Right airfield... wrong radio

[Molesworth 1]

I confess to being a right idiot.

Returning to Stapleford today I was surprised and exasperated by the A/G service not responding to my request for joining instructions.

They seemed to be on the air and very busy with traffic.. "after the Pitts special.." and so on. Why were they taking no notice of me?

To add to my confusion they seemed to be using runway 21.. and I had left a hour or two earlier on runway 04. Had the wind changed?

I thought I would go into the overhead. Stapleford always uses a LH circuit and thankfully a LH overhead is the same not matter what runway is in use. I tried several more times to raise the A/G but no avail. Was there something wrong with my comms? I made blind calls anyway announcing I was joining crosswind from the deadside.

I descended some 300 feet (still well above circuit height). "...cleared to land..." said the radio. Finally I woke up! A/G never gives landing clearances! Frantically I checked my radio - I had dialed 122.850 instead of 122.800!

I applied full power and returned to the overhead, corrected the frequency and explained my confusion. The runway in use was indeed 04.. it took a few seconds to decide that I now was really on the dead side and a normal and uneventful landing followed.

I later discovered that 122.850 is Cranfield- which might explain why they didn't hear me (although they were coming through crystal clear)

Two things from this:

1) I need to double check my frequencies before calling (or even listening). Also is the human factor issue that one filters out what one doesn't expect. 21 is not a reciprocal of 04 - that should immediately have had me checking what kind of information I was receiving.
2) Was I correct in assuming that if an A/G service does not respond one can still land?

[Shunter]

A/G can't give orders. Personally, I'd ask for "airfield information" as opposed to "joining instructions". If there's no response you can land as your discretion; just keep a good eye out.

Don't worry about it too much, everyone makes mistakes sooner or later. I'm sure most on here have done far worse, whether they care to admit it or not. Try flying a base turn the wrong way in solid IMC; air traffic love it when you do that. Not. What's worse is that a fellow forum member had only a week earlier told me how he'd done the exact same thing. You live and learn. Hopefully.

[steveking]

Small mistake, no matter how good anyone is sooner or later little mistakes happen, the secret or luck is to keep them as small as possible.

[polar57]

I remember years ago a student out of Bodmin flew up an down St. Mawgan (RAF Base I think) main runway while talking to Landsend (grass). The phone line between got a bit warm, :=

Another aircraft went up to find him to show the way home...

I wouldn't worry about it, you'd be amazed at the silly things that are so easy to do. Say sorry at the time and learn from mistakes is the only thing to do.

Good on you for sharing so we can all learn, everyone makes errors, very few admit it.:D

[Ivor_Novello]

Problem with some A/G RADIO airfields I have flown from/to is that the radio room isn't manned all the time, therefore sometimes you accept the fact that there isn't an answer and you just make traffic blind calls.
One day you are tuned into the wrong frequency, and of course nobody answers.... but you just assume it's because they're not there !

Another one for the Human Factors people :)

[ShyTorque]

I remember a solo student on his qualifying cross country landing at RAF Newton one lunchtime when the airfield was closed for lunch (those were the days). He came looking for the "CFI" to sign his logbook as ATC was locked. He was meant to be at Nottingham / Tollerton, having recently been there with his instructor on his previous flight.

He took some persuading that he was in the wrong place. He was asked what runway surface he had landed on. He was convinced it was tarmac, despite Newton being totally grass.

OC Flying took him outside by the arm and asked him to read what it said in big white letters on the front of our hangar. It said: "RAF NEWTON". He still wasn't convinced.

His instructor came to get him.......

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Problem with some A/G RADIO airfields I have flown from/to is that the radio room isn't manned all the time
Radio room? Wossat?

Hand-held on the bar, some places, maybe there's someone around to answer it, maybe there isn't.

[Spitoon]

And a good reason for the the full callsign to be used from time to time.

[igarratt]

If you report your over head xyz and atc ask you to squawk ident then they often know something you don't lol

If your looking at the airport your planning on landing at and it only has one runway vs yours that has 3... could be the wrong map.... or lol

atc can get very confused when you report a different reg (the one you have flown for the last 50 trips)to the one you departed from then with.

take the wrong taxi way (works in progress) and having to back track up the active creates much humour in the tower (was the dead of night)

and lastly the class one of not pressing the swap freq channel fully.

[Sir Niall Dementia]

A colleague, vastly experienced ATPL/H managed to get frequencies/airfields confused and ended up searching for the H at Bristol Lulsgate when he should have been at Bristol Filton. He flew up and down Lulsgate's runway in a helicopter at 10' while talking to Filton. Huge embarrasment all round. He was lucky not to have enforcements down on him, but I believe the Bristol controllers issued a monumental b******ing and then went off to calm their shattered nerves. Colleague came in for a lot of stick from the rest of us.

These things happen. If there is no bent metal and no-one hurt then all well and good. Even better is to do as Molesworth has done and admit it either here or on CHIRP. We can all learn from each others' mistakes, hopefully when it is our turn the mistake will be rectified even sooner.

I used to fly a lot from Stapleford (lovely place) and made that same frequency confusion.