Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 63.8; Flight Crew Total 131.4; Flight Crew Type 131.4
Conflict NMAC; Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
Returning from an IFR cross country. I was cleared for the visual approach at a busy class Delta airport. After contacting Tower I was given vectors to join traffic pattern. Tower told me I was following traffic off my left wing and I was second to land RWY XX. I followed what I thought was my traffic a cessna off my left wing. I followed them from base to final. On final; I saw an airplane pop up in front and then I envaded to the right and executed a go around to avoid the traffic. What caused this incident was I identified different traffic then Tower was communicating. There was only one controller working Tower and Ground frequencies. Having an additional controller would help relieve some of the workload that Tower was experiencing.
C-172S pilot reported an NMAC event on final approach caused by an unknown 'pop up' aircraft.