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Corporate jet pilot was issued an ATC clearance contrary to the published airport traffic pattern that led to a challenging approach accompanied by an ATC low altitude alert.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1298108 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201509 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | APC.Airport |
| State Reference | CA |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Light Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Initial Approach |
| Route In Use | Visual Approach |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 65 Flight Crew Total 9400 Flight Crew Type 2400 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT |
Narrative:
On descent into kapc; was cleared for the visual approach 18R. We were approaching from the south so I was entering a right downwind. Norcal asked what or which downwind we were doing; we informed them right downwind and they said a left would work better due to oncoming traffic. I entered the left downwind and at 1;600 MSL was given a low altitude alert. The visual approach was challenging from that point on due to rising terrain on the northeast side of the field. When we landed I checked the AFD and saw that 18R is designated right traffic. Not sure why norcal wanted us on a left downwind instead of giving us or the other aircraft a vector. I will be checking the AFD more diligently from now on and will not let ATC talk me into a corner.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Corporate jet pilot was issued an ATC clearance contrary to the published airport traffic pattern that led to a challenging approach accompanied by an ATC low altitude alert.
Narrative: On descent into KAPC; was cleared for the visual approach 18R. We were approaching from the south so I was entering a right downwind. NorCal asked what or which downwind we were doing; we informed them right downwind and they said a left would work better due to oncoming traffic. I entered the left downwind and at 1;600 MSL was given a low altitude alert. The visual approach was challenging from that point on due to rising terrain on the northeast side of the field. When we landed I checked the AFD and saw that 18R is designated right traffic. Not sure why NorCal wanted us on a left downwind instead of giving us or the other aircraft a vector. I will be checking the AFD more diligently from now on and will not let ATC talk me into a corner.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.