I am a private pilot with around 125hrs counting training.
One of the first goof ups I ever had as a student pilot was approaching my home field of all places... class D towered field. I was approaching from the west and the tower told me to enter right downwind for 22 which is the most logical approach from that direction. I was probably 1-2 miles on a perfect 45 for the downwind when suddenly my brain told me I had it all backwards and I was lining up for runway 4. I was not... I was right where I should be but I started maneuvering back away from the field to set up for the correct entry the tower assigned... a bit later I looked down at the heading indicator, thought for 2 seconds, and realized what I'd done. Called the tower, confessed, no big deal they just had me finish my approach on a looong right base. No harm, but I felt damned stupid.
I never did this at my home field again... I'm now so familiar with the layout of the airport I couldn't. However, both as a student pilot and now with my private I've flip-flopped the runway several more times. Always at an unfamiliar field but that's no excuse, the compass works the same everywhere. I come in, make my calls on the CTAF, set up with a perfect pattern entry and then read the number on the runway and realize that I dun goofed. Then I have to make a fool of myself and report where I actually am on the radio... thank god the pattern has always been empty.
I try to mitigate this by planning it out before the flight. Considering the direction I'm coming from, looking up the winds at the field and planning for the runway I expect to be landing on... thinking about exactly how I want to enter the pattern before even getting into the airplane. This usually works. However on a recent flight I had done this in the morning before driving to the field and forgot to review it again before takeoff. So in flight I checked the winds again, re-made my plan, executed my plan, and then saw the wrong F%*^&# number on the runway as I made my downwind entry.
I know which way a runway goes, I think with attention divided while flying the airplane I am looking down at the heading indicator for a reference.... planning to enter a downwind by putting the runway number I want at the BOTTOM of the heading indicator so when I turn final I'm going the right way. Somehow I think with the full workload of flying the airplane I am double-flipping the direction somehow. I know which way North, South, East and, and West are for god sakes...
Makes me feel really stupid every time to make an error like this. Am I the only one? Do I just need to practice more? Any tips to not screw up like this again. So far it's only happened at airports with empty patterns... I do NOT want to goof up like this in busy airspace.
