This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
I was conducting a CFI training flight. We had been flying a little over 2.5 hours, most of which involved commercial flight maneuvers. The CFI candidate was in the right seat, myself in the left seat.
Following our second touch-and-go (and coming up on a 3 hour flight), we were instructed to make right traffic by the Control Tower (Class D). At approximately mid field, the Tower stated, “extend your downwind,” which the CFI student acknowledged.
About that time I got a text on my phone, which I decided to answer. I had total trust and confidence that the student would continue as instructed on the downwind until the Tower was ready for our base turn. That is not what happened.
As I was distracted by the text I was answering, the student heard a call regarding our sequence and who we were to look for and ultimately follow to the runway. He noticed an airplane just about to cross the threshold and “assumed” that that was who we were to follow. Given that that plane was in no way a factor, he turned onto a base leg.
What he did not know was that the plane that the Tower mentioned to him (which I failed to hear in my distracted state) was on about a mile final or so. In my distracted state, I didn’t even notice that we had turned to a base leg.
When I put down my phone, the first thing I saw low and left of us was another small airplane on short final. I immediately took control of the plane and turned back towards a downwind heading, but we had already gotten somewhat close to that airplane on short final.
Even IF we had not corrected back to the left and had, in fact, stayed on that base leg, the separation (vertically) would have been approximately 500 feet.
The Tower asked us “why are you on base leg” or something to that effect, to which, I replied, “sorry, but we mistakenly turned base without your call” (roughly that). I’m certain the Tower tapes will verify this is close to what was said from both parties.
The Tower Controller then began to “chew us out” for our mistake, which was already completely clear to me.
I decided to end the flight at that point asking for a full stop.
Tower did not ask me to call to discuss this matter. I would have gladly done so and plan to initiate a conversation with them when I get the chance.
The student seemed genuinely surprised when I told him that when the Tower tells you to extend your downwind leg, that means that he will call your base turn OR point out the preceding plane and, if we were to call that traffic “in sight,” he “might” simply clear us “follow that traffic,” relieving us of the former clearance.
Unless such a clearance is issued, I knew that we could NOT initiate a base turn. You do not get to initiate a base turn without expressly cleared or instructed by the Tower.
Most of his flying experience is not in Class D airspace, although he’s very knowledgeable about how normal procedures occur. This situation was actually new to him. He fully believed that the “extend your downwind” did not mean that he could not initiate a base turn without clearance.
At this point, only hours from the occurrence, I am convinced that the student assumed that if he could locate the preceding airplane, he could initiate a base turn without violating the Tower’s previous instructions.
We discussed the situation — what led to the confusion, the distraction I had with the text message, and his lack of experience with this specific “call” by the Tower.
For myself, I’ve determined that taking messages on my phone shall be ignored in the future. Nothing is so important that it can’t wait until we’re done flying.
It also taught me that having a pilot with almost 500 hours of flight time does not mean I can let my guard down.
I must keep my head in the cockpit and focus on everything happening, even if I am not technically PIC.
Preventative measures:
NO PHONE activity while in flight;
Stay focused and engaged with even the most common or mundane of situations as anything can go wrong;
When I am in a similar situation, use this experience as a teaching opportunity, and hopefully mitigate any similar to this ever happening again.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 2077366