A C152 instructor and student landed at night on a closed runway after the instructor listened to th...

Narrative:

On a routine training flight with a student tonight we decided to go on a short cross country. Because it wasn't very far from our home base (just over the 50 mile mark); I didn't worry about a flight plan and the weather seemed to be nice all over. After taking off and establishing cruise; I initiated some more light conversation with the student as it was our first flight together. When [we were] almost there I switched on the weather report to listen to the numbers. The student didn't bother getting flight following and since it was our first flight together and his last before finishing commercial license; I let it slide. While listening to the AWOS I think maybe he was still talking to me and I got a bit distracted after hearing the report when it got to the remarks section. In the remarks the report indicated the lights were off; but I just figured it wouldn't be a problem as I had the runway in sight and an aircraft on the taxi way. The moon was full and so the runway was quite visible as far as the color and outline. When the aircraft touched down I noticed something out front on the runway. The student nicked the edges of it. We taxied the plane back to find out what it was. The runway was closed. Luckily the runway was not torn up yet; but we hit the yellow X. After inspecting the plane and the X no damage was done. We opted for a very short field takeoff and went home with no more problems. Listening to the AWOS again on the way out I found the runway was closed and the taxiway was being used for operations during the day. This is a mistake I will not make again.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C152 instructor and student landed at night on a closed runway after the instructor listened to the AWOS but failed to hear the Remarks because of his student's conversation.

Narrative: On a routine training flight with a student tonight we decided to go on a short cross country. Because it wasn't very far from our home base (just over the 50 mile mark); I didn't worry about a flight plan and the weather seemed to be nice all over. After taking off and establishing cruise; I initiated some more light conversation with the student as it was our first flight together. When [we were] almost there I switched on the weather report to listen to the numbers. The student didn't bother getting flight following and since it was our first flight together and his last before finishing commercial license; I let it slide. While listening to the AWOS I think maybe he was still talking to me and I got a bit distracted after hearing the report when it got to the remarks section. In the remarks the report indicated the lights were off; but I just figured it wouldn't be a problem as I had the runway in sight and an aircraft on the taxi way. The moon was full and so the runway was quite visible as far as the color and outline. When the aircraft touched down I noticed something out front on the runway. The student nicked the edges of it. We taxied the plane back to find out what it was. The runway was closed. Luckily the runway was not torn up yet; but we hit the yellow X. After inspecting the plane and the X no damage was done. We opted for a very short field takeoff and went home with no more problems. Listening to the AWOS again on the way out I found the runway was closed and the taxiway was being used for operations during the day. This is a mistake I will not make again.

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.

Attributes
ACN	974308
Time
Date	201110
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna 152
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Total 1024 Flight Crew Type 900
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural FAR Ground Event / Encounter Object

A C152 instructor and student landed at night on a closed runway after the instructor listened to the AWOS but failed to hear the remarks because of his student's conversation.