled onto your runway unannounced or another airplane didn’t exit at a certain high-speed and it caught tower by surprise.
What if this happens very late at night when you’re 100 feet above DH in IMC and really low on fuel? As pilots, we do not know if the go- around call is because of something tower saw visually or a procedural requirement like spacing. If we continue and land, we do not know if we will actually hit something or just be closer than anybody would like. So, we go around. This is not a preferred event, nor oftentimes a procedurally simple one, but a go-around would be better than plowing into the offending plane, fire truck or herd of raccoons.
Look Both Ways
I was taxiing the Duke one day and cleared by ground to cross a runway at the approach end. An excellent technique is to always look left and right before entering or crossing any runway or taxiway; even if it is closed or not the active runway. We should do this when the tower is open, when tower is closed or when there’s no tower at all. Check to see if it is safe to continue just as you would when you step off the curb to cross the street as a pedestrian or railroad tracks in your car, lest we be squished like a grape. That day in the Duke, a Cessna 172 was on about a half-mile final. I did the check left- and-right thing and held short of the runway. I told ground that I’d be holding short for a bit, and after a hesitation they said thank you.
The FAA defines a runway incursion as any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and takeoff of aircraft. Approximately three runway incursions occur every day at towered airports in the United States and ATC is fighting some of the same causal factors, as are pilots: expectation bias, complacency and distractions.
According to FAA data, approximately 65 percent of all runway incursions are caused by pilots; just over half. Of the mistakes made by pilots, 75 percent of them are caused by GA pilots. And it is not only the runways that are an issue when we are driving around on the ground, it is taxiways, ramps, holding areas and deice pads as well.
Yellow Skid Marks
Non-movement areas are ramps and aprons and are typically not controlled by ATC. The move- ment area is all of the taxiways and runways and is under the control of ground and tower. The
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