Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 2 Eng; Retractable Gear
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 18; Flight Crew Total 1350; Flight Crew Type 62
Communication Breakdown; Workload; Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness; Distraction; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict NMAC; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Procedure; Environment - Non Weather Related
We were doing a practice single engine approach and were instructed to circle west of Runway 36 and that tower would call our base. Later our instructions were changed to 'Follow the single engine aircraft; right downwind abeam the numbers; report traffic in sight.' The student I was working with was struggling with his single engine aircraft control and while we were working together to fix that we believed that we saw the traffic turn final and we turned to follow the traffic; forgetting to inform tower that we had the traffic in sight. There were 6-8 aircraft that the tower was working with in the air; as well as a single controller working both air and ground frequencies. Nobody realized what had happened until the other aircraft we were supposed to be following reported that we had turned onto final approximately 400 feet below him at the same time he turned on final. At this point with tower's help we sped up and the other aircraft slowed down and we were able to resolve the event.
GA flight instructor pilot reported a NMAC after misidentifying the aircraft to follow and turning final prematurely.