1996-02 · NASA ASRS report 327714
THE RPTR; AN INSTRUCTOR PLT; FLEW A L HAND PATTERN AT AN UNCTLED ARPT TO A RWY WHERE A R HAND PATTERN EXISTS; CALLED ON THE WRONG CTAF FREQ; AND CUT IN FRONT OF ANOTHER AIRPLANE ON FINAL APCH CAUSING HIM TO HAVE TO GAR. THE RPTR STATED A COMMERCIAL GUIDE SAID THE PATTERN WAS L; AND HE MISREAD THE WASHINGTON SECTIONAL TO OBTAIN THE WRONG FREQ FOR THE CTAF. THE RPTR WAS APOLOGETIC.
ENTERED SFQ TFC PATTERN AT 45 DEG DOWNWIND L HAND PATTERN FOR RWY 25. A COMMERCIAL GUIDE FOR SFQ INDICATES L HAND TFC. ARPT SEGMENTED CIRCLE INDICATES R HAND TFC; BUT IT'S NOT VERY VISIBLE FROM ABOVE. IT BLENDS IN WITH BROWN WINTER GRASS. I HAD PREVIOUSLY OVERFLOWN ARPT AT 1500 FT TO DETERMINE WIND DIRECTION. I OBSERVED NO TFC AND UNICOM DID NOT ANSWER ON 122.8. I SELF-ANNOUNCED MY PATTERN ENTRY; AND WHILE DOWNWIND OBSERVED A LOW WING PIPER ON FINAL. I CALLED BASE AND FINAL. WHILE IN A L TURN FROM BASE TO FINAL; I OBSERVED A HIGH WING TAILWHEEL CESSNA ALSO TURNING FINAL BUT FROM A R BASE. I WAS BELOW HIM AND AT LEAST 1/2 MI FROM HIM IN SINCE I WAS FLYING A TIGHTER PATTERN. I CONTINUED MY APCH AND LANDED AND HE WENT AROUND. NEITHER OF US HAD TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTION. I KEPT HIM IN SIGHT AFTER TURNING TO FINAL AND WHILE ROLLING OUT. WHILE TAXING IN; I NOTICED THE SEGMENTED CIRCLE INDICATING R HAND TFC. OBVIOUSLY I WAS FLYING THE WRONG PATTERN. AFTER HE LANDED; I WENT UP TO THE OTHER PLT AND APOLOGIZED. TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE; I WAS ALSO ON THE WRONG CTAF FREQ; SFQ IS 122.7. I GOT 122.8 OFF THE WASHINGTON SECTIONAL. 122.8 IS PRINTED RIGHT NEXT TO THE SFQ NDB NAVID BOX; BUT IT IS FOR GRASSO; A PVT AIRSTRIP. THE ARPT DATA FOR SFQ WAS LOCATED A LITTLE HIGHER ON THE CHART; BUT CLRLY LEGIBLE.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.