Is it ever helpful to pilots coming down for landings, to hear a call from the LZ on the weather from someone there on the ground? Or does it 'muddy the waters'
I was done with a flight from EJ to Parma Park last Saturday, and upon landing in almost calm wind, I figured I would call out that information to the couple of pilots coming in not too far after me. "Wind is pretty calm in the LZ" was my call at the time. Maybe that wasn't specific enough.
I don't know if it was helpful, if there is a protocol, or if it only confuses things, as pilots may or may not appreciate hearing info that may or may not be correct by the time they are literally coming down to land.
Then I read a Safety/Accident report on the USHPA site, which gave a pie chart of the accident-during-flight breakdown for 2010, and the most accident's happening (that year at least) were on Approach.
Thinking of Parmas 'technical' landing setup, and the many things to consider coming in to land there, I wonder if we help (or could help more?) by 'guiding' eachother... staying at the landing zone longer after landing, and being there just to kind of oversee anyone coming down. But, it's the last thing I want to do is give uninformed, inaccurate or untimely information and throw anyones landing off...
I did read this in the SB Airspace instructions on another SB website: 9. When at the landing area, actively assist other incoming pilots with condition reports and if necessary notify other beach users of the incoming traffic and probable traffic pattern. To be an effective assistance, pilots may need to use different radio frequencies. so, I take that as some kind of prescedence to 'actively assist'...
Forgive if there's a post on this topic already. Point me there if there's more conversation on this topic at all... Be well, be safe, and live to fly another day.