GA PLEASURE AND TRAINING FLT MAKES TOUCH-AND-GOES AT WRONG UNCTLED ARPT IN FLORIDA WITH SMA ACFT.

Date: 1999-01 · Aircraft: Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|inflight-event-encounter-other-unknown|other-unspecified

Synopsis

GA PLEASURE AND TRAINING FLT MAKES TOUCH-AND-GOES AT WRONG UNCTLED ARPT IN FLORIDA WITH SMA ACFT.

Narrative

ACFT ON A PLEASURE/TRAINING FLT FOR A STUDENT PLT WITH LESS THAN 5 HRS TOTAL TIME. FLT WAS FROM MELBOURNE; FL; TO VERO BEACH AND RETURN (VFR). ON RETURN LEG; DECISION WAS MADE TO SHOOT A FEW LNDGS AT THE VALKARIA (X59) ARPT; WHICH IS UNCTLED (UNICOM ON 123.0). UNFORTUNATELY; THE SEBASTIAN ARPT (X26) WHICH IS ALSO UNCTLED WAS MISTAKEN FOR X59 AND SEVERAL LNDGS (TOUCH-AND-GOES) FOR X59 AND SEVERAL LNDGS (TOUCH-AND-GOES) WERE EXECUTED WITH ADVISORIES BEING MADE ON THE WRONG UNICOM FREQ (WE WERE ANNOUNCING TFC ON 123.0 INSTEAD OF 122.8; WHICH IS THE CORRECT UNICOM FREQ FOR THE X26 ARPT). DURING OUR LNDGS; WE OBSERVED PARACHUTE DROPS AT THE ARPT AND FLEW OUT TO THE E; OVER THE INTERCOASTAL UNTIL ALL JUMPERS WERE DOWN. WE MADE ANOTHER LNDG OR 2 AND OBSERVED MORE PARA-JUMPERS. AGAIN WE PULLED WAY OUT TO THE E; UNTIL ALL JUMPERS WERE DOWN. WE MADE 1 MORE LNDG AND RETURNED TO HOME BASE. AS WE WERE RETURNING; WE PASSED BY THE REAL VALKARIA ARPT AND THIS IS WHEN WE REALIZED OUR ERROR! IT WAS A CASE OF MISTAKEN ARPT IDENT -- OUR MISTAKE! EVEN THOUGH BOTH ARPTS ARE UNCTLED; I AM SURE WE UPSET THE FOLKS AT THE SEBASTIAN ARPT -- UNINTENTIONALLY; BUT WE DID; NEVERTHELESS. HOPEFULLY AND AS FAR AS WE KNOW; NO PERMANENT DAMAGE WAS DONE TO ANY OF THE PARTIES INVOLVED. CERTAINLY AN EMBARRASSING ERROR ON OUR PART. IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.