Narrative:

I was on a training flight with a commercial student who was transitioning to a new complex airplane. It was a mid-morning flight in alaska; and the sun had just peaked over the eastern chugach mountains. We headed to birchwood airport; an uncontrolled airport northeast of anchorage for some landing practice. We had thoroughly briefed the flight; but my student quickly began to get behind the aircraft. Eventually; we got the weather information at birchwood and got onto the CTAF frequency.as we made the approach to birchwood from the west; my student made a radio call that we were 5 miles to the west at 3;000 feet and would be entering the traffic pattern on the 45 for runway 20R; right traffic (the traffic pattern for the southern facing runway is on the same side that we were approaching from). The sun was just up over the mountains; and we were looking directly into it as we approached the airport. My student stated that he was having trouble seeing the runway. He started his descent to the airport too late; and we were going to end up fast and high in the pattern. While he was wrestling with the airplane I was scanning the pattern. I could see the downwind leg; base and final were clear; but the sun was directly in line with the crosswind leg coming off the runway; and the little bit of snow on the runway was creating a bad glare.however; I wasn't too concerned; we hadn't heard anyone on the CTAF. About two and half miles away from the airport I told my student he needed to make another radio call. My instruction went unnoticed as he was still trying to make his descent into the pattern work. Seeing that; I switched gears and gave him some options that would help make his descent into the pattern work out; including dropping the gear; s-turns; or a 360 degree turn. Another option I mentioned was to turn right slightly to gain a little space; then turn left back to our 45 entry. This is the option that my student took. He turned just barely to the right and we were still pointed pretty much at the airport. By this time we were about 2 miles away; still 1;000 feet too high; and about 30 knots too fast for the pattern. Due to the slight right turn; our 45 degree entry to the runway was really about a 30 degree entry; and was going to take us through the crosswind leg of the pattern.a quick note about birchwood: there is a restricted area less than a mile off the departure end of runway 20R; so most people turn their crosswind a little early to avoid the restricted area. We were just west of the tip of the restricted area; still a little high and a little fast; on a 30 degree entry to the downwind; about to cut through the crosswind leg that we couldn't see. I told my student he needed to announce our position on the radio. Just as he keyed the mike; I saw a shape at our 1 o'clock; same altitude. As my eyes focused; I saw it was a plane; headed directly at us. We must have seen each other at the same time. He broke up and left. I took the controls and broke down and left. It was a little difficult to discern the distance; but we were probably 500 to 700 feet from one another when we both took evasive action.for some reason; my first thought was; 'he must not have had a radio' since we hadn't heard anything on the CTAF; and I had confirmed we were on the correct frequency. Suddenly; I heard the pilot from the other plane announce; 'near miss; birchwood!' I confirmed that they were okay over the radio and if they were departing the pattern or staying. They left the pattern; and my student and I continued our training with no further incident.back on the ground; it was clear to me that they had taken off; and turned crosswind just as we were on a 'modified' 45 entry that made our flight paths intersect. Of course; that was the place that we couldn't see into the pattern. My student and I had a full debrief. We talked about proper descent planning; flying appropriate patterns; making radio calls; but most importantly we discussed that every PIC should ensure that they have a full understanding of what is happening visually in the traffic pattern before entering; non-radio airplanes can; and do; operate at uncontrolled airports. I think both my student and I have a greater appreciation of sun angles and how they can be a huge detriment to visibility. We discussed ways to maneuver the airplane to see all of the pattern before entering during those bad sun angle times.for my part as an instructor; I learned a couple things out of this experience. First; complacency sneaks up on you. I hadn't heard anything on the radio; therefore there were no other airplanes in the area. This time; there happened to be one. Secondly; I need to be more assertive in telling a student to abort if he or she puts us in a situation I don't like. I was uncomfortable being that close to the airport while still descending at a high rate when we should have been on a 45 entry at the proper altitude and airspeed. We could have descended onto another plane. In this situation; it would have been an easy answer for me to take the controls and let the student catch back up if there was a large amount of traffic in the area or some other immediate safety factor when task saturation can turn deadly. Today; I got complacent with allowing the student to put us in a bad situation without my intervention because I didn't think anything was going to happen. In the future; I'll be able to not only use this story as a case scenario; but to recognize that when I'm uncomfortable because we could end up in a bad situation; I need to take more assertive action.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight instructor reported a NMAC at BCV while on a training flight with a student due to a combination of improper pattern entry and sun angle.

Narrative: I was on a training flight with a commercial student who was transitioning to a new complex airplane. It was a mid-morning flight in Alaska; and the sun had just peaked over the eastern Chugach Mountains. We headed to Birchwood airport; an uncontrolled airport northeast of Anchorage for some landing practice. We had thoroughly briefed the flight; but my student quickly began to get behind the aircraft. Eventually; we got the weather information at Birchwood and got onto the CTAF frequency.As we made the approach to Birchwood from the west; my student made a radio call that we were 5 miles to the west at 3;000 feet and would be entering the traffic pattern on the 45 for Runway 20R; right traffic (the traffic pattern for the southern facing runway is on the same side that we were approaching from). The sun was just up over the mountains; and we were looking directly into it as we approached the airport. My student stated that he was having trouble seeing the runway. He started his descent to the airport too late; and we were going to end up fast and high in the pattern. While he was wrestling with the airplane I was scanning the pattern. I could see the downwind leg; base and final were clear; but the sun was directly in line with the crosswind leg coming off the runway; and the little bit of snow on the runway was creating a bad glare.However; I wasn't too concerned; we hadn't heard anyone on the CTAF. About two and half miles away from the airport I told my student he needed to make another radio call. My instruction went unnoticed as he was still trying to make his descent into the pattern work. Seeing that; I switched gears and gave him some options that would help make his descent into the pattern work out; including dropping the gear; S-turns; or a 360 degree turn. Another option I mentioned was to turn right slightly to gain a little space; then turn left back to our 45 entry. This is the option that my student took. He turned just barely to the right and we were still pointed pretty much at the airport. By this time we were about 2 miles away; still 1;000 feet too high; and about 30 knots too fast for the pattern. Due to the slight right turn; our 45 degree entry to the runway was really about a 30 degree entry; and was going to take us through the crosswind leg of the pattern.A quick note about Birchwood: there is a restricted area less than a mile off the departure end of Runway 20R; so most people turn their crosswind a little early to avoid the restricted area. We were just west of the tip of the restricted area; still a little high and a little fast; on a 30 degree entry to the downwind; about to cut through the crosswind leg that we couldn't see. I told my student he needed to announce our position on the radio. Just as he keyed the mike; I saw a shape at our 1 o'clock; same altitude. As my eyes focused; I saw it was a plane; headed directly at us. We must have seen each other at the same time. He broke up and left. I took the controls and broke down and left. It was a little difficult to discern the distance; but we were probably 500 to 700 feet from one another when we both took evasive action.For some reason; my first thought was; 'he must not have had a radio' since we hadn't heard anything on the CTAF; and I had confirmed we were on the correct frequency. Suddenly; I heard the pilot from the other plane announce; 'near miss; Birchwood!' I confirmed that they were okay over the radio and if they were departing the pattern or staying. They left the pattern; and my student and I continued our training with no further incident.Back on the ground; it was clear to me that they had taken off; and turned crosswind just as we were on a 'modified' 45 entry that made our flight paths intersect. Of course; that was the place that we couldn't see into the pattern. My student and I had a full debrief. We talked about proper descent planning; flying appropriate patterns; making radio calls; but most importantly we discussed that every PIC should ensure that they have a full understanding of what is happening visually in the traffic pattern before entering; non-radio airplanes can; and do; operate at uncontrolled airports. I think both my student and I have a greater appreciation of sun angles and how they can be a huge detriment to visibility. We discussed ways to maneuver the airplane to see all of the pattern before entering during those bad sun angle times.For my part as an instructor; I learned a couple things out of this experience. First; complacency sneaks up on you. I hadn't heard anything on the radio; therefore there were no other airplanes in the area. This time; there happened to be one. Secondly; I need to be more assertive in telling a student to abort if he or she puts us in a situation I don't like. I was uncomfortable being that close to the airport while still descending at a high rate when we should have been on a 45 entry at the proper altitude and airspeed. We could have descended onto another plane. In this situation; it would have been an easy answer for me to take the controls and let the student catch back up if there was a large amount of traffic in the area or some other immediate safety factor when task saturation can turn deadly. Today; I got complacent with allowing the student to put us in a bad situation without my intervention because I didn't think anything was going to happen. In the future; I'll be able to not only use this story as a case scenario; but to recognize that when I'm uncomfortable because we could end up in a bad situation; I need to take more assertive action.

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.