Who has landed at the wrong airport?

I'm an almost. I was going to Grand Prairie for a seminar but I was heading at Arlington which is 3NM SW. Both are towered.

I was talking to GPM and he asked me to ident and said "You're on a 45 to the downwind at GKY" I'm like #$%^ that's not where I want to be.

Resolved quickly and the seminar was good.
 
Yeah, at night. My excuse was that I needed to pee. I looked at the sign over the doorway of the FBO's shack when I went in, and that was all I needed to know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
On my long solo XC to Hartford-Brainard I lined up with a closed airport. I turned final and noticed a white X at the threshold. Just then Brainard Tower told me that it looked like I was lined up with the closed airport and KHFD was on the west side of the river. He said it happens all the time. The airport remarks even say "BE ALERT: HFD IS LOCATED ON W SIDE OF RIVER. THERE IS A CLSD ARPT 1 MILE ENE OF HFD."
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot-2017-10-9 Google Maps.png
    Screenshot-2017-10-9 Google Maps.png
    1.5 MB · Views: 21
Landed at the correct airport on the wrong day. Filed a customs report for entry into Alaska,with the wrong date.on arrival after many phone calls,I was instructed to fly to Fairbanks direct to clear customs.
 
MassPilot said:
On my long solo XC to Hartford-Brainard I lined up with a closed airport. I turned final and noticed a white X at the threshold. Just then Brainard Tower told me that it looked like I was lined up with the closed airport and KHFD was on the west side of the river. He said it happens all the time. The airport remarks even say "BE ALERT: HFD IS LOCATED ON W SIDE OF RIVER. THERE IS A CLSD ARPT 1 MILE ENE OF HFD."
Click to expand...
I'm very familiar with the airports in question, and this should NEVER happen. There is a river separating the two and both were marked. A basic pilotage function would be "my airport is on the west side of the river". Why on Gods green Earth would anyone head for a runway east of the river??
 
Clinton County Airport lined up perfectly with the one at Plattsburg AFB in Upstate NY... We had one of our FB111As visit them on a cold and foggy night, many moons ago... they DID NOT make AF Crew of the year, that year...
 
Kritchlow said:
I'm very familiar with the airports in question, and this should NEVER happen. There is a river separating the two and both were marked. A basic pilotage function would be "my airport is on the west side of the river". Why on Gods green Earth would anyone head for a runway east of the river??
Click to expand...
Well I was a student pilot on my long solo XC so I had a lot going on. I was not aware there was a closed airport nearby (I either missed the remark or forgot to check, this was 6 years ago so my memory is a little fuzzy). I knew I was close to the airport and when tower gave me landing instructions I spotted the runway and it looked like it was about the right heading. If I knew about the closed airport I would have made a point to check which side of the river it was on.
 
Almost, twice. ;)

Two funny stories:
1) Going into 2L0 in Pineville, LA next to Alexandria, LA, for fuel and food on our long VFR X/C, approach handed us off to Alexandria (KAEX) tower because we were transitioning their airspace to land on the other side of the river. Tower cleared us to land on 14. But our destination in Pineville has rwy 18/36. I informed the twr controller that we are going to Pineville, landing 18. He exclaimed "oh", canceled landing clearance and gave us permission to continue transition and switch to advisory.
Had the controller cleared us for 18, that would have been even more interesting.
No idea what the approach guy put into our FF destination block but somebody got a little confused for sure. :D

2) Went to AOPA Fly-In in Oklahoma. Instead, we landed in Denton, TX. No, not by mistake. Forced landing after partial engine failure. :)

But yes, I have almost landed on the wrong rwy at an unfamiliar airport at night once, had the controller not inquired. He offered us all rwys anyway since we were the only airplane in his airspace. That was before I flew with an HSI which I now set and consult for rwy heading to ensure alignment with the correct rwy, especially at night and at unfamiliar airports.
 
MassPilot said:
Well I was a student pilot on my long solo XC so I had a lot going on. I was not aware there was a closed airport nearby (I either missed the remark or forgot to check, this was 6 years ago so my memory is a little fuzzy). I knew I was close to the airport and when tower gave me landing instructions I spotted the runway and it looked like it was about the right heading. If I knew about the closed airport I would have made a point to check which side of the river it was on.
Click to expand...
No doubt it's tempting to land at the old renschler (sp) airport, but as a student your instructor (imo) was totally derelict to not brief that. It's like a "hot spot" on a chart.
 
Kritchlow said:
No doubt it's tempting to land at the old renschler (sp) airport, but as a student your instructor (imo) was totally derelict to not brief that. It's like a "hot spot" on a chart.
Click to expand...
Maybe so. He never did mention it. If I had known about it it would have been easy to avoid but it's definitely an easy mistake to make when you aren't prepared for it. Like I said, the tower said it happens all the time. He seemed spring-loaded to catch it, thankfully.
 
MassPilot said:
Maybe so. He never did mention it. If I had known about it it would have been easy to avoid but it's definitely an easy mistake to make when you aren't prepared for it. Like I said, the tower said it happens all the time. He seemed spring-loaded to catch it, thankfully.
Click to expand...
It did happen all the time, but it truly is a pilot no-no. In the old days Before I could draw a line to the runway I would look for such conflictions. I would see the river seperating the two airports on the chart and say "I want the one to the west of the river". It's truly very basic.
 
Kritchlow said:
It did happen all the time, but it truly is a pilot no-no. In the old days Before I could draw a line to the runway I would look for such conflictions. I would see the river seperating the two airports on the chart and say "I want the one to the west of the river". It's truly very basic.
Click to expand...
I probably didn't think about the second airport on the chart because it was marked closed. My bad.
 
I worked at HFD for 9 years between 1985 and 1994. It was indeed a regular occurrence for pilots to line up for the wrong airport. It wasn't just the little guys, I saw many jets flown by pros head for the wrong side of the river.
 
Dave Theisen said:
I worked at HFD for 9 years between 1985 and 1994. It was indeed a regular occurrence for pilots to line up for the wrong airport. It wasn't just the little guys, I saw many jets flown by pros head for the wrong side of the river.
Click to expand...
Right, but still inexcusable, at least during daylight. Back then most couldn't draw a line and slope to the runway, but during day could at least see the river.
BTW, if you worked at HFD those years we have likely met.
 
Kritchlow said:
Right, but still inexcusable, at least during daylight. Back then most couldn't draw a line and slope to the runway, but during day could at least see the river.
BTW, if you worked at HFD those years we have likely met.
Click to expand...

I was a line guy at Air One for the first five years, and a charter pilot for the last four.
 
I flew checks in there 1989-1990 for a couple different outfits, but I think we went to the FBO to the south?? What eventually evolved into MillionAir perhaps?? Anyway, I did my primary training at a very small strip about 15-20 mikes to your northeast in 1985.
 
Kritchlow said:
I flew checks in there 1989-1990 for a couple different outfits, but I think we went to the FBO to the south?? What eventually evolved into MillionAir perhaps?? Anyway, I did my primary training at a very small strip about 15-20 mikes to your northeast in 1985.
Click to expand...

They merged on and off over the years I was there. I worked both ramps at various times, so like you said, I'm sure we bumped into each other at some point.
 
Kritchlow said:
I'm very familiar with the airports in question, and this should NEVER happen. There is a river separating the two and both were marked. A basic pilotage function would be "my airport is on the west side of the river". Why on Gods green Earth would anyone head for a runway east of the river??
Click to expand...

There are many things that "should never" happen when we go fly, but they do, and to good pilots too. Best to learn from them instead of telling people "That should never happen to you!"
 
F01LA said:
There are many things that "should never" happen when we go fly, but they do, and to good pilots too. Best to learn from them instead of telling people "That should never happen to you!"
Click to expand...
Partially true. But telling people it should never happen beacause the river is a dead give away I feel is educational.
 
Kritchlow said:
Partially true. But telling people it should never happen beacause the river is a dead give away I feel is educational.
Click to expand...

True enough.. I'd like to say I've never missed a "dead give away," but it happens.
 
Speaking of HFD. Flew in several times over the years. I must say, approaching from the south and following the river is one of the most beautiful approaches I've ever done! Coming from the south, I never had an issue with that closed airport, but I studied the chart well;)
 
HFD is pretty easy. Just fly outbound on one of the NW radials and you’ll eventually find it.
 
Wingsofglass said:
What's a radial?
Click to expand...
A tire with the cords aligned radially rather than on a bias. Now common the radial tire became popular in the early 70s. Lower rolling resistance and better handling were selling points.
 
For about three years, I kept landing at airports in Illinois rather than elsewhere. Does that count?

:D
 
First trip into LAS everything was going great and was set up perfectly for landing. Friend in the right seat kindly asked if I was going to correct that drift. OOPS... lined up on the taxiway. Quick sidestep to the runway and all was well. Way too much parallel pavement there!
 
BiffJ said:
I landed at Battle Mountain Nevada instead of Elko after a flight from Burns Oregon. Not much in the way of landmarks on the trip and no highways to follow. The compass was a little off and the VOR turned out to be as well. Ended up about 15 miles and 12 degrees off....no biggie in the end. We went inside and got a coke and a candy bar then flew down the interstate to Elko. This was back before GPS and we were flying a rental that had an issue with the compass when the nav radio was on. Missed that in the checkout...

Frank
Click to expand...
thats a big error, battle mountain and elko are 70 miles apart.................
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top