Sunday, May 1, 2011

Reality Bites

Last training flight, the sign-off before scheduling the FAA check ride.  Confident, I started the engine and taxied out for take off.  That was the last good thing that happened all day.

The instructor asked me to do the ILS approach to McKinney, a procedure I've done perhaps 40 times.  This time, I flew right through the localizer without even seeing the needle move.  Coming back onto course (hard to do when I'm used to having an ADF that points at the final approach fix (FLUENT)), I passed the Outer Marker, and went full scale - automatic missed approach.  Coming back to the OM, I made a mess of the hold, and then the sloppiest localizer approach that TKI has ever seen.

It just went downhill from there.  Poor steep turns, I was behind the airplane and out of sorts.  Only the unusual attitude recovery went at all well.  Needless to say, I wasn't signed off, and at the moment I feel very discouraged and depressed.

2 comments:

Gary said...

We all have those days....hang in there.

As I told the kids on the baseball team, "flush it down the toilet" You can't perform or handle whats about to happen if you're stuck thinking about what is past.

Good luck with the ride, you will do an outstanding job!

D.B. said...

Good advice. I did a second ride, with better (but not good enough) results. I'm trying to get my Sundowner's insurance set up so that I can fly 49C instead of the schools Cessna 172s,, thinking that if I fly something I'm familiar with and instrumentation I know well, it will reduce one level of workload, so that I can concentrate more on flying and teaching. If that doesn't work, then I have bigger problems than simply "new airplane & new instruments/GPS" while also learning and demonstrating new skills.