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4 Answers

Right of way rules (91:113)

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Commercial Pilot

When we operate a motor vehicle we pass, ( overtake) on the left. What's  the reason for passing ( overtaking) a slower aircraft on the right in aviation?

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4 Answers



  1. Bryan on Mar 18, 2022

    If you’re in Great Brittain or Australia, in a motor vehicle, you overtake on the right. Most everywhere else, you overtake on the left. The reason is so that if you are passing in an opposite direction lane of traffic, the drivers of both vehicles have maximum visibility to see and avoid any potential collision. But these are ground traffic rules and the analogy to planes does not hold up because planes don’t just have speed and direction like cars–planes also move vertically.

    In the air, we have an extra built-in layer of protection against head-on impacts. If everyone is flying at proper altitudes per 91.159 and 91.179, then the most likely source of converging traffic will be traffic heading the same or a similar direction. Out in the random blue, it’s very, very unlikely that you and another plane will be at the exact same altitude and heading, let alone track. Airways are possible, yes–and as long as everyone passing moves to the right, great. But where do planes all fly at the same altitude, in the same direction, and nearly identical tracks all day long?? The traffic pattern at uncontrolled fields.

    Standard traffic pattern means left turns. If you pass on the left in a traffic pattern, the guy in front of you (who cannot see you no matter how well he scans the sky) will turn downwind or base right into you and that’s a bad day for everyone. Passing in the traffic pattern is dangerous regardless of the circumstances and the rule to pass on the right doesn’t help when you have a right-hand pattern. But that’s the idea–the most common place for planes to be at the same altitude, heading, and track is the traffic pattern and most of them are left turns.

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  2. KDS on Mar 18, 2022

    To answer the question of why overtaking aircraft pass on the left, I suspect the origin of the rule has long since been forgotten. However, my guess is that it was established that way to give the overtaken airplane a better chance of seeing the overtaking airplane as the pilot sits on the left. Of course, if we were to follow that logic, we would overtake helicopters on the right, but most likely when the rule was created helicopters were a rarity if at all.

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  3. John D Collins on Mar 19, 2022

    91.113(f) says: “Overtaking. Each aircraft that is being overtaken has the right-of-way and each pilot of an overtaking aircraft shall alter course to the right to pass well clear”

    I would guess that this is because the pilot seat is usually on the left and that it affords the pilot the best view of the aircraft being overtaken. The pilot of the overtaken aircraft is not likely to see the other aircraft until the other aircraft is well beyond it and no longer a collision hazard.

    Position lights are also involved with the left side of the aircraft having a red position light and the right side has a green light. So if overtaking, you want to pass to the right to see the green light indicating the side you are to use for passing. In a converging scenario at night, the pilot that sees the red side does not have the right of way. Head on, both aircraft are to turn to the right. This is established by ICAO international convention. It undoubtedly comes from the nautical convention and for a sea plane, it would make no sense to use a different convention in the air than when on the water surface.

    Regardless of who has the right of way, avoiding a collision is in everyone’s interest.

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  4. Russ Roslewski on Mar 19, 2022

    For all the time and energy we spend on learning and testing on the right of way rules, in my almost 30 years of flying I don’t think I’ve ever had occasion to use them. Every “possible” situation, like in the traffic pattern, has been resolved just through communication with the other pilots. I can’t see just passing someone on downwind and turning in front of them without communicating, that seems extremely unsafe. And the other scenario of overtaking someone on the same heading and altitude, and neither of you are receiving ATC service, seems pretty rare too.

    I guess the arrival routing into Oshkosh during AirVenture would be the closest thing we routinely have, but the procedure there is that you DON’T pass anybody.

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