Remember to say 'unable'
Got myself in a pickle yesterday... I thought the tale might be instructive.
Sat waiting for the front to clear yesterday afternoon. Around 3.00pm it looked OK - a bit of a crosswind, some patchy cloud around 1200ft, but the main cloudbase 2500ft. I only wanted to go out to the west for a bit of a VFR bimble then return for some circuits, as I hadn't flown for a couple of weeks.
As we taxied out I noticed the Calibrator (a Beech Duchess used for ILS calibration) starting up.
Took off, went West, bimbled about a bit, joined. Was told 'join overhead not below 2000ft, Calibrator in instrument pattern'. Cloud layer at 2000ft - climbed to 2400ft to be above it. Clouds below now becoming a bit of a pain - legal VFR but not easy to navigate.
ATC called 'G-ABCD Are you visual with the aerodrome?'. I look down and through a gap I spy an airfield - right runways, as far as I can see. (Mistake one: it was the wrong airfield - only about 6 miles from the right one. The lack of lights should have been a clue.) I reply 'Yes, range about 2 miles.' 'Contact Tower'.
'XXXX Tower, G-ABCD, join overhead, runway 19, 2400ft, QFE 989 millibars. Aaah... apologies, over YYYY airfield.'
'G-ABCD recover immediately straight in from present position, Calibrator in instrument pattern.'
'Wilco, G-CD.' (Mistake 2. I knew where the runway was but I COULDN'T ACTUALLY SEE IT - the clouds were in the way. I should have said 'Unable comply, request hold off to the north-east.'). Attempted to position unsuccessfully, then b*gg*r*d off to the north-east and took up a visual hold at 1500ft (this is a standard holding area for this airfield i.e. it's in the FOB) and told ATC that's what I'd done.
'G-ABCD roger, contact Zone.' Humble apologies to zone, who asked me to orbit at 2000ft. This time I got a grip on myself. 'Unable, cloudbase 1600ft, G-CD. Able to accept radar vectors to ILS if you prefer.' Which would have been a better idea in the first place... But ATC were happy for me to hold overhead the airfield at 1500ft and slotted me in behind the Calibrator. Nothing broken in the end except my ego.
The moral? Don't forget you can say no to ATC! Don't do something just because they asked for it and you think they are in charge - I realise now that I attempted to position for a runway I couldn't see because I had mentally handed command to ATC.
Tim