Narrative:

As I approached this airport for landing as a fuel stop; I called 15 miles inbound and made initial contact with tower. On right base I requested to land long to proceed to east end of 11;000 feet runway to my fuel supplier to take on fuel. I was approved to land as requested. Proceeded to fuel supplier. Truck pulled up and driver notified me that airport would be closing [in fifteen minutes] but that they would do a quick fueling and that I would get out on time. Gave line crew my fuel instructions and went into office to start writing out my payment check. The manager behind the counter repeated the notice that airport would be closing [in fifteen minutes] but that they would get me out before closure. As we watched fuel crew fill my 5 tanks (I had 1;000 miles to my destination) it became obvious that they would not be finished before the closure time. The manager said that she would call the tower and airport manager and 'get me out' once fueling had been completed. Once fueling was done; she was still on the phone with airport authorities. She made a hand motion for me to get moving while she completed securing permission. I got in the plane; started up and started moving toward the taxiway; approximately 800 yards; until I could clear new building construction in progress and be seen by the tower.during that taxi time I called to notify ground where I was and what was being requested on my behalf. I did not receive a radio reply. I called again as the tower could now see me coming out from behind the new buildings and approached taxiway a. Still no reply. No other radio talk either but this is not strange for this small quiet airport. I moved 300 yards to the hold short line of runway and called ground once again; with no response. Switched to tower and called three times with no response. Knew that my radio was transmitting as I saw the tx indicator light. There was no other radio traffic; nothing moving on the runway or taxiway; no men or equipment working anywhere on the airport. There has been pavement repair work ongoing on the taxiway a for the past year; but not today. I thought; that when they close a class D airport; the tower must close as well. I treated my departure as an uncontrolled field departure; announced my intentions; took off and joined my filed departure route. Time was now [fifteen minutes past airport closing time]. Climbing out on course; going through approximately 8;000 feet; with a filed cruise altitude of 180; I felt that I had to attempt to contact center somehow to let them know who I was; where I was; get a squawk code and activate my flight plan. It dawned on me that I had a main transmitter that had failed in some manner; but that I had a hand held VHF transceiver on board. Found it in my flight bag; tuned to the center frequency and made contact. Got the flight plan activated; picked up a squawk code and was then told to contact tower at [departure airport]. Center gave me a phone number to call. I dug my cell phone from my flight bag and attempted to phone the number provided. At the time; I was 40 miles out from the airport and was out of cellphone range. I tried to make contact with the tower with my hand held radio but was also out of range at this time. Right about now my main vacuum pump decided that it had worked long enough and just died. Low vac alarms and lights started flashing. Just what I needed to further complicate my flight. I then decided to first fly the airplane; get to altitude; establish cruise; engage autopilot and then try to sort out the vac and radio problems. While completing my climb; I could hear other transmissions on my hand held as well as center talk.I then tried to transmit on my main radio and heard a reply on my hand held. I knew then that I could talk on my main radio and receive on my hand held. Now; to sort out why. I discovered that the noise canceling headset that I had been using had failed in receive mode. My spare was in a padded case; under the rear seat; blocked from my reach by luggage; an oxygen tank; life raft; tool box. Could not be reached in flight my me as single pilot. I made a note of the tower phone number and to call them when I landed. I continued to troubleshoot the lack of reception and found that the speaker switch on the audio panel was in off position. The plane had just completed an annual inspection and major avionics work. I do not normally have the speaker on when I use a noise canceling head sets. Turned it on and was back to full radio function without having to use a portable radio with limited range. As I do have a standby electric vac system; I turned it on and restored vacuum function.I completed the balance of my flight as filed; transmitting on my main radio and listening on speaker. Immediately upon landing; I called the tower [at the last departure] reached the tower supervisor. He told me that the controller that had been on duty had left for the day. He was on duty. I identified myself and gave the reason for my call. He said that he knew nothing about any incident occurring that afternoon. No report had been passed on to him by the afternoon controller. He suggested that I call [on a specific date] as he would be on duty at that time. I did just that; called and reached a very unhappy [controller] and after starting to apologize and attempt to explain what I believe had happened; he told me that he had already filed his report. I said that I guess any further explanation would not be beneficial and terminated my call.in rethinking the chain of events that led up to my violation of ATC instructions; I submit the following:I wonder why the controller did not state that the airport would be closing in 15 mins when I called in on base leg stating that I was going to fuel. I had sufficient fuel onboard to fly to another airport. I do realize that he had no obligation to do so and that I should have known about this closure before hand.when I got the notification of this closure at the FBO while fueling; I should have remained in the office until I was informed that a departure had been approved and by whom. I was too eager to make my IFR departure clearance time slot. I should have asked for the tower phone number at that time; called and stated my request and asked for a departure clearance myself.after starting my taxi from the fuel pumps; I should have recognized a communication problem while on the ground by the fact that there were no transmissions of any kind to be heard. If an inoperative radio that prevented all communication; get it repaired before further flight. My emergency standby radio is just for that purpose… an in flight emergency. I could have moved a few pieces of luggage while on the ground; reached my spare headset and resolved this problem after troubleshooting.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The pilot of a C210 reported departing after airport closure due to miscommunication with local airport personnel and ATC.

Narrative: As I approached this airport for landing as a fuel stop; I called 15 miles inbound and made initial contact with tower. On right base I requested to land long to proceed to east end of 11;000 feet runway to my fuel supplier to take on fuel. I was approved to land as requested. Proceeded to fuel supplier. Truck pulled up and driver notified me that airport would be closing [in fifteen minutes] but that they would do a quick fueling and that I would get out on time. Gave line crew my fuel instructions and went into office to start writing out my payment check. The manager behind the counter repeated the notice that airport would be closing [in fifteen minutes] but that they would get me out before closure. As we watched fuel crew fill my 5 tanks (I had 1;000 miles to my destination) it became obvious that they would not be finished before the closure time. The manager said that she would call the tower and airport manager and 'Get me out' once fueling had been completed. Once fueling was done; she was still on the phone with airport authorities. She made a hand motion for me to get moving while she completed securing permission. I got in the plane; started up and started moving toward the taxiway; approximately 800 yards; until I could clear new building construction in progress and be seen by the tower.During that taxi time I called to notify ground where I was and what was being requested on my behalf. I did not receive a radio reply. I called again as the tower could now see me coming out from behind the new buildings and approached taxiway A. Still no reply. No other radio talk either but this is not strange for this small quiet airport. I moved 300 yards to the hold short line of runway and called ground once again; with no response. Switched to tower and called three times with no response. Knew that my radio was transmitting as I saw the TX indicator light. There was no other radio traffic; nothing moving on the runway or taxiway; no men or equipment working anywhere on the airport. There has been pavement repair work ongoing on the taxiway A for the past year; but not today. I thought; that when they close a class D airport; the tower must close as well. I treated my departure as an uncontrolled field departure; announced my intentions; took off and joined my filed departure route. Time was now [fifteen minutes past airport closing time]. Climbing out on course; going through approximately 8;000 feet; with a filed cruise altitude of 180; I felt that I had to attempt to contact Center somehow to let them know who I was; where I was; get a squawk code and activate my flight plan. It dawned on me that I had a main transmitter that had failed in some manner; but that I had a hand held VHF transceiver on board. Found it in my flight bag; tuned to the Center frequency and made contact. Got the flight plan activated; picked up a squawk code and was then told to contact tower at [departure airport]. Center gave me a phone number to call. I dug my cell phone from my flight bag and attempted to phone the number provided. At the time; I was 40 miles out from the airport and was out of cellphone range. I tried to make contact with the tower with my hand held radio but was also out of range at this time. Right about now my main vacuum pump decided that it had worked long enough and just died. Low vac alarms and lights started flashing. Just what I needed to further complicate my flight. I then decided to first fly the airplane; get to altitude; establish cruise; engage autopilot and THEN try to sort out the vac and radio problems. While completing my climb; I could hear other transmissions on my hand held as well as center talk.I then tried to transmit on my main radio and heard a reply on my hand held. I knew then that I could talk on my main radio and receive on my hand held. Now; to sort out why. I discovered that the noise canceling headset that I had been using had failed in receive mode. My spare was in a padded case; under the rear seat; blocked from my reach by luggage; an oxygen tank; life raft; tool box. Could not be reached in flight my me as single pilot. I made a note of the tower phone number and to call them when I landed. I continued to troubleshoot the lack of reception and found that the speaker switch on the audio panel was in off position. The plane had just completed an annual inspection and major avionics work. I do not normally have the speaker on when I use a noise canceling head sets. Turned it on and was back to full radio function without having to use a portable radio with limited range. As I do have a standby electric vac system; I turned it on and restored vacuum function.I completed the balance of my flight as filed; transmitting on my main radio and listening on speaker. Immediately upon landing; I called the tower [at the last departure] reached the tower supervisor. He told me that the controller that had been on duty had left for the day. He was on duty. I identified myself and gave the reason for my call. He said that he knew nothing about any incident occurring that afternoon. No report had been passed on to him by the afternoon controller. He suggested that I call [on a specific date] as he would be on duty at that time. I did just that; called and reached a very unhappy [controller] and after starting to apologize and attempt to explain what I believe had happened; he told me that he had already filed his report. I said that I guess any further explanation would not be beneficial and terminated my call.In rethinking the chain of events that led up to my violation of ATC instructions; I submit the following:I wonder why the controller did not state that the airport would be closing in 15 mins when I called in on base leg stating that I was going to fuel. I had sufficient fuel onboard to fly to another airport. I do realize that he had no obligation to do so and that I should have known about this closure before hand.When I got the notification of this closure at the FBO while fueling; I should have remained in the office until I was informed that a departure had been approved and by whom. I was too eager to make my IFR departure clearance time slot. I should have asked for the tower phone number at that time; called and stated my request and asked for a departure clearance myself.After starting my taxi from the fuel pumps; I should have recognized a communication problem while on the ground by the fact that there were no transmissions of any kind to be heard. If an inoperative radio that prevented all communication; get it repaired before further flight. My emergency standby radio is just for that purpose… An in flight emergency. I could have moved a few pieces of luggage while on the ground; reached my spare headset and resolved this problem after troubleshooting.

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.