AA5 BECOMES DISORIENTED AND ATTEMPTS TKOF ON A TXWY AT ALB. AA5 REJECTS TKOF OBSERVING A BE02 OPPOSITE DIRECTION ON TXWY.

Date: 1999-05 · Aircraft: Cheetah; Tiger; Traveler AA5 Series · Phase: takeoff

Anomalies: conflict-ground-conflict|critical|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-clearance|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|ground-excursion-taxiway|ground-incursion-taxiway

Synopsis

AA5 BECOMES DISORIENTED AND ATTEMPTS TKOF ON A TXWY AT ALB. AA5 REJECTS TKOF OBSERVING A BE02 OPPOSITE DIRECTION ON TXWY.

Narrative

A GRUMMAN AA5 (ACFT X) CALLED READY TO DEPART FROM THE RUNUP AREA AT THE APCH END OF RWY 1. AFTER AN ARR TO THE SAME RWY PASSED; ACFT X WAS GIVEN 'RWY 1; TAXI INTO POS AND HOLD.' WHEN THE PREVIOUS ACFT CLRED THE RWY; ACFT X WAS ISSUED TKOF CLRNC. ACFT Y; WHO WAS TAXIING S ON TXWY A TO RWY 1; CALLED TO SAY THAT HE HAD CLRED TXWY A AT TXWY L TO AVOID AN ACFT WHO WAS TRYING TO TAKE OFF N ON TXWY A. ACFT X SAID HE HAD SEEN THE BE02 (ACFT Y) TAXIING ON TXWY A HEAD-ON; AND ABORTED HIS TKOF INTO THE GRASS. ACFT X RPTED THAT HE HAD MISTAKEN TXWY A FOR RWY 1. ALTHOUGH I FEEL THAT PRIMARILY THIS WAS PLT ERROR; I ALSO FEEL THAT A MIX OF MANY CLOSELY SPACED LIGHTS AT THE APCH END OF THE RWY MAY MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR CTLRS TO MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF ACFT AT ALMOST 1 MI AWAY -- ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT. AT THE APCH END WE HAVE TXWY AND RWY LIGHTS; CARGO BUILDING LIGHTS; RUNUP PAD; AND AUTOMOBILE HEADLIGHTS -- ALL ON THE SAME PLANE OF SIGHT FROM THE TWR. VERY CONFUSING. SUPPLEMENTAL INFO FROM ACN 437047: I WAS GIVEN CLRNC TO TAXI TO RWY 1; NO RTE SPECIFIED. DUE TO THE EXTRA PARALLEL TXWY IN THE FBO AREA; I THOUGHT I WAS ALREADY ON TXWY A WHEN I WAS STILL ON THE MARKED AREA IN THE FBO AREA. I THUS DID THE RUNUP WITHOUT BEING ON TXWY A. WHEN I WAS CLRED TO TAXI INTO POS AND HOLD; I THEN MOVED TO WHAT WAS REALLY THE TXWY; AND WAITED. I DID SEE ANOTHER ACFT LIGHT ON WHAT I THOUGHT WAS THE RWY. AFTER THE LIGHTS FROM THAT ACFT WERE NO LONGER VISIBLE; THE CTLR CLRED ME FOR DEP. I ASSUMED THAT I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR THE OTHER ACFT TO CLR THE RWY. AFTER STARTING TO ROLL; I COULD SEE THE ACFT'S LIGHTS AGAIN AND IT APPEARED TO BE COMING TOWARD ME. I PULLED OFF THE RWY ONTO THE GRASS. AT THAT TIME I REALIZED I WAS ON A TXWY. IT THEN BECAME CLR THAT THE CTLR COULD NOT SEE ME AND WAS UNABLE TO DETERMINE MY POS UNTIL I COULD GET BACK ON THE TXWY AND IDENT THE POS. FACTORS HERE WERE: 1) THE TXWY WAS MUCH BETTER LIT THAN MOST RWYS THAT I HAVE USED (NORMALLY THIS IS GOOD); THUS THE VERY GOOD LIGHTING ALLOWED A MENTAL OVERRIDE OF THE WRONG COLORS. 2) THE CTLR WAS IN OVERLOAD MODE. HE WAS DOING CLRNC CTL; GND CTL; AND TWR AT THE SAME TIME. THE ARPT WAS VERY ACTIVE. 3) ALTHOUGH VISIBILITY WAS VERY GOOD; I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW A CLRNC TO DEPART WAS GIVEN WITHOUT EVER SEEING MY AIRPLANE. IF HE HAD SEEN IT; HE WOULD HAVE INSTRUCTED ME TO MOVE TO THE CORRECT LOCATION. 4) DUE TO THE MULTIPLE ROLES THE CTLR HAD; THERE WAS EFFECTIVELY NO VISUAL GND CTL AT THIS ARPT.

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