Never again on PE - share your mistakes

[bradthepilotguy]

After completing a flight from KVCV to KLGB this afternoon, I just remembered WHY I stray away from KLGB.

I just wandered my way out out (again) of Taxi Way Purgatory. Even with the Airport map, blown up to full size legal paper, I manage to get almost completely disoriented EVERY TIME I land and taxi there.
My brain turns to spaghetti, and my taxi route looks it. Where's the boy-scout to help me cross the street safely ???!!! Total airtime 0:27. Taxi time at KLGB 0:12 minutes with a few rescues by ATC.

Apologies!

Even WITH detailed taxi instructions I manage to muff it EVERY time. OMG.

Video of what I am about to describe:
https://youtu.be/UKxFxiu44Jc?t=8m10s

Okay, story time:

I'm a real-life pilot flying out of Southern California and I'd like to share a moment where I hopefully can teach someone else something at the cost of my own mistake. I was flying solo in the Cessna 172RG (for the first time in that particular aircraft) and my intention was to depart my home base at KSNA and fly to KLGB to pick up my cousin who happened to be flying into town. I would then depart KLGB for KMYF, drop her off down there, then return to KSNA solo at night. The first leg is where the teachable moment occurs. I'm over the Seal Beach VOR at 1600 MSL or so, I've been told to expect 25L by SoCal approach. Not a problem, overflying SLI puts me on a fairly easy left base for 25L. I had previously mentioned to approach that I would like Runway 30 if possible, but I thought that transmission was blocked, so I let it go. Just prior to the SLI VOR, I was handed off to Long Beach tower, and this is where the video starts.

As I am handed off to tower, I am cleared to land 30. A few minutes later, I hear a jetBlue flight call up and receive an instruction to slow to their final approach speed. At this point I realize that I am then cleared to land 30, with an A320 following me in. No big deal. What I didn't know was exactly how close he was, and that would be roughly 60 seconds behind me. Let's consider what things are going through my head and why I make the mistake I'm about to make:

- New airplane with low time in type (2.0 hours at the time)
- First solo in that aircraft
- First solo in a complex airplane
- First solo to KLGB, only third time I've ever flown there
- Traffic following and overtaking me, unknown distance
- Unexpected runway change minutes earlier, at this point probably not much of a factor
- Very confusing runway/taxiway arrangement with multiple crossing runways and taxiways

So, as I touch down, tower: "N64B, expedite, traffic short final. Turn right Juliet."
Me: "64B roger, we'll expedite, can we take 34R?"
Tower (rushed): "N64B, negatative, turn right Juliet, right turn now."

I start my right turn, completely miss Juliet, and wind up on 34R which, thankfully, was not in use at the time. I turned from one active runway onto another runway without realizing that's where I was turning because I was in a rush since there was an A320 behind me. Completely my mistake, I own it, and here's why I'm telling you:

Always take your time. It's your airport just as much as anyone else's and once you've been cleared to land, that runway belongs to you until told otherwise. There might be an A320 right behind you, but if need be, he can go around. Don't have a runway incursion like I did just because you were confused and in a rush! Take your time, do it right, and if you don't - tell them and own up to it!

[Donovan]

Brad,

Point well taken! Thanks for the video, and taking the time to share.

Don

[flyingdrill]

Flying the (X-Plane) freeware PA30 into Oxnard from Fox. About halfway to FIM, the controller asked me to go direct to CUDAK for a straight in on 25. Oops. CUDAK? Where's that? Not on the low enroute IFR on an airway. He came back to me with a vector, and then I saw CUDAK on the ILS chart. However, the vectors option on the Garmin did not mention CUDAK, but started at HUPLA. Hmmm. While looking at the charts, I forgot a 2000' descent I'd been asked to make. Anyway, I got things sorted with the controller vectoring me to the ILS, and flew that OK.

So, I wondered whether Navigraph had forgotten CUDAK. No, they hadn't, because I started up the sim later and typed in a direct to CUDAK, and there it was. So, I should have tried that. Also, if I would have selected the approach with the IAF of FIM instead of using "vectors", CUDAK would have appeared, and I could have selected that and gone direct. A perfect example of not thoroughly briefing an approach, and so getting thrown by an instruction. Actually going directly to that point from where I was, without a GPS and a heading instruction, would have been a great exercise in guesswork, but I had specified /G, so it was fair game.

Another lesson learned.

[Keith Smith]

Loading vectors to final is a very common trap for IFR pilots using GPS. It results in losing all of the fixes prior to the FAF, so it's not recommended. Instead, you can load the full approach and then activate vectors to final later on.

[flyingdrill]

Thanks Keith. A Garmin "gotcha" which I had forgotten about....... Another reason why PE is so useful.

For others, see: https://bruceair.wordpress.com/2010/11/ ... -scramble/

To think, I did my IR on steam gauges..........

[rtataryn]

Loading vectors to final is a very common trap for IFR pilots using GPS. It results in losing all of the fixes prior to the FAF, so it's not recommended. Instead, you can load the full approach and then activate vectors to final later on.

Loading the full approach and then later activating vectors to final can still be a "gotcha". I was flying the RNAV Y Rwy 7 into KGEG last week and loaded the full approach from WOLDA so that I'd have all the fixes. ATC gave me vectors, so I activated vectors to final, expecting a vector to the final approach course. Instead, after multiple vectors in busy airspace, he ended up giving me direct WOLDA, but it was gone because I had activated vectors to final, so I had to reload the full approach again from WOLDA.

Although rare, this has happened to me a number of times before on different approaches. Someday I'll get smart and leave the full approach loaded, and then just activate the leg that I'm being vectored to if I get vectors to final.

[Justin Lerner]

The offending flight in question: http://peaware.pilotedge.net/flight.cfm?id=109213

Lessons learned (and re-learned): Check the damn SIGMETs before flying an airplane with no autopilot or DME to do a Class B transition over LAX, and study the TAC a little closer before attempting a transition for the first time. Not only did I bust Burbank Class C on my way out of VNY without establishing contact (the controller sounded busy and I was busy myself wrangling a mechanical flying bull), I'm pretty sure I busted the B as well when the controller asked for a position report and, with egg on my face, reported 3 NM north of SMO. Both are things I absolutely know better about, and had considered when planning the flight, and I might have even remembered those considerations were I not focused on airspeed, VSI, altimeter, and CDI. No excuse, though. He (rightly) turned me away northbound to start from the beginning.

I also goofed the taxi at both airports for different reasons. My goof at VNY was probably the most embarrassing because I specifically requested the intersection departure thinking I knew exactly where I was at (in hindsight, I did not; turns out, it was right in front of my starting pos on the ramp). No biggy though, quick call to ground and they were very forgiving of it. Goofed at John Wayne (taxied to east ramp via C instead of A as instructed -- whoops) because I was just so caught up in the fact I was finally back on the ground after what amounted to being a stressful hour-long safari through LA airspace. I told on myself and again the controller was forgiving.

An additional factor contributing to my procedural failures today would be the high I was on after a successful transition on my previous day's flight that took me from John Wayne to Van Nuys and transitioning via the Mini-Route (wanted to go to BUR but by the time I got over SMO they were reporting low ceilings). It was my first time attempting a Class B transition on the network, and it went rather well I thought (again, mistakes were made, but in my opinion minor compared to today's).

However, I did get to see something cool today while arriving at SNA. Traffic holding on the parallel while I was on final, then me holding short of their runway and watching their takeoff roll. Also, I think I did a pretty good job at holding the radials on the LAX VOR despite the convection. To be fair, it did smooth out as I got closer to LAX and crossed the VOR, and I finally discovered a power setting and trim combination that worked.

All in all I still had a lot of fun. Many thanks to the controller, if he happens to read this, for his patience. And apologies for not acknowledging the landing clearance sooner, I was having trouble discerning my callsign at first; then the reality quickly dawned on me that I was the only inbound traffic for SNA at the time, but I digress. Each and every time on the network has been a learning experience in some form or another, and that's why PilotEdge is such an absolute joy. Can't wait to try some more transitions tomorrow in preparation for a V-3 attempt!

[BonanzaDude]

So I had some time between my daughters basketball games and I decided to move a few pax from L70 to KONT in FSEconomy. Loaded up the default Baron in X-Plane and loaded up my passengers. This was my 3rd flight on PilotEdge and X-Plane and my first attempt at flying with ForeFlight on my iPad (I usually use WingX Pro but tried the 3 month trial of ForeFlight as I was wanting to test the traffic). Departure was great and I contacted SoCal approach about 30 miles out. I was given a squawk code and told to expect one of the 08's at KONT. I was a little confused as ForeFlight showed precipitation on the route but the online weather generated by X-Plane showing it was clear. Oh well the best is yet to come. As I was getting close I was told to contact KONT TWR which I did I and got clearance to land RWY 08R. So I see what I think is the airport and setup for landing. I land and get a call from KONT TWR and he says did you land which I replied yes. ATC responds with, Brackett just called and said someone landed there with no clearance. WHOOPS!!! I pull off the runway, call KPOC GND and get my clearance to proceed to KONT. Boy did I feel like a HEEL.

I was trying to figure out what went wrong, and me being in a hurry to get on the ground and back to the second basketball game had to be right up there with the problem. But also running a new program was part of the problem as well. I had runway extensions turned on in ForeFlight and it seemed to me the extensions gave me the false sense of thinking the runway was correct. It I had just looked at the GPS I would have known that I was still over 8 miles from KONT. Best thing is that it will be a learning experience for me and flying online.

Sorry to the controllers that had to deal with me.

John

[stevekirks]

PEAware: http://peaware.pilotedge.net/flight.cfm?id=111667

Just sent this to the ops email address, pasted verbatim:

PE Team:

My goal this morning was to impress your potential clients at Oshkosh and I hope I didn't let you down too bad. I'll post this on the forum too, but a combination of circumstance and mistakes got me so turned around, I didn't know literally where I was going.

During the final approach vectoring, I made my first mistake. The NAV1 radio was set for the localizer but the course was not. So the entire time I'm flying in HDG mode on the autopilot, I'm looking for the field and following the arrow on the dial pointing the (wrong) way to the airport. My course was set for 255 degrees vs 196 degrees on the approach plate. It wasn't until the missed approach and sent back to SoCal that I was able to stabilize myself and the plane and figure out that one key mistake.

Circumstances:

- Popping in and out of X-Plane IMC while transiting clouds was frustrating. It looks clear, then you hit the invisible layer, then whiteout, then clear, etc.

- I had tried to let the A/P grab the localizer but with the course of whack it never could grab it.

- At one point I dumped the autopilot but a combination of cockpit settings somehow had me fighting the trim and the airplane would bob and weave. That lead to a situation where I nearly stalled because I wasn't paying attention to airspeed.

All in all, I hope I didn't embarrass the PE team. I know I embarrassed myself.

[Kyle.Sanders]

PEAware:

- I had tried to let the A/P grab the localizer but with the course of whack it never could grab it.

Lol I'm sure you did fine. But with regards to having a LOC CRS not set, if you were on an ILS or LDA, my understanding is that it only sends out one course so it doesn't matter what your OBS is set to, it will still give you the accurate course deviation via the CDI.