Narrative:

A mooney allegro was cleared to land on runway 29R. I observed the aircraft on about a 3/4 mile final and checked to see that the gear was down. I looked down to observe my wind instruments and gave the pilot a wind check; then scanned my strip bay and r-acd. When I looked at the final again I couldn't find the allegro in the ground clutter that is a visual background for that final from the point of view of the tower. I expected the aircraft to be on very short final approaching the runway threshold; but I couldn't find it there. Then I realized that the aircraft was rolling out on taxiway a. I couldn't tell whether he landed and exited the runway very early; or landed on the taxiway. There were no other aircraft or vehicles moving on the airfield at the time so no one would have been endangered if he had landed on taxiway a. I chose not to say anything and see if the pilot said something about the landing but he didn't. In retrospect I think it would have been better to question the pilot even if I risked offending him; just in case he had landed on the taxiway. Then we would have had the opportunity to educate him on paying closer attention to the movement area markings on final. I don't have any recommendations but the view of the final for runway 29R from our new tower has been an ongoing issue for all of us.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Tower Controller described a possible taxiway landing event listing the visibility form the new Tower as problematic.

Narrative: A Mooney Allegro was cleared to land on Runway 29R. I observed the aircraft on about a 3/4 mile final and checked to see that the gear was down. I looked down to observe my wind instruments and gave the pilot a wind check; then scanned my strip bay and R-ACD. When I looked at the final again I couldn't find the Allegro in the ground clutter that is a visual background for that final from the point of view of the Tower. I expected the aircraft to be on very short final approaching the runway threshold; but I couldn't find it there. Then I realized that the aircraft was rolling out on Taxiway A. I couldn't tell whether he landed and exited the runway very early; or landed on the taxiway. There were no other aircraft or vehicles moving on the airfield at the time so no one would have been endangered if he had landed on Taxiway A. I chose not to say anything and see if the pilot said something about the landing but he didn't. In retrospect I think it would have been better to question the pilot even if I risked offending him; just in case he had landed on the taxiway. Then we would have had the opportunity to educate him on paying closer attention to the movement area markings on final. I don't have any recommendations but the view of the final for Runway 29R from our new Tower has been an ongoing issue for all of us.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.