After an IFR flight of nearly four hours, my wife and I approached a north central U.S. airport in our Mooney. We had descended below the 6000-foot overcast to find excellent visibility. My wife handled the communications while I flew; her first call to the tower, from more than 10 miles out, was met with the question, “Are you IFR or VFR?” She responded that we had canceled our IFR flight plan and were VFR with the field in sight. We were advised to enter a left downwind for the east-west runway. 288
Tower Controlled
After an IFR flight of nearly four hours, my wife and I approached a north central U.S. airport in our Mooney. We had descended below the 6000-foot overcast to find excellent visibility. My wife handled the communications while I flew; her first call to the tower, from more than 10 miles out, was met with the question, "Are you IFR or VFR?" She responded that we had canceled our IFR flight plan and were VFR with the field in sight. We were advised to enter a left downwind for the east-west runway.
Key Takeaways:
- A Mooney pilot experienced a near-miss with a training twin aircraft while approaching a busy airport, despite ATC sequencing and acknowledgments from the other aircraft.
- The twin, conducting a simulated engine-out procedure, was preoccupied and mistook another aircraft for the Mooney, causing them to fly an incorrect approach path directly over the Mooney.
- The incident highlighted the importance for pilots to prioritize their own visual assessment of traffic over ATC instructions or other pilots' acknowledgements when a conflict is perceived.
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