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Author Topic: Near miss at KLVK  (Read 24703 times)

Offline sfpoolie

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Near miss at KLVK
« on: December 24, 2013, 10:32:37 PM »
I had a near miss at KLVK today (Dec 24th, 19:00 Zulu archive). After I was cleared to land (#2 in pattern) on 25R, my radio became inoperable. I was already making right base to final, I proceed to land to a safety to deal with NORAD. Lo and behold, another aircraft, which just took off from 25R, declared engine malfunction and turned 180. It was cleared to land initially on 7R but then on 7L (got this piece of information from the archive). The tower transmitted to both the aircrafts, the one in front of me and me to initiate a go around. I did not receive the transmission and proceed to land. At the last minute (I mean last minute), I saw the plane on 7L taxing towards me and I aborted the landing. I don't know how close I got to the other plane. After the abort landing, I transmitted blind to that I am going around and will try to land on 25R again.

I am a student pilot with solo 1st stage endorsement and was the solo pilot. As this forum is not an instructional forum, I will only (and only) seek my instructor's comments on what could have been done differently.

Tower was dealing with two non-functional planes simultaneously (yes, mine was not that of an emergency but I was cleared to land). My call sign Cessna 90558 and the I lost the radio when cleared on my base turn (almost 6 mins into the archive). After which, I kept transmitting blind. While all this was happening, the wind shifted and 7 L/R became the active runway. I was the last one to land 25R (won't hear that).



Offline StuSEL

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Re: Near miss at KLVK
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2014, 02:03:42 AM »
Out of curiosity, did you get a light gun signal from the tower?

Offline RoyHelsing

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Re: Near miss at KLVK
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2014, 12:58:39 PM »
I am the pilot who had the emergency and was rolling out toward you on 7L/25R.   I am sure your instructor is giving you plenty of feedback on this one - but as a flight instructor for 37 years let me reiterate what he is probably telling you.  Even though you have been cleared to land (or take-off, or turn, or anything else by ATC), you are still responsible for many things, including aircraft avoidance.  I am glad to hear you were a student pilot, because that means your concentration was probably on flying (speed, altitude, coordinated turn) and I suspect you simply did not hear the radio.  Sounds dumb, but I have had many students ignore loud things (gear horns, stall horns) when they are concentrating hard.  I think you were not really NORDO, because you heard the instructions to use the other runway, etc.  It does not really matter in any case, I think this is a good lesson for you to remember than no matter what else is going on - you need to look around and ahead even if you think everything is cleared for you.  For what it is worth, my wife was yelling at me "he's still going to land!" multiple times but I was in a sever slip to landing and there was no way with my engine I was going to go around - I was ready to bail into the infield if necessary depending on what happened.  OK - enough of that, on the plus side - you did a really, really good job going around for a student pilot.  It looked to me like you were very near to stall speed as you were struggling to gain altitude.  That was a very good job.  I suspect you and my wife were far more rattled than I was (I was too busy trying to land again than to worry about much else).  Good luck in getting your license and if I see you around the airport I'll by you a drink (after you fly - of course.)
« Last Edit: January 03, 2014, 01:19:58 PM by RoyHelsing »

Offline sfpoolie

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Re: Near miss at KLVK
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2014, 03:43:37 PM »
Roy,

Glad that we survived. I had a NORAD (later confirmed). I could not hear anything. I do not know how close we came but soon I saw your plane's landing light coming towards me on the runway, I unconsciously initiated the go around. The whole idea of near miss or anything to that regards never phased in. I kept reminding myself to keep the positive control of the plane, do not stall, maintain the climb attitude and milk the flaps. Once I got to +500 ft and retraced the flaps, did I started thinking of what to do. I did leave a message for the tower to tell you that it was not my fault and I did the best I could do. Let's get together, grab a drink and discuss it.

@StuSEL,

When the plane in front of me did a go around, I did sneak peak towards to tower. I did not see anything. On my downwind the next time around, I kept looking at the tower but did not notice any light signal.

Offline sfpoolie

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Re: Near miss at KLVK
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2014, 02:01:58 AM »
My instructor and I sat together after few days of this incident (he was visiting his folks for Christmas). That gave me sometime to re-live every second of this encounter. I reconstructed where I was in relation to everything when my radio started to malfunction and when Roy's plane declared emergency. I was definitely on my final leg about a mile away or so away. I switched to COM2 and then power cycled the avionics. But once I was on final, my total concentration switched to speed, attitude and looking at the numbers.

Squawking 7600 would not have helped. at this late. Had I gone around soon after my COM failed, I might have met you in the air somewhere. I was flying blind (for the first time in my life). Had you not declared an emergency or my COM dying on me a minute later, we would not be reading this thread. Three of us (you, tower and I) were in a mix of simultaneous failures.

I have been in the air twice since the incidence with my instructor (cross country and a night cross country). I am planning to do first solo pattern work again this Saturday - am I nervous - nah.