Narrative:

I was working with an instructor on wings & instrument proficiency check (ipc). Just finished turns; climbs; descents and unusual attitude recover under the hood (which served as clearing turns) and transitioned to a simulated engine out. Spotted an airport; and entered a non-standard steep descending right base to set up for simulated engine out landing. We were not on CTAF. We noticed a possible ultralight on high left base beginning to break off their approach. We immediately broke off the approach to the right and climbed out of the pattern. We then got on CTAF; but didn't hear any other traffic. The instructor didn't want me aware of the nearby airport; and was simulating an IFR emergency; breaking out of IMC; to a power off landing. This resulted in no radio calls being made; and only one pair of eyes clearing the area prior to the simulated emergency. The radios could have been set up for CTAF frequencies in the area without necessarily informing me of the nearby airport. This would have made it easier to get onto CTAF and announce for traffic without referring to charts. A call then could have been made as soon as I had spotted the airport as the intended point of landing. Also if we were 'monitoring' CTAF; the instructor might have heard the traffic even though I was not aware of our position. However even with that; we don't know that the other aircraft had a radio.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Cessna pilots were conducting a simulated engine failure under simulated instrument conditions and failed to make the recommended airport traffic pattern radio calls.

Narrative: I was working with an instructor on wings & Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC). Just finished turns; climbs; descents and unusual attitude recover under the hood (which served as clearing turns) and transitioned to a simulated engine out. Spotted an airport; and entered a non-standard steep descending right base to set up for simulated engine out landing. We were not on CTAF. We noticed a possible ultralight on high left base beginning to break off their approach. We immediately broke off the approach to the right and climbed out of the pattern. We then got on CTAF; but didn't hear any other traffic. The instructor didn't want me aware of the nearby airport; and was simulating an IFR emergency; breaking out of IMC; to a power off landing. This resulted in no radio calls being made; and only one pair of eyes clearing the area prior to the simulated emergency. The radios could have been set up for CTAF frequencies in the area without necessarily informing me of the nearby airport. This would have made it easier to get onto CTAF and announce for traffic without referring to charts. A call then could have been made as soon as I had spotted the airport as the intended point of landing. Also if we were 'monitoring' CTAF; the instructor might have heard the traffic even though I was not aware of our position. However even with that; we don't know that the other aircraft had a radio.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.