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
True Confessions of a CFI. We would welcome more of these revelations from other CFI experiences as safety training tips. Thank you for recognizing your mistakes and being honest and truthful about them!
From an ATC perspective, I have encountered many pilots, CFIs, students and veterans that have turned base in front of traffic on final after I instructed them to extend downwind, even when I didn’t tell them what traffic they were following. When I saw.them.turn base, and reminded them they were instructed to extend downwind, they would ask if that meant until I told them it was okay to turn base? 30 years of ATC experience and knowledge is deteriorating by attrition every year
At my home drome, ATC says “Extend your downwind, I’ll call your base.” That’s clear, easier to remember than “Extend” only.
Aren’t all possible or at least common calls such as “extend your downwind” explained and tested? If not, do you think they Should be??
It’s a notable mistake, there is no doubt.
However, any that claim a blame-free flying career unblemished by any questionable decision, only demonstrate a frightening lack of honesty.
That you show the capacity to learn from this error is well. Take this sharp but ultimately painless lesson for the wakeup call it is. It won’t be the last on your journey to become a command aviator!
I agree with all the previous posts. This is a perfect example of “lack of saftey” !
Keep your head as well as your eyes and ears on “flying”. No matter who is the “PIC” things can go wrong very quickly as you have learned. Am I not right that the “FAA” regs state no phonecells are to be used “while the aircraft is in operating condition (s). If correct, then “why” did you disregard this saftey regulation?
“Saftey is prime importance”
Last I checked, there are personal cell phone use restrictions for part 121 operations but that wouldn’t apply here. Depending on the frequency band your phone uses, the FCC might have something to say about it, but from a practical standpoint it would be hard to ban all cell phones without causing issues with EFBs.
If your iPad has cellular network capability, does that count as a cell phone? You can use a tablet to get and send text messages even if it doesn’t, by hotspotting to something that does. Now is it still a cell phone? Even if you don’t use it for texts and just use flight-related apps, is it a cell phone that should be banned simply because it’s capable of performing those functions?
On the flip side, writing regs too specific creates loopholes. By precisely defining what a cell phone is, all that needs to happen is for some new device to pop up that doesn’t fit the definition. Next thing you know people will be voice-texting on their smart jewelry and getting away with it because a ring hasn’t been specifically defined as a cell phone. In other words, the law says “don’t murder people.” It doesn’t say “don’t murder people with a gun” because then you could get away with murder by using a knife. Where rules get too specific, that’s where the most cheating occurs. See: Formula 1.
I think this pilot recognized his mistake and has made it abundantly clear he won’t do it again. That’s great. That’s how this system is supposed to work. This guy is now a safer pilot and his honest account will make other pilots safer too. Dogpiling him after he admits he knows he was wrong could cause others to be reluctant to self-report which would decrease, not increase aviation safety.
It appears that the point of this article is to educate. As pilots, we learn from our mistakes and become better pilots. The cfi made a mistake. Thankfully, everyone lived to fly another day. Sounds to me like he learned his lesson and because of sharing his experience, now I’m a better pilot too.
Thanks for the article
Sounds like you like neither of you should be holding the ratings you have. But this does seem to be the direction GA is going.
The CFI is pilot in command. Do not put this on the student in the right seat. You are there to teach, not be on your phone. Your (CFI) actions are inexcusable.
Answering a text when you are instructing so unprofessional. If you were my instructor that would have been my last flight with you.
It is unfortunate. We tend to find ourselves responding to non-critical text messages while in critical phases of ground or flight operations that would be foolish enough and or unprofessional, but I have seen this no matter what level of experience you’re at. Whether its dispatch or the President of the company and your taxing, getting ready for takeoff, on take roll, or in critical phases of flight. I have had all these things happen and when they did happen it would add stress to the cockpit. I have made it a point to place my mobile phone on mute prior to taxing till I land, and the aircraft is shut down. Even if the boss is calling me during a critical phase of flight it will NOT BE ANSWERED. that is my hallmark. There is a reason why most phases of ground or flight are called critical, don’t add to it.
Thank you for the reminder about the dangers of cell phone use in the cockpit and while driving. It’s a good lesson that you have passed on, congratulations on another step to becoming a professional, I’d fly with you.
This was a CFI candidate, not a Private Pilot candidate, so the same level of monitoring by the CFI shouldn’t have generally been needed. Unfortunately due to a perfect storm combination of circumstances, the CFI did get burned.
This type of problem with sequencing of traffic at towered airports is nothing new and is a procedure that needs special attention. I use the Feb 2012 accident (3 fatalities) at Melbourne FL as an example. The pilot thought he was to follow the airplane nearing the runway and turned base in front of the airplane on a mile final he was supposed to follow. When the tower said something, the pilot tried to re-enter the downwind but lost control.
Instructing a long time at a Class D, I know this is always a point of confusion that has to be covered carefully. The instructions from the tower can sometimes lead to mis-identification of the traffic to follow – i.e. compare ‘extend downwind you’re #2’ to ‘extend downwind to follow the second aircraft on final one mile out’ or ‘stay on downwind I’ll call your base’, etc. The pilot on the downwind can also add a qualifier when seeing any traffic – ‘have traffic in sight at the threshold’ would alert the tower that the pilot has the wrong aircraft in sight.
I’m glad you said this. I got the point nearly immediately that this CFI candidate needs time in a busy CLASS D or C environment with training and the like going on so they have real experience and not book learning for the complexities of a Towered environment. It is unfortunate that some CPLs have little serious actual time (IMC) or Night ops time before they get into a twin and fly it.
This is a CFI candidate and needs remedial time in the pattern of a semi-busy towered airport with students flying around making student mistakes that this CFI would have to dodge….
Just say’n’
Glad you learned a valuable lesson
That the student didn’t know he couldn’t turn base speaks to his poor instruction during his private certificate instruction.
Put your phone away.
Unprofessional is an understatement here. People are killed every few minutes everyday by selfish fools trying to text while driving their car. This could’ve been just as catastrophic, too bad it takes a near miss for people to figure these things out.
Completely unprofessional and dangerous to mess with a phone during a training flight or any flight. Especially in the terminal area! It can wait… With all the things we have to worry about we have distracted pilots on their phones now. Aviation is no forgiving..