Low time C205 pilot; overwhelmed by circumstances of a night flight in mountainous terrain; diverted...

Narrative:

I am a low hour pilot having just recently passed my flight exam. I was flying at night on a planned route from ZZZ1 to ZZZ2. As we approached ZZZ3; we felt that flying in the utah mountains at night was too risky. Therefore I decided to land in ZZZ3 though I had not planned that. After speaking with approach; I decided to land at ZZZ3 even though I was very inexperienced. After being given a heading of 030 I found that I was flying straight toward a high mountain peak. I considered briefly what to do and eventually decided I must divert; which I did. Then I was given a tower frequency which I entered into the radio; but could not contact the tower. I think it was because I entered the wrong frequency. After trying another frequency that I was pretty sure was correct; I could not contact anyone; so I was flying without communication in class bravo. I was quite upset at this point and was struggling to clear my head and figure out what to do. I knew I was in trouble with ATC; but decided to focus on flying safely until I could make radio contact. I finally found an approach frequency in my foreflight program which I punched in and finally was able to re-establish communication. In all this confusion I also lost approximately 500 ft in altitude which may have caused problems for other aircraft. At this point I believe the tower knew I was in trouble and cleared me directly to the numbers to land. I did so and landed safely. I believe I should not have been flying in the dark. I allowed myself to make that decision because the FBO was not open until xa:00 the next morning and I did not want to fly in the daytime with thermals at high altitudes. I did not plan adequately and I changed my plans about where to land while in the air and did not give myself time to be prepared to land at a busy airport at night. Because I was not well prepared and very inexperienced and had never landed in class bravo before I surely should not have attempted that at night. I was tired; had been working hard that week; all of which added to my stress level and caused my judgment to be compromised. Looking back; I allowed factors of being in a hurry and concern about time to become more urgent than proper planning. I have rarely been so stressed and traumatized as I was flying in class bravo without a radio. I never want to repeat that experience. I feel that in the flying I do; there is rarely if ever a need to land at class bravo airports; which I will religiously avoid in the future; both in the day and at night. However; because I realized I did not function well in that stressful situation; it becomes apparent that I need more training especially as it pertains to communications in situations where I must divert or where I am under stress. I also need to have more training about class B operations as it appears I did not understand the details of what was expected of me and how to perform when I had a loss of communication.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Low time C205 pilot; overwhelmed by circumstances of a night flight in mountainous terrain; diverted to an airfield in Class B after a temporary; self-induced loss of communication.

Narrative: I am a low hour pilot having just recently passed my flight exam. I was flying at night on a planned route from ZZZ1 to ZZZ2. As we approached ZZZ3; we felt that flying in the Utah Mountains at night was too risky. Therefore I decided to land in ZZZ3 though I had not planned that. After speaking with Approach; I decided to land at ZZZ3 even though I was very inexperienced. After being given a heading of 030 I found that I was flying straight toward a high mountain peak. I considered briefly what to do and eventually decided I must divert; which I did. Then I was given a Tower frequency which I entered into the radio; but could not contact the tower. I think it was because I entered the wrong frequency. After trying another frequency that I was pretty sure was correct; I could not contact anyone; so I was flying without communication in class Bravo. I was quite upset at this point and was struggling to clear my head and figure out what to do. I knew I was in trouble with ATC; but decided to focus on flying safely until I could make radio contact. I finally found an approach frequency in my foreflight program which I punched in and finally was able to re-establish communication. In all this confusion I also lost approximately 500 FT in altitude which may have caused problems for other aircraft. At this point I believe the tower knew I was in trouble and cleared me directly to the numbers to land. I did so and landed safely. I believe I should not have been flying in the dark. I allowed myself to make that decision because the FBO was not open until XA:00 the next morning and I did not want to fly in the daytime with thermals at high altitudes. I did not plan adequately and I changed my plans about where to land while in the air and did not give myself time to be prepared to land at a busy airport at night. Because I was not well prepared and very inexperienced and had never landed in Class Bravo before I surely should not have attempted that at night. I was tired; had been working hard that week; all of which added to my stress level and caused my judgment to be compromised. Looking back; I allowed factors of being in a hurry and concern about time to become more urgent than proper planning. I have rarely been so stressed and traumatized as I was flying in Class Bravo without a radio. I never want to repeat that experience. I feel that in the flying I do; there is rarely if ever a need to land at class Bravo airports; which I will religiously avoid in the future; both in the day and at night. However; because I realized I did not function well in that stressful situation; it becomes apparent that I need more training especially as it pertains to communications in situations where I must divert or where I am under stress. I also need to have more training about Class B operations as it appears I did not understand the details of what was expected of me and how to perform when I had a loss of communication.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1106659
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna Single Piston Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 74 Flight Crew Total 164 Flight Crew Type 75
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Airspace Violation All Types Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Low time C205 pilot; overwhelmed by circumstances of a night flight in mountainous terrain; diverted to an airfield in class B after a temporary; self-induced loss of communication.