Close call flying ILS wrong runway direction for wind

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PlaneTester

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Recently after getting some avionics work done I found myself needing to test how my autopilot would follow a glideslope. Climbed into the airplane with the tech who was also a pilot in the right seat and took off.

Now, this airport has a single runway and the ILS was unfortunately oriented opposite of the ideal TO/landing direction for that runway. Was daytime and weather was very clear if slightly bumpy.

Made plenty of radio calls, tried to keep eyes open. We took off and flew straight out, executed a procedure turn, captured the glideslope and found our autopilot was in fact not tracking properly and we ended up near pattern altitude approaching the field. Suddenly I got an audible ADS-B warning for traffic 12 oclock. I couldn't see anything and I even commented out loud someone on the ground must have just turned on their transponder. I mean we'd been looking right down the runway, how could we miss someone departing right?

I don't know how much time passed, maybe 20 seconds to a minute? Either way I suddenly caught sight of an oncoming aircraft pretty well set up to hit us head on. I automatically turned right as you're supposed to do, unfortunately he turned left probably because he was in the traffic pattern but either way we were converging still. I shoved the nose down and pulled power to make some more vertical space(probably unnecessary) and we cleared with plenty of room to spare. Still was a pretty uncomfortable moment.

He must have been NORDO, we were on frequency.

I'm not sure exactly what the smart thing to do here was. We sometimes need to do practice approaches that put us the wrong way down the runway, other pilots sometimes go NORDO, in a head on situation you're supposed to alter course to the right but if he's in the traffic pattern.....

Probably should have just altered course at the traffic alert when we hadn't positively IDed the source rather than assuming it was someone starting up on the ground. Other than that I'm not sure what would be better practice to avoid this situation in the future. I guess at the end of the day we didn't hit, I just really don't like getting that close.
 
I sometimes practice like you outlined, but break off the approach well before getting into the traffic pattern area. I don't really like practicing against traffic flow, and rarely do it, but when you have a good reason like you did, sometimes it is fairly necessary. You saw and avoided the traffic, so like Arbiter said, the system worked.
 
Sounds like you need to have a pilot in the right seat looking out the window if you're going to blast around airport patterns with your head down trying to debug avionics problems.
 
Sounds like an everyday occurrence at Casa Grande which is why I don’t fly there unless I have to.
 
Sounds like two problems. First, you're operating in reverse of what the traffic pattern is, then when you have an ADSB warning that you're headed into traffic, you assume it's a false positive. Not saying I wouldn't have done the same thing, but thinking about it, I now wouldn't. The other aircraft likely can't see you, and certainly isn't expecting you to be coming at him the wrong way. Sometimes no radio is a choice, but sometimes it's just a mistake. If there's no one else in the pattern or in the office, there's often no way to confirm the radio works.

Second problem, the statement "I sometimes need to do ....". Nope. Actions are a result of choices. It may be completely reasonable to fly practice approaches against the traffic flow, but it's a choice. After reading this, I wouldn't do it unless I had someone in the right seat just looking for traffic. I say that specifically because an airplane is usually going to be pretty easy to see in profile turning onto the runway, and maybe even rolling forward depending on the color of the plane. But once they lift up, you've got a head on view and that can be tough to see, especially if they don't have landing lights on.

Thanks for posting this, btw. It's probably going to change the way I do my instrument training.
 
Arbiter419 said:
You saw, you avoided...the system worked.
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My thoughts as well. A lot of people are critical of the uncontrolled environment, and what someone did, or what someone said. But as long as no one traded paint the system worked as designed.
 
Albany Tom said:
Sounds like two problems. First, you're operating in reverse of what the traffic pattern is, then when you have an ADSB warning that you're headed into traffic, you assume it's a false positive. Not saying I wouldn't have done the same thing, but thinking about it, I now wouldn't. The other aircraft likely can't see you, and certainly isn't expecting you to be coming at him the wrong way. Sometimes no radio is a choice, but sometimes it's just a mistake. If there's no one else in the pattern or in the office, there's often no way to confirm the radio works.

Second problem, the statement "I sometimes need to do ....". Nope. Actions are a result of choices. It may be completely reasonable to fly practice approaches against the traffic flow, but it's a choice. After reading this, I wouldn't do it unless I had someone in the right seat just looking for traffic. I say that specifically because an airplane is usually going to be pretty easy to see in profile turning onto the runway, and maybe even rolling forward depending on the color of the plane. But once they lift up, you've got a head on view and that can be tough to see, especially if they don't have landing lights on.

Thanks for posting this, btw. It's probably going to change the way I do my instrument training.
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These days as ILS and VOR approaches are disappearing there are going to be downwind practice approaches. Having traffic displayed, radio calls and lights on is a must. Inop radios are rare unless your EQ is junk.
 
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Clip4 said:
These days as ILS and VOR approaches are disappearing there are going to be downwind practice approaches. Having traffic displayed, radio calls and lights on is a must. Inop radios are rare unless your EQ is junk.
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I hope that happens more. Around here, I mostly see the problem at 1B1, which has nearly identical GPS approaches each way. No ILS. Yet all the practice I've ever seen is runway 3, coming from the south. I'm betting because it's just easier, they're coming from south of the area. They'd rather land with a 10k tailwind than make a couple of left turns...which they're going to have to make anyway to get back home. Until I started my instrument training I didn't realize they had that option...next time I run into it I'm going to suggest they try the lovely 21 approach.

Agree that inop radios are kinda rare, and mostly pilot error, but the old King 'dial a number' radios in older trainers can be squirrely in setting the numbers.
 
Albany Tom said:
I hope that happens more. Around here, I mostly see the problem at 1B1, which has nearly identical GPS approaches each way. No ILS. Yet all the practice I've ever seen is runway 3, coming from the south. I'm betting because it's just easier, they're coming from south of the area. They'd rather land with a 10k tailwind than make a couple of left turns...which they're going to have to make anyway to get back home. Until I started my instrument training I didn't realize they had that option...next time I run into it I'm going to suggest they try the lovely 21 approach.

Agree that inop radios are kinda rare, and mostly pilot error, but the old King 'dial a number' radios in older trainers can be squirrely in setting the numbers.
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If you are flying trainers with those radios, you need to find a new flight school because those radios needed replaced 20 years ago.
 
I really don't think a faulty com was the problem in this case...if you see a target on ADS-B converging toward you, you need to act.

I see nothing wrong with doing practice approaches on either runway as long as you break off the approach before interfering with other traffic. If there are lots of students doing pattern work, practice somewhere else or make sure your intentions are clear.
 
Clip4 said:
If you are flying trainers with those radios, you need to find a new flight school because those radios needed replaced 20 years ago.
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:) What I'm normally flying now has a 430. But yeah, those are about 1 step ahead of something with 3 crystal channels in it.
 
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