IFR-rated general aviation pilot received ILS/DME runway 11 approach clearance to cec; elected to us...

Attributes
ACN	836835
Time
Date	200905
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	CEC.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna 180 Skywagon
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Flight Engineer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 44 Flight Crew Total 19462 Flight Crew Type 1500
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance

Narrative:

Approaching crescent city from the southeast I received approach clearance for the ILS/DME runway 11 approach from seattle center; cross cec VOR at or above 4000 ft. Instead of turning outbound on the localizer and executing the procedure turn; I intercepted the 11 DME arc. I have practiced this approach many times on an instrument simulator and had always flown an arc to intercept the inbound localizer. Seattle called me several minutes after crossing cec VOR and asked if I was inbound yet and I reported I was on the left hand arc. He made no other comments and asked me to report cancelling IFR. I now realize the only proper approach transition from over the VOR was the procedure turn. Because I have practiced this approach so much using the arcs; I missed the arrow showing the 297R transition outbound from cec VOR. In the future I will study my approach charts more carefully and not assume the way I've done the approach before is the right way in a particular situation.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: IFR-rated general aviation pilot received ILS/DME Runway 11 approach clearance to CEC; elected to use Runway 11 DME ARC; was then questioned by ZSE regarding position and concluded flying the arc was inappropriate given the clearance received.

Narrative: Approaching Crescent City from the southeast I received approach clearance for the ILS/DME Runway 11 approach from Seattle Center; cross CEC VOR at or above 4000 FT. Instead of turning outbound on the localizer and executing the procedure turn; I intercepted the 11 DME ARC. I have practiced this approach many times on an instrument simulator and had always flown an arc to intercept the inbound localizer. Seattle called me several minutes after crossing CEC VOR and asked if I was inbound yet and I reported I was on the left hand arc. He made no other comments and asked me to report cancelling IFR. I now realize the only proper approach transition from over the VOR was the procedure turn. Because I have practiced this approach so much using the arcs; I missed the arrow showing the 297R transition outbound from CEC VOR. In the future I will study my approach charts more carefully and not assume the way I've done the approach before is the right way in a particular situation.

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.

IFR-rated general aviation pilot received ILS/DME runway 11 approach clearance to cec; elected to use runway 11 DME arc; was then questioned by ZSE regarding position and concluded flying the arc was inappropriate given the clearance received.