Narrative:

The last leg of a long duty day; I decided to allow our contract co-pilot to fly the leg home from the right seat. I assumed the role of non-flying pilot and ran the checklist; worked radios; asel and programmed the FMS etc. During the final phases of arrival late at night; my cockpit workload increased substantially. This was due to a last minute runway closure; switching to a different runway and an ATC request to proceed direct to the airport due to traffic. After switching from approach control to the final controller we were cleared for a visual approach to the right runway. The contract pilot had a very difficult time this night getting the landing runway in sight even though he had the airport visually; with the myriad of runway; taxiway; terminal; ramp and city lighting around the airport so I began vectoring and 'coaching' him toward the runway with altitude; airspeed and configuration recommendations. This further contributed to my excessive workload. At this time I was handed off to tower. I switched frequencies and continued 'coaching' the contract pilot toward our runway for which we were a bit high and tight. My focus became getting the aircraft positioned properly for a safe landing; and configured properly for the landing; and not on communication; contacting the tower and obtaining a landing clearance. Since I was so busy; I am not sure whether--or not--I contacted the tower and obtained a landing clearance. The airport was not busy and I knew the runway was clear of traffic as I always verify this before landing. The touchdown and landing was normal; and upon roll-out the controller contacted us (I was tuned to the tower frequency) and told us to 'turn right at taxiway tango; right onto kilo and hold short of kilo 4. I replied with the readback etc. And at that point realized that this may have been the first communication with the tower -- but still wasn't sure due to my excessive workload. The controller did not try to contact us at all during the final phases of the approach and landing to indicate we weren't in contact either. We would have heard this as we were indeed tuned to the tower frequency. To prevent this unintentional mistake; I think there should be a standard method to insure pilot/controller communication actually occurs (especially if a pilot gets too busy and forgets to call) where a controller would contact a pilot inside of 5 miles from the airport if the pilot hasn't yet established communication with the tower. ATC does this at altitude all the time asking if a certain aircraft is on the frequency. I also don't think an airport should advertise a runway as being available on the ATIS when it's actually being closed causing last minute re-programming of the FMS; new approach briefings etc. A new ATIS should be made.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A fatigued BE350 Captain reported coaching an inexperienced First Officer into a safe landing position and becoming task saturated while preparing for a night landing.

Narrative: The last leg of a long duty day; I decided to allow our Contract Co-pilot to fly the leg home from the right seat. I assumed the role of non-flying pilot and ran the checklist; worked radios; ASEL and programmed the FMS etc. During the final phases of arrival late at night; my cockpit workload increased substantially. This was due to a last minute runway closure; switching to a different runway and an ATC request to proceed direct to the airport due to traffic. After switching from Approach Control to the Final Controller we were cleared for a visual approach to the right runway. The Contract Pilot had a very difficult time this night getting the landing runway in sight even though he had the airport visually; with the myriad of runway; taxiway; terminal; ramp and city lighting around the airport so I began vectoring and 'coaching' him toward the runway with altitude; airspeed and configuration recommendations. This further contributed to my excessive workload. At this time I was handed off to Tower. I switched frequencies and continued 'coaching' the Contract Pilot toward our runway for which we were a bit high and tight. My focus became getting the aircraft positioned properly for a safe landing; and configured properly for the landing; and not on communication; contacting the Tower and obtaining a landing clearance. Since I was so busy; I am not sure whether--or not--I contacted the Tower and obtained a landing clearance. The airport was not busy and I knew the runway was clear of traffic as I always verify this before landing. The touchdown and landing was normal; and upon roll-out the Controller contacted us (I was tuned to the Tower frequency) and told us to 'turn right at Taxiway Tango; right onto Kilo and hold short of Kilo 4. I replied with the readback etc. and at that point realized that this may have been the first communication with the Tower -- but still wasn't sure due to my excessive workload. The Controller did not try to contact us at all during the final phases of the approach and landing to indicate we weren't in contact either. We would have heard this as we were indeed tuned to the Tower frequency. To prevent this unintentional mistake; I think there should be a standard method to insure pilot/controller communication actually occurs (especially if a pilot gets too busy and forgets to call) where a controller would contact a pilot inside of 5 miles from the airport if the pilot hasn't yet established communication with the Tower. ATC does this at altitude all the time asking if a certain aircraft is on the frequency. I also don't think an airport should advertise a runway as being available on the ATIS when it's actually being closed causing last minute re-programming of the FMS; new approach briefings etc. A new ATIS should be made.

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.