[Cloudskimmer]

Taxying back to parking I was aware of another aircraft about to appear round the corner wanting to taxi to the hold. I kept to the right and slowed down so he could pass also to his right. Somewhat surprised when he asked tower what I was doing, they responded he was waiting for you to pass.
When I got back to the club house after expressing surprise at his indecision I was informed that the old passing starboard to starboard rule has been withdrawn by EASA, effectively its now a free for all. That cant be right can it?

[flybymike]

I believe I did read something to that effect, but my default position would be to taxi and pass to the right.
(Passing starboard to starboard would mean taxiing on the left)

[philjlan]

SERA has the answer

Rights of way on the ground
Rules on overtaking and giving way are now less specific. Aircraft and vehicles overtaking other aircraft and vehicles can now pass on either the left or the right.

[LowNSlow1]

How bizarre that stipulating aircraft pass each other left side to left side so that the pilots can see their respective wingtips and thus ensure clearance is no longer a sensible rule? EASA - Europeans Against Sensible Aviation! I wonder which country voted for this balleaux!

[Chris Martyr]

A right old 'free for all' then !...

I might just e-mail Sunny Swift and see what she would have done.....

[Cloudskimmer]

I agree a free-for-all is asking for trouble. Imagine both turning towards each other and then both back again, crazy. I could see the merit in passing so both pilots could view wingtip to wingtip, it made a lot of sense.
Thanks for clearly that up, so the rule now is - there is no rule

[neaton]

It does seem odd. I wonder if the next step is to also remove the rule when airborne?

[FleaFlyFloFum]

One more change to be aware of -

If following a major feature such as a coastline/ motorway etc., traffic may keep either side of the feature so keep your eyes open for another aircraft coming straight for you.

[Irv Lee]

Neither will be a problem, i would guess they were role played in committee rooms by non pilots and no coffee was spilled, so should be fine on ground and also in the air for real pilots flying VFR in 1500m vis

[ivanmia]

As it isn't law is there no way we can make it an agreement amongst us UK based pilots that we ignore it and keep the status quo? I'm not sure how we would do this but I'm equally sure someone on this esteemed forum could get it done.
Ivan

[Irv Lee]

Well it is probable that non forumite and non magazine readers will never find out that anything has changed, i cannot imagine how they would find out otherwise, so if we keep doing what we always did, that should work.

[cockney steve]

Why can't any / every airfield just amend it's ground-rules appropriately? just imagine if we removed the lane markings on roads.
Why not go the whole hog.....rip up the motorway central- reservation and pave it over that will give an extra couple of vehicle-widths and with the absence of lane- markings, the densest volume of traffic would be free to spread over as much width as it desired.

*removes tongue from cheek and ponders the idiocy of removing very primary no-cost de-confliction -rules*

[Irv Lee]

just imagine if we removed the lane markings on roads.

I think they did that in country roads in a part of Hampshire/Wiltshire borders as a "safety measure" not long ago. The council theory was that being able to work out where they were exactly laterally on the unlit road at night and being able to see whether it was about to curve left or right ahead made drivers drive faster....

[GAFlyer4Fun]

just imagine if we removed the lane markings on roads.

On many roads the bright white paint simply vanishes when it is wet. How is this madness allowed with the Nanny State that does plenty of other measures to try and prevent accidents?
I am sure it looked superb when signed off in bright sunshine.
Apparently it is not normal paint so cannot easily be removed.

There are certain bits of the M25 that are prone to accidents during commuter times... and they have the vanishing paint in the wet. The lanes are not aligned to the road seams either so if anyone tries to keep in lane using road seams as a guide will eventually wander into another lane perhaps without realising. Also more difficult with a low sun.

[PaulB]

just imagine if we removed the lane markings on roads.

Yesterday evening's entertainment was watching drivers doing 3 point turns courtesy of the workmen closing the end of our road due to re-surfacing the adjoining road.

Some of them were so bad that it made you wonder if they'd ever had a driving lesson, never mind at some point passed a test.