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A flight instructor and their student reported they flew too close to lighted tower when the student mistook a lit street for the airport.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1753923 |
| Time | |
| Date | 202007 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0001-0600 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Night |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior |
| Flight Phase | Descent |
| Route In Use | Direct |
| Flight Plan | VFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Not Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25 Flight Crew Total 260 Flight Crew Type 10 |
| Person 2 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Student |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural FAR Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT |
| Miss Distance | Horizontal 300 Vertical 700 |
Narrative:
On a night PIC cross country on which I was a passenger and flight instructor not flying; my student and I were descending into an airport for some pattern work. I had advised my student to deviate from his direct course in order to get around some lighted towers in the area during his descent and to stay at a safe altitude. I didn't notice that he'd descended to 1;900 feet until we were abeam some of the lighted towers; which in flight appeared to be more than 2;000 feet horizontally from the airplane. Even though we were equipped with a G1000 with an obstacle database; I had the engine page up since I wanted my student to use dead reckoning.upon reexamination of our flight path after the flight; I realized we had missed the symbols on the sectional chart and flown through two fields of towers; some of which were unlit; and flew closer than 2;000 feet horizontally as well as less than 1;000 feet vertically to some of them. While flying over the second field of towers southeast of the field; we were descending to pattern altitude and setting up for landing. I believe the primary contributing factor; on my part; to be fatigue which caused me to zone in on the airport and miss my student's altitude drop and the symbology on the sectional.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A Flight Instructor and their student reported they flew too close to lighted tower when the student mistook a lit street for the airport.
Narrative: On a night PIC cross country on which I was a passenger and Flight Instructor Not Flying; my student and I were descending into an airport for some pattern work. I had advised my student to deviate from his direct course in order to get around some lighted towers in the area during his descent and to stay at a safe altitude. I didn't notice that he'd descended to 1;900 feet until we were abeam some of the lighted towers; which in flight appeared to be more than 2;000 feet horizontally from the airplane. Even though we were equipped with a G1000 with an obstacle database; I had the engine page up since I wanted my student to use dead reckoning.Upon reexamination of our flight path after the flight; I realized we had missed the symbols on the sectional chart and flown through two fields of towers; some of which were unlit; and flew closer than 2;000 feet horizontally as well as less than 1;000 feet vertically to some of them. While flying over the second field of towers southeast of the field; we were descending to pattern altitude and setting up for landing. I believe the primary contributing factor; on my part; to be fatigue which caused me to zone in on the airport and miss my student's altitude drop and the symbology on the sectional.
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.