Narrative:

Fortunately; the incident to my knowledge did not cause any violations at the airport. The runway I landed on did not have any traffic. I was informed; after the supervisor listened to the recording; that I clearly declared a rough engine which the supervisor said the controller said he did not hear. If I had continued down the base leg for [runway] 25 as instructed; I would have been past [runway] 16 and would have had a hard time landing any place. I had been listening to traffic and was aware no one was departing or landing on [runways] 16 or 34 so I radioed I was landing on [runway] 16 due to an emergency (the engine ran rough again at that moment). I landed without incident and taxied to my parking space and called the tower at their request. I was told the next day that I handled the situation properly and the supervisor said they wanted to apologize for the controller not hearing my request due to a rough engine. It sounded like the supervisor was on top of the incident and taking steps to try to keep it happening again.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C182 pilot reports landing on an intersecting runway to the runway cleared to land on due to a rough running engine. The Tower is advised of the situation; but apparently did not hear the transmission and is upset about the cross runway landing.

Narrative: Fortunately; the incident to my knowledge did not cause any violations at the airport. The runway I landed on did not have any traffic. I was informed; after the Supervisor listened to the recording; that I clearly declared a rough engine which the Supervisor said the Controller said he did not hear. If I had continued down the base leg for [Runway] 25 as instructed; I would have been past [Runway] 16 and would have had a hard time landing any place. I had been listening to traffic and was aware no one was departing or landing on [runways] 16 or 34 so I radioed I was landing on [Runway] 16 due to an emergency (the engine ran rough again at that moment). I landed without incident and taxied to my parking space and called the Tower at their request. I was told the next day that I handled the situation properly and the Supervisor said they wanted to apologize for the Controller not hearing my request due to a rough engine. It sounded like the Supervisor was on top of the incident and taking steps to try to keep it happening again.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.