Narrative:

I had taken off for closed traffic to practice some touch and go's. Weather conditions during this day were VFR with crosswinds; and aloft there was noticeable wind shear and quite a bit of turbulence. Surface winds were approximately 270 at 10g16 knots; the winds in the pattern at 1;000 feet were varying between 18 and 26 knots with approximately the same heading as the surface winds; as indicated by the garmin G1000 avionics in the cockpit.I made a radio call to report midfield downwind; and ATC indicated that I was number 2 to land following tbm on 6 mile final. ATC referenced the traffic at my 11 o'clock. As I passed the runway threshold on downwind; I had visual identification of the aircraft in the distance and determined that at the time; it provided safe separation. I set my crab angle appropriately during downwind such that it provided a ground track that paralleled the runway and I maintained this heading throughout the episode. As I prepared for the landing phase of the flight; I momentarily scanned inside the aircraft to monitor the instruments; and setup the aircraft appropriately for landing; and returned my gaze outside. However; the wind shear and turbulence were significant enough that I had to allocate much of my attention to maintaining a safe; straight and level position for several moments; and temporarily lost visual contact of the tbm. I returned my attention to the distance to re-locate the tbm aircraft; however; at this point; the aircraft was at my 11 o'clock; 200 feet below (as I was told on the ground by ATC after I later landed). I am not sure of the horizontal separation; though it was too close for comfort. We were several miles away from the airport at this instance. The tbm and I both maneuvered to briefly modify our course to ensure separation; and I remember briefly deviating right as he passed below and left of me; as I had been taught in flight training. After passing the inbound traffic; the tower asked if I had identified the tbm or if it may have been the piper arrow; which landed ahead of the tbm; and I confirmed that I believed it was indeed the tbm. At this point in time; I glanced out the rear window of the cessna 172; and noticed that the ground track had deviated inwards toward the approach corridor. I had not encroached on the runway heading; but had caused a deviation from my initially set downwind heading such that it appeared the wind had blown me inwards toward the approach corridor. My analysis of the situation; is that there was never a moment of imminent safety concern (as our respective aircraft remained several hundred feet away from each other and we both regained visual contact ahead of time); however; there was a moment that was too close for comfort and is worthy of debriefing. The weather conditions during this day took my attention off of the inbound traffic at the wrong moment in time; and caused me to focus my attention on safely flying the airplane in challenging conditions. As I had set my crab angle based off of what provided a parallel course to the runway on downwind; I imagine that the wind shear and crosswind gust may have changed sufficiently to cause the ground track to deviate left of the downwind course as I was maneuvering at this time in unstable air. I did not cross the runway track as I was able to visually ascertain through the rear window of the C172; however this was enough to push my ground track within a distance that was too close for comfort of the inbound aircraft. I do not believe there was any negligence involved; though in hindsight; it does appear that a more generous or more divergent crab angle from the runway would have provided an extra factor of safety by over-correcting for the crosswind; and would have avoided the potential for any incident to occur. I don't believe the tbm had visual contact of me until the two aircraft were too close for comfort; and after my initial identification of the traffic; my attention was takenaway from the visual contact of the tbm and therefore provided the opportunity for convergence of the two aircraft. As I stated; I do not believe there was any imminent danger in this situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 pilot reported NMAC in congested airport traffic pattern during practice crosswind landings.

Narrative: I had taken off for closed traffic to practice some touch and go's. Weather conditions during this day were VFR with crosswinds; and aloft there was noticeable wind shear and quite a bit of turbulence. Surface winds were approximately 270 at 10G16 knots; the winds in the pattern at 1;000 feet were varying between 18 and 26 knots with approximately the same heading as the surface winds; as indicated by the Garmin G1000 avionics in the cockpit.I made a radio call to report midfield downwind; and ATC indicated that I was number 2 to land following TBM on 6 mile final. ATC referenced the traffic at my 11 o'clock. As I passed the runway threshold on downwind; I had visual identification of the aircraft in the distance and determined that at the time; it provided safe separation. I set my crab angle appropriately during downwind such that it provided a ground track that paralleled the runway and I maintained this heading throughout the episode. As I prepared for the landing phase of the flight; I momentarily scanned inside the aircraft to monitor the instruments; and setup the aircraft appropriately for landing; and returned my gaze outside. However; the wind shear and turbulence were significant enough that I had to allocate much of my attention to maintaining a safe; straight and level position for several moments; and temporarily lost visual contact of the TBM. I returned my attention to the distance to re-locate the TBM aircraft; however; at this point; the aircraft was at my 11 o'clock; 200 feet below (as I was told on the ground by ATC after I later landed). I am not sure of the horizontal separation; though it was too close for comfort. We were several miles away from the airport at this instance. The TBM and I both maneuvered to briefly modify our course to ensure separation; and I remember briefly deviating right as he passed below and left of me; as I had been taught in flight training. After passing the inbound traffic; the tower asked if I had identified the TBM or if it may have been the Piper Arrow; which landed ahead of the TBM; and I confirmed that I believed it was indeed the TBM. At this point in time; I glanced out the rear window of the Cessna 172; and noticed that the ground track had deviated inwards toward the approach corridor. I had not encroached on the runway heading; but had caused a deviation from my initially set downwind heading such that it appeared the wind had blown me inwards toward the approach corridor. My analysis of the situation; is that there was never a moment of imminent safety concern (as our respective aircraft remained several hundred feet away from each other and we both regained visual contact ahead of time); however; there was a moment that was too close for comfort and is worthy of debriefing. The weather conditions during this day took my attention off of the inbound traffic at the wrong moment in time; and caused me to focus my attention on safely flying the airplane in challenging conditions. As I had set my crab angle based off of what provided a parallel course to the runway on downwind; I imagine that the wind shear and crosswind gust may have changed sufficiently to cause the ground track to deviate left of the downwind course as I was maneuvering at this time in unstable air. I did not cross the runway track as I was able to visually ascertain through the rear window of the C172; however this was enough to push my ground track within a distance that was too close for comfort of the inbound aircraft. I do not believe there was any negligence involved; though in hindsight; it does appear that a more generous or more divergent crab angle from the runway would have provided an extra factor of safety by over-correcting for the crosswind; and would have avoided the potential for any incident to occur. I don't believe the TBM had visual contact of me until the two aircraft were too close for comfort; and after my initial identification of the traffic; my attention was takenaway from the visual contact of the TBM and therefore provided the opportunity for convergence of the two aircraft. As I stated; I do not believe there was any imminent danger 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.