Being vectored for the wrong approach/airport

Meliss

Meliss

Pre-takeoff checklist
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goodjoojoo
This week I flew up to Skagit (BVS) in Washington, when I initially contacted Seattle Approach, the controller told me to fly a heading upon reaching Olympus VOR. And to descend from 10,000 ft down to 4,000. I thought it was a little early considering Olympus was still nearly 75nm from my destination, but I just figured he wanted to vector me around the Bravo. He continues to vector me (in a direction a bit away from my destination) and then asks me if I have the weather at Payne (SP?) Field, I told him negative, I'm not landing at Payne and I am still unable to pick up the weather at Skagit as I was too far away. Dead silence followed for a solid minute and a half, and then he immediately gave me a frequency change in which they gave me a vector in a different direction heading towards Skagit now. Luckily I was in VMC at the time, however all the airports were IFR and Low IFR. Is this normal to have something like this happen? Could he have gotten in trouble? If I had been in IMC I think I would've been more upset. Just curious what your thoughts are, I've only had my IFR ticket two months now. I've never had anything like that happen to me before.
 
Get the tapes. Yes, he could be in trouble. It might be too late already. However, you have your flightwatch profile which will provide the info as well. Contact the regional supe and find out what was the deal.
 
Yes, this sort of thing happens every now and then, but unless you were misidentified on radar (which isn't likely), you were never in any danger other than of ending up somewhere you had not intended to land. You could not get in trouble for a controller misreading the strip, but it's worth a call to the facility to be sure this is investigated with an eye towards safety and training. No need to bother the Regional ATO unless he facility management fails respond.

And welcome to the real world of IFR, where the controllers are no more perfect than the pilots.
 
Bopping along over Ohio I was given told to go direct to KELSI. I accepted this and then said, "wait a cotton picken minute." I can understand the trip to KELSI when being sent around Chicago, but I had filed to Gary and it seemed a little strange to go 60 miles west of O'Hare to get there.

They indeed were confused about my destination.
 
Controller just misread the strip. Mental error, just like the thread where the guy was cancelled without telling ATC he was canceling.

Controller won't get into trouble. It's neither an Operational Error (loss of sep) or Deviation (airspace violation). Even if it was an OE or OD, odds are the controller would get just a slap on the wrist.

Years ago ATC changed their policy on OE / ODs. Controller's were hiding their mistakes to protect their careers. Now if they screw up they file a report (ATSAP) to protect their butts. It's like a NASA form that pilots use. Basically controllers now have a greater tolerance of mistakes. They can still get fired for on the job performance but it's a lot harder to do than in the old days.
 
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Your situation is why I really like having a couple GPSs. I know where I want to go and how to get there. When ATC sends me off to parts unknown then I can be asking "what in the heck is goin' on here" really quick.

True, the GPS isn't necessary but it is nice to have 'cause the original plan is long gone after a route change.

On a different but similar note, it doesn't hurt to ask ATC if they really meant it when they give a direction of turn the long way, e.g. left to 090 when the current heading is 330. Sometimes they have a reason for going the direction they requested but other times it's just a brain phart. Controllers do it too, just like the rest of us.
 
Happened to me too. I was heading north on the east side of the Hudson River. When I checked in with Albany, they started vectoring me in for a landing. I said, "As much as I'd liked to come visit you guys, I'm heading for Glens Falls." ATC, "Resume own navigation, sorry."

No harm. No foul.
 
upstateny said:
Happened to me too. I was heading north on the east side of the Hudson River. When I checked in with Albany, they started vectoring me in for a landing. I said, "As much as I'd liked to come visit you guys, I'm heading for Glens Falls." ATC, "Resume own navigation, sorry."

No harm. No foul.
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Albany vectored me into the final for Schenectady when I was going into Albany,tower gave me a side slip into Albany.
 
Was flying to PGD on IFR, and got vectored to RSW. Told ATC that the were vectoring me to the wrong airport. They said sorry gave me new directions and all was well. What clued me in was when they told me that the current weather was foxtrot, and PGD is probably the only class D airport in th country which still does not have a working ATIS. We will have had a tower for almost two years now and still no ATIS.
 
Here in south Florida, they will vector you into the middle of the state to get you out of the congested coastal areas, you'll think they messed up, but eventually they will get you back on course.
 
There is a lot of cumulo granite up there - and given he was vectoring you to an approach to an airport you did not want to go to so he was responsible for terrain sep - this is still a concern any time someone is doing something that makes no sense . . . ask. The worst that happens is that you learn something . . .

Its like the other day when I was being vectored and leveled off at 3500 instead of 3200 and the controller gentled reminded me that the "altimeter setting was 29.76." That gets your attention when you know what it means . . .
 
Reminds me of the Falcon which launched out of Martin State (Baltimore MD) with a clearance to Jackson on a day where there was a big east-west line of thunderstorms somewhere south of Maryland and north of Mississippi. They were sent on a 300 vector initially, but after passing north of Dulles, their clearance sent them further WNW. Finally, about 200 miles out, they asked ATC just how far they were being sent to get around the line. ATC said "You're just about direct Jackson now, what's the problem?" The crew said, "What are you talking about? Jackson is 90 degrees to the left!" Seems the crew had filed to JXN instead of JAN, and ATC was sending them to Michigan where they'd filed instead of Mississippi where they wanted to go.

Oops.:redface:

They probably should have figured it out on the ground when they got a full route clearance that that was nowhere near what they'd filed, but when they asked, they were told it was for deviation around weather, and they didn't check where it went before the eventual "direct Jackson".
 
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teejayevans said:
Here in south Florida, they will vector you into the middle of the state to get you out of the congested coastal areas, you'll think they messed up, but eventually they will get you back on course.
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I typically fly coastal to coastal and occassionally have been vectored, more often mid state storms(typically over Labelle ) more than anything else, and have always been told why they were vectoring me.
 
Clark1961 said:
Your situation is why I really like having a couple GPSs. I know where I want to go and how to get there. When ATC sends me off to parts unknown then I can be asking "what in the heck is goin' on here" really quick.

True, the GPS isn't necessary but it is nice to have 'cause the original plan is long gone after a route change.

On a different but similar note, it doesn't hurt to ask ATC if they really meant it when they give a direction of turn the long way, e.g. left to 090 when the current heading is 330. Sometimes they have a reason for going the direction they requested but other times it's just a brain phart. Controllers do it too, just like the rest of us.
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"Please confirm you show me landing KPDQ."
 
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