TJ Carr wrote:....
The Skywagon kept telling the Piper 'it ain't going to work for me'! ...
It turns out that the reason why the Skywagon wasn't going to break off and let this Piper in is because he was out of fuel. The engine was sputtering and quit just as he crossed the fence.....

Not to support anyone cutting off others, but if the Skywagon guy had said "can't do it, I'm running on fumes" I'm sure the Cherokee would have waited his turn. That "it ain't gonna work for me" makes it sound like he was just being an asshole, instead of dealing with an emergency of his own.
But in defense of the Cherokee, I have noticed a lack of courtesy in the pattern sometimes at a busy airport. Hoiw hard is it to make way for someone? A steady stream of arrivals preventing takeoff by long-waiting aircraft-- when it'd be real easy for someone to just extend his downwind a few seconds & let them get out, when anyone with some situaytional awareness can see what's going on. Or people flying the pattern for repeated touch-n-go's refusing to yield to someone trying to enter the pattern or someone trying to take off. I mean, come on-- it's not like the T&G'ers are trying to get on the ground in a hurry.
I notice the same lack of courtesy at intersections-- how hard is it to let that poor waiting-for-5-minutes bastard out of the parking lot in front of you?

Eric

hotrod150 wrote: Hoiw hard is it to make way for someone?

I think that depends on which leg of the pattern they're trying to butt into. Crosswind, downwind, there's a lot of flexibility with good communication. Turning final, not so much. What do you do? S-turns? 360? More attention is devoted to the stable approach and lining up with the runway, as opposed to other legs where a greater percentage of your attention is watching for traffic.

A guy with an airsick passenger insisting on an abbreviated base leg entry... why? Because he's really dreading having his plane puked in? Make a safe entry on the 45 to the downwind like everyone else. It's not like he's been circling over the field trying to merge in like some poor guy at that stop sign on a busy highway.