Fellow BCP'ers, I had an experience out in the backcountry, and I've given myself a few days to try and forget about the events. However, it is still lingering in my mind. Maybe this might be somewhat cathartic to get this out. Maybe you all will tell me that I'm way out in left field. I have always held fellow pilots in high regard, and for the most part, I have enjoyed meeting quality people out and about on the flying trail.

Last weekend over the fourth holiday, my wife and I were out at a remote cabin on a public airstrip. There are two cabins on this strip. The parking areas for these cabins are distinctly different and somewhat obvious to most pilots who frequent the area, but I confess that it may not be completely obvious to others. We had remarked to each other at how quiet and peaceful it had been given the higher than normal flight traffic due to the holiday. On Sunday night, we hit the hay at around 9pm and fell blissfully asleep.

At midnight, my wife awoke to the sound of an airplane flying over, and I finally woke up when they landed and were taxiing around on the airstrip. I quickly fell back asleep but was rattled awake a few minutes later by a loud banging on the cabin door. I answered with a "hello" from my sleeping bag, and a woman's voice yelled back through the door, "we are wondering if the cabin is being used". Apparently our plane parked out front wasn't enough of an indication that we were here.

After about 5 minutes of lying there and now being fully awake, I got up to greet them and to see if they needed any help. The plane was parked in the middle of the runway and no one was around. I yelled out to see if they could hear me and got no response. I started to walk towards the other cabin, but I knew that it was available and figured that they would be back to get their gear and to move their plane. Plus, it was dusky and it felt like a bear might be eyeing me so I headed back. I glanced inside the airplane and it was empty....no gear, no nothing. I walked back to my cabin and went back to sleep.

The next morning, I walked outside and noticed that the plane was still in the middle of the runway and hadn't been moved. Later that morning, two men and a woman came walking by and started walking toward the airplane. They didn't offer a hello or an apology for waking us up by banging on our cabin door at midnight. They just walked to their plane. So I let them know that their plane was parked in the middle of the runway. The pilot then says, "Hey! This is a public use airstrip", as if I weren't aware of that. I didn't really even know why he would say that because a public use strip might imply that he doesn't own it and therefore probably shouldn't park right in the middle of it making it impossible for others to use. I was simply too stunned to even try to dialogue with him further. I hate to say this, but the woman looked like she was strung out on meth.

They had no gear with them and must have slept in the cabin without any mats or bags. They jumped in the plane, fired it up, and immediately used high power to maneuver for departure. Two minutes later they were airborne and outta there. My wife and I packed our belongings and loaded the plane for our return trip home. We flew to a nearby airport for fuel and noticed an airplane parked at the end of the runway and immediately assumed that the plane must have become disabled. We landed from the other direction so I didn't get a close up of the plane, but about 30 min later, the plane took off, and it was the SAME PLANE that had parked in the middle of the backcountry airstrip. I realized that they had parked at the end of the runway to get closer to the town than they would have been had they parked on the ramp where everyone else always parks; where I had just parked.

This individual was highly inconsiderate in my opinion for waking us up in the middle of the night and not even acknowledging the disturbance the next morning. Furthermore, he parked his plane right in the middle of the backcountry strip creating an obstruction. He was rude and treated the airplane as if he didn't even own it. Then, he parks his plane at the end of the runway of a State runway that gets a reasonable amount of traffic. He did this to save himself a 10 min walk down the runway, but this was an unprecedented action on his part and certainly isn't standard practice out there. By then, I was already so irritated by this guy that I wasn't going to give him any slack.

I of course looked up the tail number when I got home. Turns out that the plane looks to be registered to his father, a lawyer. You would think that he would treat his father's plane with some respect. He's about mid 30's, and there are plenty of internet results about him to suggest that he has been supported by his family to go shake things up in snow machines and in airplanes. It pains me to say this, but I wish his father had been a hotrod guy or something else besides an aircraft owner so that his kid wouldn't tarnish the overall character of the pilot fleet.

Rant over.

Good Rant!

Excellent rant! They are good for the soul.

In Alaska, it is specifically illegal to block a runway with a parked plane. And, that statute is actively enforced by Troopers. On smaller runways, parking in the middle is an effective way to keep others from joining you. Sometimes ill deeds ensue. I'd consider talking to the Troopers, at least to get it on record. Sometimes, if this is a pattern, it helps for them to know that.

It sounds like this fellow is a classic jackass. Unfortunately, people like him can give non pilots a bad impression of all pilots. We all are painted with the same brush.

It’d suck if someone arrived and really NEEDED to land.

Sorry your visit to the back country was interrupted by this sort of nonsense.

MTV

We affectionately refer to these people as "jerries." Clueless, inconsiderate people seem to be pouring into the backcountry from all avenues. Since covid drove them out of the malls, they are everywhere now it seems.

Blame YouTube.

Lesh?

If it’s him, I thought he was banned from USFS land.

Not out in left field at all. Like MTV said above, I would follow up with the Troopers as well as letting his dad know what junior is up to. Dad can do what ever he wants with the info. Jerks like this need to be made aware there are consequences for this type of behavior.

Kurt

Yep one of my pet peeves!!! I see it all the time. This last week we went to Bold Strip with friends on ATV'S. A Cessna landed and instead of parking on the end at the camping area. Decided to park of to the side in the middle of the strip, leaving very little room for any other plane to land safely. When they left he taxied all the way back to the parking area for takeoff/ Skwentna fly in always hard people trying to literally park on either side of the takeoff/landing line. We finally got people back 800 ft from the line but every year a parking Nazi has to keep watch. If possible aircraft should be moved well clear of the landing area, if several aircraft are being parked try to put them all on the same side so a pilot has a ground escape vector open if needed. DENNY

soyAnarchisto wrote:We affectionately refer to these people as "jerries." Clueless, inconsiderate people seem to be pouring into the backcountry from all avenues. Since covid drove them out of the malls, they are everywhere now it seems.

Funny. I never thought of the Sudetenland as backcountry . . . Ach du lieber!

I started to say "Unbelievable!" but then I realized that more and more, this type of behavior is becoming quite common.

I watched a guy park his F350 (towing a 25-foot trailer) in the middle of the road in front of Home Depot the other day. I'm not talking about in his lane – I'm talking about right in the middle of the road, blocking BOTH lanes. He got out and went in the store. I assumed he was making a pickup and would be back in a minute or so. Thirty minutes later, his truck is still there, and there is a line of cars on both sides of him, with much honking and cursing as people try to back up, go up one of the parking lot aisles, and around him, only to realize that the lanes don't go through (planters with trees at the end of the row of parking, and the parking lanes were pretty full). I got curious, and stuck around for a few minutes. The guy comes out with a single plastic bag containing his purchases, climbs into his truck, gives the finger to the folks glaring and yelling at him, and drives away.

Part of the problem is that gaining negative attention is gaining in popularity these days. Who in their right mind wants negative attention like with these two incidents? Where does this kind of thinking come from? We had all manner of personality in the Army, but cooperate and graduate was encouraged. You veterans remember alternating cars from whatever direction regardless of traffic sign joining the long line onto base and off base at beginning and ending of the day.

It doesn't relate to these particular incidents, but in the slow airplanes I flew I never wanted to be first in line. I wanted to be last if possible.

Good venting! Your grief is definitely shared. It’s a whole different kind of epidemic and I don’t know what else any of us can do but vent. It’s like an alien invasion, they look like us but inside, are not the same. We just need a way to identify them, a crooked little finger maybe?

Who the hell parks on a runway, I mean that’s not even a backcountry thing, it’s like parking a car in the middle of a road.

Sounds like the guy got a little too high on dads money.


Back when I flew medevac we had a large 91K park their turbo prop basically in the middle of the ramp, nothing over the size of a pitts could have gotten around it to the taxiway of the uncontrolled strip.

I went out and talked to the pilot, asked if he was a student pilot, he said he was PIC, I said he should know that’s not how you park a plane and that if we got a call we couldn’t get to the runway, said he’d move it soon when his pax arrived, I said if we get a call the fire department would be happy to move it with chains for him, he fired it up and moved it. Later sent a email to their CP with a diagram on where not to park, he was cool said sorry and he’d address it.

#OtherPeoplesKids

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