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A general aviation flight instructor reported entering the landing pattern at wrong uncontrolled airport; discovered the error and exited the airspace of the airport.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1369084 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201607 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | C83.Airport |
| State Reference | CA |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Small Aircraft High Wing 1 Eng Fixed Gear |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Landing |
| Route In Use | Visual Approach |
| Flight Plan | None |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Instructor |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 85 Flight Crew Total 550 Flight Crew Type 400 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types |
Narrative:
I was with a post-solo student pilot working on unusual attitude recoveries. After completing those maneuvers; we had planned to fly to hayward; but the winds were fairly strong; so it seemed like an advantageous time to practice crosswind landing. I visually acquired an airport to the west; close to the hills with its larger runway being 30; which I believed to be tcy. That airport was actually C83. We received the tcy weather and made periodic announcements on the CTAF at tcy. After 2 laps in the traffic pattern; several inconsistencies dawned on me (wind data from the AWOS was entirely wrong and NORDO traffic in the pattern not responding to our radio calls); and I realized we were at the wrong airport. We were at that time on the downwind leg; so I instructed my student to climb and depart the area.this could have been prevented in any number of ways:(1) I should have used some landmark other than an airport to identify the airport (e.g. Byron sits next to a body of water and tcy sits next to a populated area).(2) I should have used some radio navigation tool. We had a GPS on-board that I attempted to use to verify our distance; but it was inoperative in this aircraft. We both had ipads with foreflight; but I had been trying to encourage the use of paper charts and certified navigation tools. This would have been an instructive time to use the eca VOR.(3) I should have verified the headings of both runways. I expected to see runway 30; so when I did see runway 30; the airport was erroneously verified.(4) I should have landed only at airports briefed before the flight. If I had reviewed the airport diagram on the ground; I would have been more familiar with tcy and recognized earlier the inconsistency between the airport diagram and my reality.(5) many non-towered airports have their name written in large letters on the ramp or runway. That would have been a helpful cue in this situation.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A general aviation flight instructor reported entering the landing pattern at wrong uncontrolled airport; discovered the error and exited the airspace of the airport.
Narrative: I was with a post-solo student pilot working on unusual attitude recoveries. After completing those maneuvers; we had planned to fly to Hayward; but the winds were fairly strong; so it seemed like an advantageous time to practice crosswind landing. I visually acquired an airport to the west; close to the hills with its larger Runway being 30; which I believed to be TCY. That airport was actually C83. We received the TCY weather and made periodic announcements on the CTAF at TCY. After 2 laps in the traffic pattern; several inconsistencies dawned on me (wind data from the AWOS was entirely wrong and NORDO traffic in the pattern not responding to our radio calls); and I realized we were at the wrong airport. We were at that time on the downwind leg; so I instructed my student to climb and depart the area.This could have been prevented in any number of ways:(1) I should have used some landmark other than an airport to identify the airport (e.g. Byron sits next to a body of water and TCY sits next to a populated area).(2) I should have used some radio navigation tool. We had a GPS on-board that I attempted to use to verify our distance; but it was inoperative in this aircraft. We both had iPads with ForeFlight; but I had been trying to encourage the use of paper charts and certified navigation tools. This would have been an instructive time to use the ECA VOR.(3) I should have verified the headings of both runways. I expected to see runway 30; so when I did see runway 30; the airport was erroneously verified.(4) I should have landed only at airports briefed before the flight. If I had reviewed the airport diagram on the ground; I would have been more familiar with TCY and recognized earlier the inconsistency between the airport diagram and my reality.(5) Many non-towered airports have their name written in large letters on the ramp or runway. That would have been a helpful cue in this situation.
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.