The problem arose from what I believe was a lack of communication and pilot negligence.
Aircraft
Near miss in the pattern
The other was operating in the pattern, circling above the airport, seemingly pointlessly, and as I was making my taxi calls, I heard nothing from him. So I tried to time my departure to coincide with his downwind on the opposite side of the airport that I was departing from.
Pictures of the day: Evening flight
Longtime contributor Tom Snow sent these photos of the sunset view on the evening of Feb. 7, 2024, as he and his son, Sam, returned to land at Chattanooga, Tennessee (KCHA) at the conclusion of their first flight in their new Van’s RV-12iST trainer.
Bounced landing bends plane
When he came into land he bounced and made the mistake of not going around immediately. The airplane bounced two more times and then he taxied off.
A license to learn
In not wanting to risk a hard bounce again, I applied full power to execute a go-around. The P-factor yawed the plane to the left and pushed the plane even closer to the runway edge lights, while still trying to fly. The plane ended up being in line with the runway edge lights, and two or three were struck.
Training flight ends with a bang
We heard a loud bang closer to the engine. Simultaneously lost our G500 and G750.
Drone causes two near misses
It was an unsettling moment as from my position the drone looked to be another plane. The drone was so close to the aircraft that I thought they were going to collide. The drone looked to have passed just under the aircraft.
On a collision course
He turned crosswind earlier and lower than he should have, which put him on a collision course from beneath our left wing where we could not see him.
Training flight causes near miss
During the spiral descent we were into the sun as well as banking and didn’t see the other airplane and the student and I were unaware we were close to another airplane.