Narrative:

Approaching dwh from the southwest I developed a mental movie of the set up for runway 17L; with a left downwind entry. Starting the chain of errors on my part I believe I asked for rw 17R; not 17L. Tower cleared me for a right downwind 17R; which I acknowledge; but the mental movie of my approach and landing was so strong I continued with 'my' plan and crossed over the departure end of the field for the left downwind; rw 17L. Although I read back the tower clearance correctly I did not properly process what they told me because of the incredibly strong expectation to be cleared for 'my' plan. Tower asked; in a nice way; where are you going? I repeated their previous instructions; right downwind for 17R all the time playing my mental movie which was telling me I was in the right place. I was turning base for 17L when tower explained I was to be on the other side of the airport. If you can remember old time images of movie film getting stuck in the projector and melting that's how I feel. Tower had me climb immediately on a westerly heading as there was a corporate jet starting its take off roll. I don't know my exact altitude crossing runway 17R but I would estimated 700 feet AGL as I crossed over the jet on its takeoff roll.my airline training taught me to be as efficient with my approach and landing; minimizing the taxi time to the gate. I was doing the same thing in my little cessna and locked my self in to completing that task as I saw it. I will no longer create that mental movie of what I want before I talk to the tower. Expectation and anticipation are a powerful mental process that obviously over road 50+ plus years of professional experience.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Cessna pilot reported deviating from ATC instructions due to expectation bias.

Narrative: Approaching DWH from the Southwest I developed a mental movie of the set up for runway 17L; with a left downwind entry. Starting the chain of errors on my part I believe I asked for RW 17R; not 17L. Tower cleared me for a right downwind 17R; which I acknowledge; but the mental movie of my approach and landing was so strong I continued with 'my' plan and crossed over the departure end of the field for the left downwind; RW 17L. Although I read back the tower clearance correctly I did not properly process what they told me because of the incredibly strong expectation to be cleared for 'my' plan. Tower asked; in a nice way; where are you going? I repeated their previous instructions; right downwind for 17R all the time playing my mental movie which was telling me I was in the right place. I was turning base for 17L when tower explained I was to be on the other side of the airport. If you can remember old time images of movie film getting stuck in the projector and melting that's how I feel. Tower had me climb immediately on a westerly heading as there was a corporate jet starting its take off roll. I don't know my exact altitude crossing runway 17R but I would estimated 700 feet AGL as I crossed over the jet on its takeoff roll.My airline training taught me to be as efficient with my approach and landing; minimizing the taxi time to the gate. I was doing the same thing in my little Cessna and locked my self in to completing that task as I saw it. I will no longer create that mental movie of what I want before I talk to the tower. Expectation and anticipation are a powerful mental process that obviously over road 50+ plus years of professional experience.

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.