Aviation Incident at Campbell River

During last Saturday's training flight into Campbell River we caused an aviation incident.  Thankfully there was minimal impact.

There is only a few hours to go (4.4 now) on the time that needs to be logged in order to qualify for the flight test.  I was planning on a few long legs and to really concentrate on IMC flying and focus on controlling the aircraft while keeping the hood right down.

To that end I planned a flight out to Campbell River.  It is about an hour's air time away at a nice slow speed of 130 knots, and it has a precision and a non-precision approach.  This allows me to build some time, only burn about 12 gallons an hour, and also use my steam gauge instruments to do an approach.

The departure out of Langley was routine as was the transfer to Victoria terminal.  They very kindly offered to route me direct to the Comox beacon but I asked to keep the full route so I could practice tracking the VOR.  I was very pleased that the VOR and the VFR GPS agreed so closely.

I managed all of the communication during the flight and it went very well.  No hesitation on the read-backs.  The practice has been helping.

However:  when we got near Campbell River I did the approach briefing.  Among that is setting up the next frequency (122.0) on the standby selector which I did after reading off the setting.  By now we had been cleared down to 5000 feet and we were getting kicked around a bit.  Flying under the hood is difficult and I am far more rough under the hood than with my head up.  ATIS was operational and we had all the sky and visibility needed and then some, but had to circle for runway 30 due to the wind.

When we were cleared to the "Campbell River ILS/DME runway 12 circling for 30 for the full approach" terminal asked us to contact "Campbell River traffic on 122.0."  I am absolutely certain that is what I heard.  My instructor commented that it was odd, but he did say "traffic."  I repeated it back and pressed the transfer switch to load the next frequency, already pre-loaded.  I commented that if it was radio they'd talk to us anyway, whatever we called them.

I made the call, "Campbell River Traffic, Piper Comanche Foxtrot November Zulu Bravo is cleared to the ILS/DME runway 12 circling 30 for the full approach."  No one answered.  My instructor said, "That is odd - the flight service station must be closed for some reason."  I mentioned that meant that our next call was on final.  He said I was correct.

I then buckled down and flew the approach under the hood at 120 knots.  Intercepted the outbound track nicely off the YBL beacon, and set the timer as well as kept an eye on the DME off of the ILS.  Made the procedure turn a bit close as I intercepted the localizer right on the glide-slope.  Remembered to set the timer and slow down to 90 knots right on the beacon.  Brought the aircraft down to the minimum decent altitude right through the turbulence and looked up to see the runway right in front of me.  I keep being surprised by that.

I circled around to the right for a left downwind circuit - it felt normal, I could see the wind sock, and there is a tower on the other side.  Made a nice landing too.

As soon as we stopped the airport operator sped over in his little truck and let us know that the tower had been trying to talk to us and we hadn't answered.  The penny dropped.  I flipped on the master switch and saw it immediately:  I had the radio set to 120.0.  I had just flown into a mandatory frequency control zone without establishing two-way radio communication which is a clear and serious violation of the regulations.  I must have made the error during the approach briefing and then assumed that the lack of response was because it was a traffic frequency as cleared by terminal.

We immediately established contact and explained what was up.

My instructor was pilot in command but I am the aircraft owner.  The CADORS (search for incidents at CYBL or report 2015P0650) report says there was minimal impact but that there is further action required.  I guess we shall see what happens.

This is a classic case of compounding errors:  I set the wrong frequency, terminal cleared us with the wrong word, my instructor assumed he must have been right, and I assumed my instructor was right.  All I had to do was look at the frequency and check the plate!  When I am flying VFR and I don't get a response on the radio that I expect I ALWAYS double and triple check the frequency.  I was expecting a FSS (Campbell River Radio) on the other end per my flight planning with the CFS, and just the mistaken terminal clearance should have provoked a double check, and certainly the silence should have.

The lesson learned here is that if the expected result doesn't happen - double check and NEVER assume.  Also, don't just press the transfer switch - read the frequency too.