I messed up..

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MotoFlier

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MotoFlier
Ok I have never actually been transferred to ground until a couple days ago. I landed at my home airport instead of the normal "Delta Charlie to the ramp this frequency" I get turn on Delta and contact ground so I turn announce to ground "with you" and continue to the ramp. Just before entering the ramp I get asked to contact tower when I get a chance. Eeeek, now I'm freaking out.. They were really nice and cool with me basically they were like hey you don't keep going once we tell you to contact ground you wait for ground to release you. I apologized and explained that I do remember reading about that but have never actually had to practice it. He was blown away that I have never been asked to contact ground. He asked me what I do at other towered airports and I told him I have always requested a progressive taxi and have only ever flown to two other towered airports and have only done that once on my long cross-country. I felt like a huge dumb ass luckily our tower guys are really cool and laid back so he just explained the procedure to me and said I can call him with questions about anything anytime which it though was really cool. Tell you one thing I won't make that mistake a second time LOL.
 
Yup, clear the runway, stop, and switch to ground as part of your clean up process.
In the grand scheme of things, not a big deal.
 
This is a huge problem at our airport. Years ago you would always contact ground.

These days, for some reason or another, 95% of the time you get "exit at blah, or blah, taxi to the ramp, this frequency". I *really* dislike this as it's incredibly rare for them to do anything else.

Problem is when you're training people and that's what they do every single time..then one time..all the sudden they're told to contact ground...and the instructor isn't with the student..well there's a strong chance they're not going to contact ground.

I bring this up with students as much as I can. I also sit down and verbally cover the scenario and try to drill it into their head immediately before they solo. Immediately before solo the discussion I have with a student is usually something like:

"What do you do if you're low?"
"What do you do if you're high?"
"What do you do if your airspeed is slow?"
"What do you do if your airspeed is fast?"
"What do you do if the engine quits?"
"What do you do if you don't understand an ATC instruction?"
"What do you do if you can't remember if they cleared you to land?"
"What do you do if you can't establish a visual contact on another airplane in the pattern?"
"What do you do if the airport closes?"
"What do you do if the radio quits?"
"What do you do if they land you on a different runway and you don't know how to follow the taxi instructions?"
"WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU THEY TELL YOU TO CONTACT GROUND?!"

"Ok, don't crash, have fun, call me afterwords and let me know how it goes, we should get some drinks tonight."
 
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I'm glad that the controllers in Juneau are forgiving in such matters. Mistakes happen...

After getting ATIS when landing I set Com 1 to tower and Com 2 to ground. That way I can easily select the correct frequency quickly. Remain this frequency or contact ground is a flip of the switch.

Two coms are nice a nice thing to have.....:yes:
 
Yeah, I had that happen once, too.

It was real confusing, because Tower told me to contact ground after crossing the parallel runway, and then gave me a taxi instruction in a way that sounded like a change of mind. I misinterpreted that as instructions to taxi with them rather than Ground, which is a bit unusual at that airport during daytime. The instructor in the right seat made the same mistake.

We got written up for a possible PD, called the phone number, talked to the tower supervisor (twice), and it got resolved just how one might expect -- with remedial training for the controller (!). I'd never heard of that before, but the tapes showed we did what we were told.

The lesson for me was to ask for clarification.
 
Yea I forgot that part luckily he did not write me up or make any kind of report although he let me know that it could happen and almost certainly will at another airport. I told my CFI what happened so he knows to talk with other students about what to do. He said it just got missed in training because it never came up, he also told me he has never been transferred to ground at our airport either.
 
Some airports.. O'Hare comes to mind, will read you the riot act if you stop. Just keep it moving, they'll get to you when they can.
 
MotoFlier said:
Yea I forgot that part luckily he did not write me up or make any kind of report although he let me know that it could happen and almost certainly will at another airport. I told my CFI what happened so he knows to talk with other students about what to do. He said it just got missed in training because it never came up, he also told me he has never been transferred to ground at our airport either.
Click to expand...

I'm sure your instructor has covered this, but a NASA report would be a good idea. Not so much to protect your (or your instructor's) certificate, as that is unlikely to be at risk. But rather to make this hole in training more obvious. You are very unlikely to be the only one who has had very little towered airport experience.

http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/report/electronic.html

The silver lining here is that you are very unlikely to make this mistake again.
 
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At my home field they mix it up a lot. Depends on the time of day as well. During the day it's always "left at Delta (for example) ground point niner". I stop wait and then after cleared from ground, go.

Later in the day, or when there's only one guy/gal in the tower I'll get "Left on Delta, right Alpha, remain this frequency".

I was always told to stop right after the taxiway/runway lines, actually one guy at a field asked me if I was lost, told him "no, just doing my post-landing and going to ground afterwards". I have heard there are fields where stopping can cause problems, larger airports, etc, but I've never run into that myself.

While what you did isn't a "runway incursion", it could however, be classified as a "surface incident", which is defined as:

An unauthorized or unapproved movement within the designated movement area (excluding runway incursions) or an occurrence in that same area associated with the operation of an aircraft that affects or could affect the safety of flight.

Relative to a runway incursion it's not huge, but I'd do a NASA too, for the reasons the MAKG mentioned. Chances are if you did it, someone else might at some point, so there may be some training on both sides to cover (ATC and Flight School).
 
Flew 24 years out of ATL and that's what they expect you to do. Not standard from airport to airport. I got chastised in ROA one time landing on runway 35 (36?) because I turned off onto a very short perpendicular taxiway then onto the parallel before we contacted GC, like I had done a million times before. Felt my butt would be sticking out into the runway and knew there was a plane landing behind us. Told if I wanted to discuss it to call the tower. Elected not to and they called my company. I explained to the Chief Pilot why I did it and never heard another word about it.
 
I had Midway tower jump my ass once for exiting the runway at the first avaialble taxiway with countless southwest jets on final. Guy wasn't that nice about it - until I pointed out that if they wanted me to exit somewhere specific they need to tell me that otherwise I'm going to exit at the first available taxiway per the rules especially when I know I have a 737 about to run me down.

I think they were upset because it really messed things up for the ground controller...
 
I squawk 7600 and taxi to the ramp before they pull out the light gun.
 
No big deal you made a mistake,the controller gave you a refresher in procedures. Now you know . You might want to go over procedures at controlled airports.
 
I've only had my private a bit over a year now but I did almost all my training at a class D field and I've visited a few. Would have to look in the logbook but I'm sure I've had a hundred or more full stop landings at class D fields...

This past week when I visited Sarasota, FL and landed at the class C airport there was the first time anyone ever told me to contact ground after landing.... and even then it was the same person on ground talking to me, I'm not sure what the point of the frequency change was, seemed to just add confusion for everyone for the 1000' or so of taxiway to the ramp.
 
Kritchlow said:
Some airports.. O'Hare comes to mind, will read you the riot act if you stop. Just keep it moving, they'll get to you when they can.
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Yup, I have been on the receiving end of that. I have also been chastised for not moving immediately after receiving taxi instructions by ground. Because of this I routinely state "not familiar request progressive" anytime I am the least bit uncertain of where they want me to go.

As an aside, for the benefit of those unfamiliar, sometimes the instruction to contact ground will be contact ground "point 9" or something to that effect. Ground will typically be on frequency 121.x
 
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My last flight we were exited the runway with the instruction of basically "taxi via Alpha to the ramp, remain on tower frequency" which is not unheard of at my field but it's much more common to have to contact ground....taxiing down Alpha though we came head-to-head with an oncoming plane. I'm guessing that since we were on TWR and they (presumably) were on GND neither of us had any clue that we were both on the same taxiway approaching each other. We passed uneventfully.
 
cowman said:
This past week when I visited Sarasota, FL and landed at the class C airport there was the first time anyone ever told me to contact ground after landing.... and even then it was the same person on ground talking to me, I'm not sure what the point of the frequency change was, seemed to just add confusion for everyone for the 1000' or so of taxiway to the ramp.
Click to expand...

When I was a controller we usually did this because LC and GC were on different channels of the recorder. As for the same controller working both frequencies, perhaps there was light traffic, the other controller on a lunch break, bathroom etc.
 
cowman said:
I've only had my private a bit over a year now but I did almost all my training at a class D field and I've visited a few. Would have to look in the logbook but I'm sure I've had a hundred or more full stop landings at class D fields...

This past week when I visited Sarasota, FL and landed at the class C airport there was the first time anyone ever told me to contact ground after landing.... and even then it was the same person on ground talking to me, I'm not sure what the point of the frequency change was, seemed to just add confusion for everyone for the 1000' or so of taxiway to the ramp.
Click to expand...

There's a safety reason for moving you off of local control (LC, or "tower") even if it's he same person working both positions. If another aircraft is approaching and a plane taxis out onto the runway, the controller (broadcasting on both frequncies) can step on you to issue a "go around" instruction. If you're still on tower and keying up your mike, the approaching aircraft may only hear a squeal from you and LC transmitting at the same time.

The same issue applies to ground control and clearance delivery being handled by the same person. Nothing worse that having to issue an immediate instruction to an aircraft going in the wrong direction while someone is reading back their coast to coast routing.
 
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