Narrative:

After I took off I had experienced radio failure and also the transponder was not working properly. I lost radio contact with tower and I further lost contact with N90 approach. I had no intention of landing at groton airport; but the flight was very bumpy and as a student pilot I was not confident about the safety of the flight because I don't have that much experience with high winds. I didn't want to enter groton airspace without any communication; so I tried different times until I got them. I had a very broken communication; and I did not understand the dispatch instructions due to the radio problems; also my headset was not working properly. By the time I understood the instructions (that I was supposed to do a right downwind for runway 23); I was very worried and concerned about my safety and others around and I was too much to the south. I thought that I would not be able to return to the right downwind 23 due to the situation that I was experiencing and too much to the south. I decided to continue on left down wind for runway 23 and make a safe landing. In my judgment if I didn't take that action at that time I would put my life and maybe others in risk. I also know I have to follow the tower's instructions and not making my own ones which I did (sorry). I recognize my unfortunate situation and I will use it to learn from it. I will review all procedure along with my instructor and I will immediately send my headset for repair. After that flight I flew with my instructor and I confirmed that my headset wasn't working properly. Looking back to it I learned a lot from it and think I was on an emergency without noticing; because the combination of being a student pilot; bad headset; no working transponder and more than usual wind. I was not suppose to land in gon; but on wst. I landed at gon because I wanted to talk with somebody who can help me out on that situation. Wst doesn't have a tower and gon does. Again sorry for my situation; but I learned a lot from it.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Student pilot describes a series of equipment difficulties encountered on a solo cross country flight.

Narrative: After I took off I had experienced radio failure and also the transponder was not working properly. I lost radio contact with Tower and I further lost contact with N90 Approach. I had no intention of landing at Groton Airport; but the flight was very bumpy and as a student pilot I was not confident about the safety of the flight because I don't have that much experience with high winds. I didn't want to enter Groton Airspace without any communication; so I tried different times until I got them. I had a very broken communication; and I did not understand the dispatch instructions due to the radio problems; also my headset was not working properly. By the time I understood the instructions (that I was supposed to do a right downwind for Runway 23); I was very worried and concerned about my safety and others around and I was too much to the south. I thought that I would not be able to return to the right downwind 23 due to the situation that I was experiencing and too much to the south. I decided to continue on left down wind for Runway 23 and make a safe landing. In my judgment if I didn't take that action at that time I would put my life and maybe others in risk. I also know I have to follow the Tower's instructions and not making my own ones which I did (sorry). I recognize my unfortunate situation and I will use it to learn from it. I will review all procedure along with my instructor and I will immediately send my headset for repair. After that flight I flew with my instructor and I confirmed that my headset wasn't working properly. Looking back to it I learned a lot from it and think I was on an emergency without noticing; because the combination of being a student pilot; bad headset; no working transponder and more than usual wind. I was not suppose to land in GON; but on WST. I landed at GON because I wanted to talk with somebody who can help me out on that situation. WST doesn't have a Tower and GON does. Again sorry for my situation; but I learned a lot from it.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.