General aviation pilot reported that while in the landing pattern mixed with large turbojets; he had...

Attributes
ACN	1390101
Time
Date	201609
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	SNA.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Sport Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	VFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 180 Flight Crew Total 13000 Flight Crew Type 1
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Miss Distance	Horizontal 400 Vertical 500

Narrative:

Returning to sna after local area orientation flight. This was my first piston flight in about 9 years although I am a current 121 ATP. We were maneuvering on a close left base for runway 20L. There was an airliner a half mile further out on final for 20R. The runways are close together and my instructor became concerned about the wake turbulence of the [large transport] should we end up behind them during landing. At approximately 300 AGL on final for 20L; the instructor took the controls and began a climbing right turn to pass over the top of the turbojet. The tower immediately told us to make left traffic and we began to maneuver back to the left. We never crossed the extended centerline for 20R and remained above the airliner's flight path. It is likely the two aircraft passed with less than 500 feet of separation.it would have been a better plan to extend downwind and base in behind the jet. We could have then judged his touchdown point and either landed beyond that point on the parallel runway or elected to go around. I did not expect the instructor to make a turn to overfly the other aircraft. I deferred to his considerable experience with both the airplane and sna procedures.I resumed control on crosswind and we made a second visual approach to 20L and landed without incident.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: General aviation pilot reported that while in the landing pattern mixed with large turbojets; he had a near miss with an airliner while avoiding potential wake turbulence.

Narrative: Returning to SNA after local area orientation flight. This was my first piston flight in about 9 years although I am a current 121 ATP. We were maneuvering on a close left base for Runway 20L. There was an airliner a half mile further out on final for 20R. The runways are close together and my instructor became concerned about the wake turbulence of the [large transport] should we end up behind them during landing. At approximately 300 AGL on final for 20L; the instructor took the controls and began a climbing right turn to pass over the top of the turbojet. The Tower immediately told us to make left traffic and we began to maneuver back to the left. We never crossed the extended centerline for 20R and remained above the airliner's flight path. It is likely the two aircraft passed with less than 500 feet of separation.It would have been a better plan to extend downwind and base in behind the jet. We could have then judged his touchdown point and either landed beyond that point on the parallel runway or elected to go around. I did not expect the instructor to make a turn to overfly the other aircraft. I deferred to his considerable experience with both the airplane and SNA procedures.I resumed control on crosswind and we made a second visual approach to 20L and landed without incident.

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.