ASRS Reports

As acting PIC I regret to say it was pilot error that caused the engine failure.

He mentioned that this occurrence had been beneficial to all in the tower because they were training new controllers.

I then thought maybe tower had forgotten about us so I reminded them we were still waiting and they responded with “we will get you out shortly,” so we waited some more.

However, although the tower or involved traffic did not say anything to me, my DPE said what I did was not safe and he would have to fail me on my checkride. I agreed and was just surprised I had made such a silly yet vital mistake.

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.

At this point I am very frustrated with this guy so I decided to go back to ZZZ where at least I would have tower looking out for me.

Arguing with him would have been the worst thing to do. So to avoid a more complicated and technically correct outcome, I decided to enjoy more time in the air flying.

My concern is exacerbated by knowledge that my students are nearly universally afraid to question/query tower/ground control at this airport.

After landing and while cleaning the airplane, the Aircraft Y pilot drove up to my hangar and berated me in front of my wife for “screaming into the traffic pattern at too high an airspeed and being only 400 feet below him and they were talking to center with a Bravo clearance (wrong, ZZZ Tracon owns the Class B around here so he would be talking to Approach, not Center) and even the SIC (Second in Command) Center Controller didn’t see you” and loads of other garbage. You get the drift.