DA40 Diamond Star
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 80; Flight Crew Total 450; Flight Crew Type 450
Confusion; Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors
My student and I were in the pattern at LGU practicing and announcing every part of the pattern; crosswind; downwind; base; final; and on the roll every time. A Cherokee called the Unicom and asked 'Brigham City traffic; what is the TPA?' BMC is an airport 15 miles to the southwest of LGU and has a frequency of 123.05 while LGU is 122.8. One of my fellow instructors flying responded '5;500.' This happened when we were on the roll and had just announced. We proceeded to announce crosswind with no one responding to that call out. We called out downwind and about 10 seconds after we turned and called downwind; the Cherokee came on the radio and announced something along the lines of 'Entering downwind on a 45 entry.' I proceeded to look thru my 2 to 4 o'clock to locate him and found him 300 feet below at my 4 o'clock about 500 feet and closing. I proceeded to announce to Cherokee entering downwind; you are close behind me and a couple hundred feet below TPA' He responded he had me in sight and would follow me in as well as climbing to TPA. I proceeded to make a close downwind and base approach in order to stay inside of him and try to maintain visual contact. We made a close base and called it over the radio as well as final. On short final he called asking where I was on final and I responded '25 feet above the numbers 35.' We then did a touch and go and called our rollout. He then asked 'Traffic taking off; what is your position' and someone from the FBO on the ground responded thinking that he was asking about a Cessna 172 on the ground that was taking off without radios and responded 'The Cessna (N#) is flying to Bountiful (Airport 70 NM to the south) without radios and is probably taking off soon' and then an instructor in a company plane who was in front of him responded 'We are in front of that Cessna and holding short of A1 (Taxiway at the end of [Runway] 35).' At that point we were turning crosswind and made that radio call. Overall; close calls happen when a bunch of GA traffic is trying to land but this was a big safety concern due to the judgment on the part of the pilot in the Cherokee. He was unfamiliar with the airport and was about 3 miles out on the 45 asking the Unicom what the TPA was and asking the wrong airport. He came in 300 FT lower than TPA; so it was impossible for me to have seen him with the snow and mountain background behind him. This would have been a collision if he had actually entered mid field and not at the crosswind to downwind turn and had decided to climb into the pattern. The DA-40F is a low wing and I would never have been able to locate him if he wasn't entering the pattern in the worst possible spot. He obviously lost sight of me on final and I was directly over the runway which is a very easy spot to locate a plane. The conditions were 20+ miles of visibility and no clouds in the sky. The pilot sounded a bit older (50+) and did not plan well at all or listen to our calls on the radio. He did verify we had contact when he responded to my radio call announcing his close proximity to us so radios were no factor.
DA40 instructor pilot reports a NMAC with a PA28 pilot entering the pattern at LGU. The PA28 pilot had requested the TPA for BMC on the LGU CTAF; which had been provided without comment.