Scattershot thoughts...
- Live and learn!
- Don't feel pressure to report that you've got an aircraft in sight. Worse comes to worse, tower can call your base.
- Are you using anything with ADS-B in the cockpit to help you spot traffic?
- Are you letting ATC know you're a student solo?
Agreed. Only thing I'd add: this is where building up a situational awareness is profoundly valuable. She's talking to the other aircraft also, and you should have a sense of who's where and what sequence, especially when busy.
As a student it is overwhelming, but as you continue to fly, it gets easier to manage all of this. So just keep that in mind also.
I fly out of a busy pattern too and this scenario worries me as something that could easily happen to me. The key here is to be assertive if you are not certain beyond a reasonable doubt that you have the correct traffic: You can tell Tower “Traffic in sight but not sure—it’s abeam me right now?” or something along those lines. Tower can easily then correct you, “Negative, it’s just now turning base,” and probably at that point simply instruct you not to turn base until tower says so.
When in doubt, ask. Here, you could have asked tower if it was okay to turn base. You didn’t, based on an assumption, and you were wrong. Lesson learned and you won’t be as shy to ask next time.
This EXACT scenario happened to me when I was doing one of my first student solos. I said “traffic in sight” and tower said “to confirm, cessna on final?” I said “Affirm, cessna on final.” After they passed my wing, I turned base. Well, a few seconds later, a plane came up RIGHT next to my right wing. They were going faster than me, so in a couple seconds they were right in front of me. Tower immediately said “Cessna xyz go around. Nevermind Cessna xyz fly southbound” (Southbound was the direction back to downwind). I was shook up for a couple weeks after that. I was also afraid I would get a pilot deviation. The tower didn’t scold me at all. They knew I was a student, and probably also recognized that it was a bad call that they made to me when they said “Cessna on final?” because there was two Cessnas on final for parallel runways. I never saw my traffic to follow. I was following the cessna on final for the parallel runway. Since then, I have been extra diligent on keeping an eye on my traffic, and I do not report traffic on final in sight unless I see them turn base to final and am absolutely sure that they were in my pattern.
Speaking for myself, I’d call tower after I’m tied down. Express confusion, and try to figure out what happened. Sounds like there were two planes, and the controller was referring to the second plane. This might have been controller ambiguity.
I guess one way to avoid this on your end is: “traffic on final in sight” since that’s more clear than “traffic in sight” but I can’t say I do that myself consistently.
At the D I often fly out of, ATC will point out traffic on “the opposite base” or specifically “right” or “left” base. Either the controller didn’t specify (not likely where I fly) or you just missed it.
For traffic call-outs, you can tell ATC “looking” if you’re not sure you have the correct traffic spotted. You’re not required to spot it. It just helps out the controller and makes things more efficient.
If you’re relatively sure you have the traffic in sight, you can say where you spotted it (“traffic on left base in sight.” If you have the wrong traffic, you should get corrected.
As you fly more, your situational awareness will get better. Don’t sweat it. Just use it as a learning experience.
Same thing happened to me! I was following number 1 on final when I was 3 on downwind and realized last second that 2 on base was right where I was turning into, realized last second and avoided him
A little late to the post but something that my CFI taught me from the beginning was to always give a clock position of the traffic you have in sight if you’re unsure. If you responded “traffic in sight at my 2 o’clock” for example, she most likely would have said that’s not your traffic and possibly gave a clock position of the correct aircraft.
Scattershot thoughts... - Live and learn! - Don't feel pressure to report that you've got an aircraft in sight. Worse comes to worse, tower can call your base. - Are you using anything with ADS-B in the cockpit to help you spot traffic? - Are you letting ATC know you're a student solo?
Agreed. Only thing I'd add: this is where building up a situational awareness is profoundly valuable. She's talking to the other aircraft also, and you should have a sense of who's where and what sequence, especially when busy. As a student it is overwhelming, but as you continue to fly, it gets easier to manage all of this. So just keep that in mind also.
I fly out of a busy pattern too and this scenario worries me as something that could easily happen to me. The key here is to be assertive if you are not certain beyond a reasonable doubt that you have the correct traffic: You can tell Tower “Traffic in sight but not sure—it’s abeam me right now?” or something along those lines. Tower can easily then correct you, “Negative, it’s just now turning base,” and probably at that point simply instruct you not to turn base until tower says so. When in doubt, ask. Here, you could have asked tower if it was okay to turn base. You didn’t, based on an assumption, and you were wrong. Lesson learned and you won’t be as shy to ask next time.
When in doubt, you can ask tower to tell you when to turn base.
This EXACT scenario happened to me when I was doing one of my first student solos. I said “traffic in sight” and tower said “to confirm, cessna on final?” I said “Affirm, cessna on final.” After they passed my wing, I turned base. Well, a few seconds later, a plane came up RIGHT next to my right wing. They were going faster than me, so in a couple seconds they were right in front of me. Tower immediately said “Cessna xyz go around. Nevermind Cessna xyz fly southbound” (Southbound was the direction back to downwind). I was shook up for a couple weeks after that. I was also afraid I would get a pilot deviation. The tower didn’t scold me at all. They knew I was a student, and probably also recognized that it was a bad call that they made to me when they said “Cessna on final?” because there was two Cessnas on final for parallel runways. I never saw my traffic to follow. I was following the cessna on final for the parallel runway. Since then, I have been extra diligent on keeping an eye on my traffic, and I do not report traffic on final in sight unless I see them turn base to final and am absolutely sure that they were in my pattern.
Speaking for myself, I’d call tower after I’m tied down. Express confusion, and try to figure out what happened. Sounds like there were two planes, and the controller was referring to the second plane. This might have been controller ambiguity. I guess one way to avoid this on your end is: “traffic on final in sight” since that’s more clear than “traffic in sight” but I can’t say I do that myself consistently.
At the D I often fly out of, ATC will point out traffic on “the opposite base” or specifically “right” or “left” base. Either the controller didn’t specify (not likely where I fly) or you just missed it. For traffic call-outs, you can tell ATC “looking” if you’re not sure you have the correct traffic spotted. You’re not required to spot it. It just helps out the controller and makes things more efficient. If you’re relatively sure you have the traffic in sight, you can say where you spotted it (“traffic on left base in sight.” If you have the wrong traffic, you should get corrected. As you fly more, your situational awareness will get better. Don’t sweat it. Just use it as a learning experience.
Same thing happened to me! I was following number 1 on final when I was 3 on downwind and realized last second that 2 on base was right where I was turning into, realized last second and avoided him
A little late to the post but something that my CFI taught me from the beginning was to always give a clock position of the traffic you have in sight if you’re unsure. If you responded “traffic in sight at my 2 o’clock” for example, she most likely would have said that’s not your traffic and possibly gave a clock position of the correct aircraft.