https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/accidents-ntsb/weather-accidents/
One more reason for using CTAF and monitoring it at uncontrolled airfields is the check on runway use due to prevailing wind.
I've had cases where the wind was essentially calm and determining which runway was being used was important. In another case, I was approaching an airport and it appeared that the other guys were using the downwind runway direction. I went ahead and altered my approach...the wind was steady and fairly light... and after I landed I asked one other pilot, who was a CFI, why they did that. I was told that operating in that direction was advantageous for terrain avoidance. There was a subsatantial hillside in the other direction.
If I hadn't been monitoring CTAF quite a ways out I would have set up for a pattern opposing the traffic there.
One more reason for using CTAF and monitoring it at uncontrolled airfields is the check on runway use due to prevailing wind.
I've had cases where the wind was essentially calm and determining which runway was being used was important. In another case, I was approaching an airport and it appeared that the other guys were using the downwind runway direction. I went ahead and altered my approach...the wind was steady and fairly light... and after I landed I asked one other pilot, who was a CFI, why they did that. I was told that operating in that direction was advantageous for terrain avoidance. There was a subsatantial hillside in the other direction.
If I hadn't been monitoring CTAF quite a ways out I would have set up for a pattern opposing the traffic there.
