Cielo Duro (chronicles of PPL license in Italy)

Hello everybody,

since very seldom I see posts from italian pilots, although we (the
italians) have a good reputation among flying community, I would like to
share my short experience as training pilot in Italy.
A week ago I did my last training flight, which was a crosscountry solo
flight of 160 NM, with 2 intermediate landings. A few things went not as
expected: I lost the course for a while following a non istinctive VOR
reading, and on the last leg I was oblidged to divert to another airport
due to wind exceeding 45 kts in the planned field. But what bothered me
most is what happened upon landing in the first leg. Runway in use was 16
and since I was inbound from north I asked for a straight in approach,
which was approved by AFIS. I was number 1 although another traffic was
joining from the east the downwind leg. Ok I did not pay much attention to
the other traffic because I am the rookie here, so I concentrated on the
landing. 1 NM from THR I see another plane crossing my path left to right
just a hundred feet in front of me. Was the other traffic doing the base
turn, he did not see me at all, and proceeded on final. I performed a
missed approach, and radioed that another plane was on the the runway (uh?
Ah sorry, we did not see him.). On the ground I did not exchange words with
the pilot, (he was experienced, judging by his age) but the ******* was
very close to cause a collision.
Does things like those happen that frequently?

Nirodh wrote:

and since I was inbound from north I asked for a straight in approach,
which was approved by AFIS.

AFIS must not approve anything. AFIS is pure informational without any
authority. If AFIS used the word "approved", he screwed up, which occurs
surprizingly often. (To our US-based friends: AFIS doesn't exist in the
USA.)

Does things like those happen that frequently?

Yes. The first rule for pilots is "never assume", i.e. never assume that
the other pilots will act reasonably.

Stefan