Narrative:

I approached fdk to land. There was considerable traffic in the pattern with aircraft taking off and landing as well as aircraft practicing instrument approaches and other aircraft doing touch-and-goes. Given the traffic; I made the decision to complete a full pattern and approached the airport on the upwind for runway 23 which was in use. I reported my position from the time that I was within 8-10 miles from the airport and in the pattern. When I was on crosswind abeam the runway; I noticed aircraft Y climbing out and turning to the west slightly above my altitude. I descended approximately 200 ft and aircraft Y passed over my position. Probable cause and prevention: as I reviewed the situation; I concluded that I should have either extended my upwind leg so that I was further away from the airport before turning for the crosswind leg; thus being further away from the traffic pattern or I should have turned crosswind over the runway. The problem with the latter choice was the practicing instrument approach traffic was doing a missed over the runway. Obviously; had aircraft Y extended the departure leg further away from the runway before turning west and into my path when I was on the crosswind; the situation would have been different. Another factor was that I did not see aircraft Y on takeoff until he was climbing at my altitude. There was traffic practicing an instrument approach and was breaking off over the runway as well as traffic landing and taking off all requiring attention. Lessons learned: flying in uncontrolled congested airspace requires considerable diligence. You have to plan your approach to landing carefully and be fully aware of the location of other traffic. Given the degree of congestion in the pattern at the time; another choice could have been to break out of the pattern and re-enter when it was possible to better monitor the location of each aircraft in the pattern.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Light aircraft pilot arriving FDK reports critical conflict during crosswind turn with another aircraft departing Runway 23 and turning west.

Narrative: I approached FDK to land. There was considerable traffic in the pattern with aircraft taking off and landing as well as aircraft practicing instrument approaches and other aircraft doing touch-and-goes. Given the traffic; I made the decision to complete a full pattern and approached the airport on the upwind for Runway 23 which was in use. I reported my position from the time that I was within 8-10 miles from the airport and in the pattern. When I was on crosswind abeam the runway; I noticed aircraft Y climbing out and turning to the west slightly above my altitude. I descended approximately 200 FT and aircraft Y passed over my position. Probable cause and prevention: As I reviewed the situation; I concluded that I should have either extended my upwind leg so that I was further away from the airport before turning for the crosswind leg; thus being further away from the traffic pattern or I should have turned crosswind over the runway. The problem with the latter choice was the practicing instrument approach traffic was doing a missed over the runway. Obviously; had aircraft Y extended the departure leg further away from the runway before turning west and into my path when I was on the crosswind; the situation would have been different. Another factor was that I did not see aircraft Y on takeoff until he was climbing at my altitude. There was traffic practicing an instrument approach and was breaking off over the runway as well as traffic landing and taking off all requiring attention. Lessons learned: Flying in uncontrolled congested airspace requires considerable diligence. You have to plan your approach to landing carefully and be fully aware of the location of other traffic. Given the degree of congestion in the pattern at the time; another choice could have been to break out of the pattern and re-enter when it was possible to better monitor the location of each aircraft in the pattern.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.