Narrative:

I was conducting a private pilot training flight for check ride prep with a student at ZZZ. We had gone out to the practice area to conduct maneuvers for approximately an hour then we returned to ZZZ for pattern work. We requested full stop taxi backs and we were instructed to make left traffic for xyl. The weather was VFR with scattered clouds around 2500 feet and a broken layer approximately at 3000 feet or higher. We had to keep a much tighter pattern right away to avoid clouds that were moving towards the airport. As we were approximately abeam the numbers for xyl we we're told to make a short approach within 1/2 a mile to keep us inside traffic on the ILS for the center runway. The left and center runways are offset by approximately 1500 feet. The student read back the clearance incorrectly and we started the turn to base. I corrected his clearance with tower as we we're coming around the base turn and then tower came back on to explain why they wanted to make a short approach. We still had altitude to lose and we were already inside the numbers so we did a forward slip to land to remain within the first third of the runway. Without realizing it we never had sight of xyl; we were lined up for xyc. The appropriate action would've been to respond unable and execute a go-around due to the fact we were already flying an extremely tight pattern and we were having to make abnormal maneuvers for landing. Both myself and the student failed to recognize that we were lined up for the wrong runway as we rolled onto final since we were already over the numbers and we ended up landing on xyc. We exited the runway at the first available taxiway and that's when I had realized what had happened. Tower informed us of a possible pilot deviation and gave us a phone number to copy. I took control of the aircraft and requested to return to the ramp. After we shut down and secured the aircraft I contacted the tower and spoke with the supervisor to explain what had happened and provided them with all the information they required. There were no other aircraft involved and the traffic on the ILS was far enough out that we didn't cause them to have to deviate. I realize that this could've ended up way worse than it did. Going forward I fully intend to utilize this experience as a lesson learned to prevent any future occurrences for myself and my students. I failed to recognize that the given conditions were not ideal to conduct training in the traffic pattern because we had just returned from the practice area and the clouds weren't a factor when we initially departed. I had seen other aircraft in the pattern at the same time and it appeared that the clouds were far enough away to not interfere with normal pattern operations. I firmly believe that this was the root cause of the incident and then accepting a short approach added to the already challenging conditions which ultimately led to this negative outcome. I plan to prevent this from ever happening again by being able to recognize the events that led up this and making this a personal minimum for myself when conducting training events. A practice I have adopted since this occurred is to use visual cues too in addition to the runway numbers themselves to validate I'm on the correct runway.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: General aviation flight instructor reported overshooting the intended runway on base leg and landing on the wrong runway during an unplanned short approach to remain clear of inbound traffic.

Narrative: I was conducting a private pilot training flight for check ride prep with a student at ZZZ. We had gone out to the practice area to conduct maneuvers for approximately an hour then we returned to ZZZ for pattern work. We requested full stop taxi backs and we were instructed to make left traffic for XYL. The weather was VFR with scattered clouds around 2500 feet and a broken layer approximately at 3000 feet or higher. We had to keep a much tighter pattern right away to avoid clouds that were moving towards the airport. As we were approximately abeam the numbers for XYL we we're told to make a short approach within 1/2 a mile to keep us inside traffic on the ILS for the center runway. The Left and Center runways are offset by approximately 1500 feet. The student read back the clearance incorrectly and we started the turn to base. I corrected his clearance with tower as we we're coming around the base turn and then tower came back on to explain why they wanted to make a short approach. We still had altitude to lose and we were already inside the numbers so we did a forward slip to land to remain within the first third of the runway. Without realizing it we never had sight of XYL; we were lined up for XYC. The appropriate action would've been to respond unable and execute a go-around due to the fact we were already flying an extremely tight pattern and we were having to make abnormal maneuvers for landing. Both myself and the student failed to recognize that we were lined up for the wrong runway as we rolled onto final since we were already over the numbers and we ended up landing on XYC. We exited the runway at the first available taxiway and that's when I had realized what had happened. Tower informed us of a possible pilot deviation and gave us a phone number to copy. I took control of the aircraft and requested to return to the ramp. After we shut down and secured the aircraft I contacted the tower and spoke with the supervisor to explain what had happened and provided them with all the information they required. There were no other aircraft involved and the traffic on the ILS was far enough out that we didn't cause them to have to deviate. I realize that this could've ended up way worse than it did. Going forward I fully intend to utilize this experience as a lesson learned to prevent any future occurrences for myself and my students. I failed to recognize that the given conditions were not ideal to conduct training in the traffic pattern because we had just returned from the practice area and the clouds weren't a factor when we initially departed. I had seen other aircraft in the pattern at the same time and it appeared that the clouds were far enough away to not interfere with normal pattern operations. I firmly believe that this was the root cause of the incident and then accepting a short approach added to the already challenging conditions which ultimately led to this negative outcome. I plan to prevent this from ever happening again by being able to recognize the events that led up this and making this a personal minimum for myself when conducting training events. A practice I have adopted since this occurred is to use visual cues too in addition to the runway numbers themselves to validate I'm on the correct runway.

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.