Taxi traffic question

[blazer05]

At KSNA - I was taxiing to parking on A. GND had a Cessna on A going the opposite direction to takeoff. GND had the other plane stop and cautioned me about the traffic on the same taxiway.

Not being a RW pilot and I have never run into this on VATSIM while under ATC control. My solution was to go to the right of the stopped aircraft and continue on my way.

What is the proper procedure?

[Kevin_atc]

What was your callsign and when did this happen (date/time)?

[Peter Grey]

To expand a little bit on why Kevin is asking you for that info, ending up "head to head" with another aircraft on a taxiway isn't suppose to happen and indicates an ATC mistake.

Please let us know the details Kevin asked for so we can look into this, thanks.

[blazer05]

Callsign was N7274H and the time was a little after 4pm PDT.

I am not saying it was not my fault. If it was - please let me know what I should have done or what instruction I missed so I can correctly handle this the next time.

[Anthony Santanastaso]

I just listened to the recording, and I do not believe anything abnormal occurred. The controller pointed out each aircraft and told one to give way to the other. Taxiway Alpha is (as far as I know and have witnessed) a very busy movement area and I imagine that a situation such as the one you encountered is not too far from the norm (at least, at other airports, it's happened to me in some form or another).

Assuming the controller has enough of a heads up, ideally they would hold an aircraft on the ramp before the conflicting traffic crosses. But, as it happened in this scenario, there was just enough space in between instructions that enabled the outbound aircraft to start their taxi on Alpha while you were clearing the runway and taxiing inbound on Alpha. Due to the fact that the ramp area is so large just to the east of the taxiway, I do not think that it would be all that difficult for either of you to taxi into the non-movement area while the other passed, and then continued your taxi.

As a real world pilot, I will stress to you one important training item that results from this scenario: always listen carefully to what is happening on frequency so as to promote situational awareness. Even though ATC may not be talking to you at the moment, it's always good to listen in on what they are telling other aircraft as it may pertain to you at some point. This is an example of where listening may have helped (especially if you had monitored the ground frequency as tower had instructed) because you would have heard the fact that there was going to be opposite direction traffic on Taxiway Alpha. Even though ATC issues instructions/clearances to which you must adhere, remember that you are the Pilot In Command (PIC) and, at the end of the day, you are the one who is fully responsible for the safe operation of your aircraft.

Hopefully this helps, and please understand that this is just my opinion of the circumstance. Blue skies!

[blazer05]

Thanks Anthony - my error in being on the wrong frequency contributed to the situation.

I will take heed of your comment about maintaining SA at all times.

If faced with this in the future - I will vacate the taxiway to the E assuming it is wide open as it normally is giving the other A/C plenty of room.

Thanks again.