PA30 PLT IS DISORIENTED AND SETS UP APCH FOR WRONG ARPT 2 TIMES BEFORE BECOMING REORIENTED.

Date: 2003-03 · Aircraft: PA-30 Twin Comanche

Anomalies: inflight-event-encounter-unstabilized-approach|other-didn-t-have-the-right-apt-in-sight

Synopsis

PA30 PLT IS DISORIENTED AND SETS UP APCH FOR WRONG ARPT 2 TIMES BEFORE BECOMING REORIENTED.

Narrative

ON THE 9TH FLT FOLLOWING A 3-MONTH LAYOFF DUE TO ACFT UNAVAILABILITY; I INVITED 2 PLT FRIENDS TO ACCOMPANY ME ON A XCOUNTRY FLT IN MY PIPER TWIN COMMANCHE (PA30). THE PLANNED FLT WAS FROM TORRANCE TO CRQ. IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL VFR DAY; WITH APPROX 7 MI VISIBILITY. THE FLT WAS CONDUCTED ON A TWR-TO-TWR INST CLRNC. AS WE APCHED THE OCN VOR NEARING CRQ; THE SOCAL CTLR ANNOUNCED THAT THERE WAS A DISABLED ACFT ON THE RWY; THERE WOULD BE A STATUS UPDATE IN 20 MINS; AND GAVE ME INSTRUCTIONS TO DEPART OCN IN A DIRECTION CONSISTENT WITH CONDUCTING THE ILS APCH AT CRQ. AFTER A VERY BRIEF DISCUSSION WITH THE PAX; WE DECIDED TO CHANGE OUR DEST TO MONTGOMERY. I INFORMED THE CTLR; COPIED THE REVISED CLRNC; DEPARTED OCN AS INSTRUCTED ON A HDG OF 120 DEGS; LOCATED THE APCH PLATES FOR KMYF; AND LOOKED THEM OVER TO START PREPARING MYSELF TO CONDUCT AN APCH TO A FULL STOP. AFTER DEP FROM OCN; THERE WERE NUMEROUS RPTS FROM THE SOCAL CTLRS OF TFC IN MY VICINITY; SO THAT MY ATTN WAS DIVERTED OUTSIDE THE COCKPIT MUCH MORE THAN WOULD BE TYPICAL ON A FLT IN IMC. WHEN I WAS TURNED OVER TO THE FINAL SOCAL CTLR; HE WAS VERY BUSY HANDLING THE HIGH VOLUME OF TFC INTO LINDBERGH FIELD; AND I FOUND MYSELF DEVOTING A GOOD DEAL OF ATTN FOLLOWING THE HIGH VOLUME OF VOICE TFC. DESPITE THE DISTRS AND SOME CHATTER BTWN THE 2 PAX; I FELT I HAD BRIEFED MYSELF ADEQUATELY AS WE WERE VECTORED TO INTERCEPT THE FINAL APCH COURSE. THE CTLR WARNED OF TFC IN THE AREA; GAVE ME A FINAL VECTOR; TOLD ME TO MAINTAIN ALT UNTIL ESTABLISHED; AND CLRED ME FOR THE ILS RWY 28R APCH TO KMYF. THE RADIOS WERE SET UP FOR THE KMYF LOC AND THE JLI VOR; THE LOC CDI WAS ALIVE AND TENDING TOWARD THE CTR. I LOOKED UP OUT OF THE COCKPIT IN AN ATTEMPT TO IDENT THE TFC THE CTLR HAD WARNED ABOUT. AT THAT POINT; THE PAX IN THE COPLT'S SEAT COMMENTED THAT WE WERE VERY HIGH TO GET INTO 'THAT ARPT.' I LOOKED IN THE DIRECTION HE WAS LOOKING; SAW 2 PARALLEL RWYS; SAW THAT I WAS ROUGHLY LINED UP WITH THE RWY ON THE R; GLANCED TO SEE THAT THE NEEDLE WAS CTRING; AND INSTINCTIVELY TURNED TO ALIGN THE ACFT VISUALLY WITH THE RWY. INSTEAD OF ASKING MYSELF 'WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?' AND WITHOUT REALIZING THAT I WAS REALLY LOOKING AT RWY 27R AT GILLESPIE FIELD IN SAN DIEGO; I CONTACTED MONTGOMERY TWR AND INFORMED THEM THAT I WAS TOO HIGH TO LAND SAFELY. THE TWR RESPONDED VERY PROFESSIONALLY; AND TURNED ME BACK TO SOCAL APCH. THE SOCAL CTLR ASSIGNED AN INITIAL VECTOR AND ALT; AND I PREPARED MYSELF ONCE AGAIN FOR THE APCH. MUCH TO MY SURPRISE; AFTER SEVERAL VECTORS; I FOUND MYSELF IN THE SAME POS RELATIVE TO THE SAME FIELD. THIS TIME WHEN TURNED TO ALIGN MYSELF WITH THE RWY TO THE R; THE SOCAL CTLR ASKED 'ACFT X; WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' THE QUESTION JARRED ME INTO THE REALIZATION THAT THE BIG PICTURE TOLD BY THE RADIOS SAID I WAS JUST OUTSIDE NESTY; TO THE R OF THE APCH COURSE; 15 MI FROM THE DEST ARPT; YET; ONCE AGAIN; VISUALLY; I WAS NEARLY ON TOP OF THE ARPT. I THEN REALIZED IT WAS THE WRONG ARPT. I TOLD THE CTLR THAT I WAS JOINING THE LOC; TURNED IMMEDIATELY BACK TO THE LAST ASSIGNED VECTOR; ALLOWED THE CDI OF THE RADIO TUNED TO THE LOC TO PROPERLY CTR AND TRACK THE ILS INBOUND TO A NORMAL; SAFE; FULL-STOP LNDG AT MONTGOMERY FIELD. HINDSIGHT TELLS ME THAT I WAS UNPREPARED TO HANDLE THE NUMBER OF DISTRS THAT OCCURRED ON THAT OTHERWISE UNEVENTFUL FLT. AFTER THE CHANGE IN DEST; I FOUND MYSELF DIVIDING TIME AND ATTN BTWN REVIEWING THE APCH PROC; LOOKING OUTSIDE THE COCKPIT FOR TFC NOT SEEN BY THE PAX AND PROCESSING THE CHATTER FROM THE PAX MORE THAN I HAD A CONSCIOUS AWARENESS OF. I WAS NOT SUFFICIENTLY AWARE OF MY LACK OF PREPARATION FOLLOWING THE CHANGE IN DEST; AND THE DANGER SIGNALS DIDN'T GO UP.

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