How to fly into a control towered airport

[Bill Greenwood]

First of all, it is hard to believe that anyone who really cares about flying would quit flying and sell their plane just because of some nasty dispute with the controllers. I think something else was at work here, likely he ran short of money since many people don't fly for that reason or maybe he didn't have confidence in his flying or his plane, especially if it was something he built. Hard to believe he may have landed on the wrong runway more than once, unless he has a language or hearing problem. What airport is that?

Now, if one does have a problem with the tower, here is what I would do. First of all, I would sit down after the flight and analyze truthfully what went wrong. If the problem is with you as a pilot, then change what you do/say next time, and if you are not sure, ask a local instructor or experienced pilot for advice. If the problem is with the controller there are really two approaches. Next, if you trust the tower controller is trying to do the right thing, then when you have some time and the tower is not too busy, you could phone the them, not on the radio, and to discuss what happened and come to an understanding as to how to resolve it for next time. One caution, the tower is going to be covering their butts, first and foremost. One thing you will virtually never hear the tower controller especially the supervisor say is that they were wrong and made a mistake. They have an O J complex and it is always going to be portrayed as the pilots fault. However, if you word it very carefully, maybe you can approach it on the basis of how can the communication be more clear for next time? ,and less about who was at fault this time. Do know that both the radio transmissions and your phone call are recorded and can be used against you. Now if you are pretty sure that you are in the right and the tower used the wrong call sign or gave you the wrong runway or some such, you can ask to have a copy of these recordings. They are required to give them to you, and if they are in the right, they won't object. You can tell pretty redily if they are in the wrong as they will not be eager to give you the recording and may suggest instead just talking to you. DON'T LET THEM DESTROY THE TAPE IF IT IS A MAJOR OFFENSE, AND MIGHT BECOME A LEGAL MATTER.
Years ago I took off in my T-34 and found that a wing tank fuel cap was leaking. No big deal, not a fire or even a fire hazzard so I told the tower I was returning for landing. The controller got very excited,and asked if I had an emergency. I very clearly said no, not emergency, just returning to land. The controller can and did declare an emergency anyway and I landed to find fire truck, etc. coming out. In discussion the tower seemed to hold a grudge that I had not gone along with their call of an emergency and there were some implied threats until I asked for the tower tapes. They were not happy, but gave me the tapes and then backed off. They did code the tapes in such a way so that they would not play on a regular cassete, but I did have them for my lawyer if it got to that point. I have had a sometimes adversarial dealing with our tower every since as they do seem to hold a grudge and definitely don't like anyone who sees something other than their view.