AFTER FLYING L TFC AT VNC AND ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS ERROR A P28A PLT OFFERS THOUGHTFUL SUGGESTIONS THAT COULD HELP PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING TO HIM OR OTHERS AGAIN.

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MYSELF (PLT) AND 1 PAX PROCEEDED FROM SPG (ALBERT WHITTED ARPT; ST PETERSBURG; FL) TO VNC (VENICE MUNICIPAL ARPT; VENICE; FL). I RECEIVED FLT FOLLOWING FROM TAMPA DOWN THE COASTLINE. JUST BEFORE SWITCHING TO CTAF; THE CTLR ADVISED THERE WERE NUMEROUS ACFT AROUND VENICE ARPT. AS IT WAS A RELATIVELY CLR DAY; I HAD NO PARTICULAR REASON TO DOUBT THIS AND WANTED TO BE ON THE FREQ AS SOON AS POSSIBLE; WHICH IN THIS CASE WAS ABOUT 10 MI OUT. I HEARD AN ACFT IN THE PATTERN GIVING POS RPTS. THE RWY IN USE WAS RWY 13. A CALL TO UNICOM APPEARED UNNECESSARY SINCE I HAD THE WX INFO FROM AWOS AND THE RWY INFO FROM THE LCL TFC. AS I APCHED THE ARPT FROM THE N; A LIGHT JET BEGAN MAKING ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR RWY 13 AS WELL. SINCE I WAS CLOSE TO THE FIELD; BUT NOT IN THE PATTERN AND NOT IN A HURRY; I ELECTED TO MAKE A SIMPLE 360 AT 1000 FT AGL TO GIVE THE FASTER JET THE ROOM IT NEEDED. AFTERWARDS; I PROCEEDED TO ENTER THE PATTERN MYSELF AS THE ONLY PLANE AIRBORNE AND LANDED WITHOUT CONFLICT OR INCIDENT. AS I WAS TAXIING IN; ANOTHER ACFT CALLED UNICOM ASKING FOR AN ARPT ADVISORY; AND WAS TOLD THAT RWY 13 WAS ACTIVE AND THAT IT WAS R TFC. THE PROB IS I HAD JUST FLOWN L TFC; AND SO MY PROC WAS IMPROPER. NO CONFLICT OCCURRED BECAUSE THERE WERE NO OTHER ACFT IN THE PATTERN AT THE TIME. A CONFLICT COULD HAVE EASILY RESULTED FROM THIS; HOWEVER. THE 'CAUSE' WAS MY FAILURE TO NOTE THE PROPER INFO IN A TIMELY FASHION. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: 1) I WAS SLIGHTLY SPOOKED BY THE RPT OF NUMEROUS ACFT AND WANTED TO DEVOTE AS MUCH TIME TO TFC SCANNING AS POSSIBLE; AND I FAILED TO DOUBLE-CHK MY ARPT INFO BEFORE GETTING CLOSE TO THE FIELD. 2) THE DECISION TO GO TO VENICE WAS MADE JUST BEFORE TKOF. I DID GET A FULL WX BRIEF AND CHKED THE ARPT INFO BEFORE DEP; BUT I HAD LEFT MY COMMERCIAL ARPT INFO 300K. AT HOME AND USED AN ARPT FACILITIES DIRECTORY INSTEAD. I DID NOT NOTICE THAT RWY 13 WAS R TFC; THOUGH I HAD NO PARTICULAR REASON TO KNOW THAT WAS THE RWY IN USE AT THE TIME. WX INFO FOR VENICE WAS NOT AVAILABLE DURING THE PREFLT BRIEFING FOR SOME REASON (THE BRIEFER GAVE WX AT OTHER ARPTS IN THE REGION; BUT ONE CANNOT TRUST THAT FOR LCL WINDS); AND WHEN I HAD PREVIOUSLY CHKED AWOS BY PHONE; THE WINDS FAVORED RWY 4 MORE THAN RWY 13. VENICE IS NOT EVEN 50 MI FROM WHITTED; IS RIGHT ON THE COAST; CAN EASILY BE FOUND; AND I HAD BEEN THERE MANY TIMES BEFORE; THOUGH NEVER VIA ARRIVING ON RWY 13. 'COMPLACENT' IS TOO STRONG A WORD; BUT THIS FLT DIDN'T SEEM TO REQUIRE A HIGHLY DETAILED FLT PLAN; THOUGH I DID ENDEAVOR TO DO WHAT IS LEGALLY REQUIRED. 3) BOTH OTHER ACFT WHICH LANDED BEFORE ME DID CALL THEIR TURNS PROPERLY; BUT FAILED TO MENTION 'L' OR 'R.' WHENEVER I FLY TO AN UNCTLED FIELD; I MAKE IT A POINT TO SAY 'L DOWNWIND' OR R BASE;' ETC. I'VE NOTICED OTHER PLTS DO THIS AS WELL IN MANY PLACES; AND I'VE SEEN MORE THAN ONE GET CORRECTED IN THE PROCESS; EITHER BY OTHER ACFT OR BY UNICOM. I LATER HEARD OTHER PLANES AT VNC DO THIS; SO PERHAPS I WAS JUST UNLUCKY WITH THE ONES WHO PRECEDED ME. SUGGESTIONS TO PREVENT RECURRENCE: 1) STRONGLY ENCOURAGE PLTS TO USE 'L' AND 'R' IN THEIR COMS WHEN CALLING TURNS AND POS. 2) IN THIS CENTURY; ARPTS WITH AUTOMATED WX SYS DO NOT REQUIRE OVERFLYING THE FIELD AND OBSERVING WINDSOCKS OR TEES TO DETERMINE WIND DIRECTION AND SPD. UNFORTUNATELY; THE TFC PATTERN INFO PROVIDED BY THE SEGMENTED CIRCLE IS LOST WHEN WX IS OBTAINED BY RADIO IN THIS WAY. THIS ARPT AND MANY OTHERS HAVE AN AUTOMATED WX SYS THAT PERMITS MANUALLY RECORDED VOICE REMARKS TO BE INSERTED AT THE END. RELEVANT INFO LIKE PATTERN DIRECTION SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THIS IF POSSIBLE. 3) PREFLT BRIEFERS SHOULD HAVE ACCESS TO THE AUTOMATED WX RPTING SYS AT ARPTS. IT DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT THAT INFO AVAILABLE BY TELEPHONE TO PLTS; OR OVER THE RADIO; IS NOT MADE AVAILABLE TO THE BRIEFERS. IN THIS CASE; WX SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN 'MISSING' FOR VNC DURING THE PREFLT BRIEF; BECAUSE THERE IS A FUNCTIONING REAL-TIME WX OBSERVATION SYS PRESENT. PLTS RELY ON THIS INFO INFLT; SO WHY CAN A BRIEFER NOT RELY ON IT TO GIVE A PROPER WX BRIEF? IN SUMMARY; THIS 'INCIDENT' WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED IF I HAD READ THE INFO AVAILABLE TO ME MORE CAREFULLY. WHILE I READILY ADMIT TO THAT FACT; IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT THE SYS COULD HAVE AFFORDED NUMEROUS OPPORTUNITIES TO CORRECT THE ERROR BEFORE ANYTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENED.