The pilot of a general aviation aircraft reported a near mid-air collision after ATC issued a turn t...

Attributes
ACN	1351506
Time
Date	201604
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	PAE.Airport
State Reference	WA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Flight Phase	Climb
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40 Flight Crew Total 780 Flight Crew Type 210
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict NMAC
Miss Distance	Horizontal 0 Vertical 300

Narrative:

Approaching pae from the southeast; about 3 miles out and descending through 2400 MSL; the tower advised me of opposite-direction traffic departing rwy 16L. He had previously instructed me to enter a left downwind and call mid-field for that runway. Shortly after; the controller instructed me to turn west. I hesitated as this made no sense; and he repeated the instruction. I complied at once. About 10 seconds later I spotted the traffic at my 10 o'clock on a converging course and about 300 feet below me; our courses crossed about 3 seconds later. Happily our altitudes were such that we didn't approach too closely.I think my turning west there was an inappropriate instruction. As I recall from private pilot training; head-on converging aircraft should each turn to its right. I should have been instructed to turn north; and the other aircraft to turn south to maintain separation.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The pilot of a general aviation aircraft reported a near mid-air collision after ATC issued a turn that the pilot felt exasperated an opposite direction traffic condition.

Narrative: Approaching PAE from the southeast; about 3 miles out and descending through 2400 MSL; the tower advised me of opposite-direction traffic departing Rwy 16L. He had previously instructed me to enter a left downwind and call mid-field for that runway. Shortly after; the controller instructed me to turn west. I hesitated as this made no sense; and he repeated the instruction. I complied at once. About 10 seconds later I spotted the traffic at my 10 o'clock on a converging course and about 300 feet below me; our courses crossed about 3 seconds later. Happily our altitudes were such that we didn't approach too closely.I think my turning west there was an inappropriate instruction. As I recall from private pilot training; head-on converging aircraft should each turn to its right. I should have been instructed to turn north; and the other aircraft to turn south to maintain separation.

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.