Long Time No See, and An Aborted Takeoff

"I know, I know. It's been a long time, but I don't want you to blame yourself for this. It's not you, it's me. Please don't feel bad. It's not that I think we should part ways, I just felt that we needed some time apart, baby. You know... sometimes I need time to myself. I get busy... and you... you get needy, we get boring together baby, and I just have to leave for a while. But I'm back now, baby. I'm back for good. And I'm ready to treat you right baby. I'm a new man. Please baby, give me another chance. Please?"

Ever heard that before? I know, me neither. But I felt like injecting some good ol' humor into this blog. It went missing for a while.

By the way, don't you hate it when people apologize on their blog for not updating their blog often enough? I do too! So... the above paragraph was not an apology, it was consolation. I hope everyone feels better now. Can we move on?

So, I've been flying a good amount for the past few weeks. I'd say an average of a couple of times a week. I've been flying by myself, and with my instructor, continuing to learn new exercises. When I fly by myself, I'm still only allowed to fly circuits with normal, soft field and and short field landings and take-offs, with obstructions. But, I'm not yet allowed to venture away from the airport. That privilege comes after I'm efficient at doing precautionary and forced landings.

It's a lot of information I wrote in the paragraph above, but I'll break it down a bit.

To start off, I have a good story from today. I was booked to fly solo today, just to practice circuits. I did as I do every time, walk around, got into the airplane, turned things on, checklists, etc. Everything went smoothly, and after I got permission, I began taxiing to the active runway.

During my taxi, the communications radio was giving me trouble. There was an intermittent loud, squelching noise, but I figured it would go away, and it eventually did. It did keep on coming back and forth as I was taxiing and waiting to be cleared to take off. The takeoff clearance eventually came, and as I lined up the airplane on the runway and pushed the throttle in, the noise came back in full force.

I was then faced with a decision: Do I continue the takeoff knowing that I'll be in the air with the possibility of not being able to (or having great difficulty) communicate with the tower, or do I cut the throttle and abort the takeoff while I can?

Well, before you can say (insert whatever word it is someone would say that people say when they say this phrase), I cut the throttle, put on the breaks, made sure that I still had total control of the airplane, and that the airplane was safe, and then, over the squelching noise, I told tower that I'm "aborting takeoff due to radio failure". As I said that, The nice air traffic control lady at the tower was patient and understanding, and calm.

Aborting this takeoff was not not as bad as it sounds. I realized that I wasn't comfortable to get in the air right away, and there was still plenty of runway left to stop the airplane. Aborting takeoffs can become dangerous under certain circumstances. The longer you wait, the more dangerous it becomes to abort a takeoff, due to runway length, breaking distance, and being close to the airplane's rotation speed.

An interesting thing to note is that aborting takeoffs is much less common than aborting landings. Takeoffs are considered a more critical time than landings. This is because when landing, an airplane is already in the state it wants to be in - flying. The most stable state for an airplane to be in is flying high and fast. While landing does require the airplane to fly low and slow, it is still in a less critical state than the transition of an airplane on the ground, close to it's rotation (takeoff) speed. The airplane is not as stable at this time, and is actually close to a state of stalling.

Whoa, I went off on a tangent there. Anyway, I didn't get to fly today, but I did learn a valuable lesson - my own personal limits and comfort, while being faced with split-second decision making situations. These kinds of situations are hard to find, for me at least, in normal day to day life. It is why I love flying... It's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna etc. And you better role with the punches.

I still have to talk to you about precautionary landings and forced landings - two procedure-heavy exercises with lots of big words and interesting maneuvers. We will cover these exercises in the next post, which I promise won't be too far off from now.

Thanks for reading.

Post-publication note: I've just been rudely informed that I have been accused of ripping off my girlfriends' blog in my first paragraph. To this, I can only respond by rejecting this false accusation and stating that I have never once actually read my girlfriends' blog. I just tell her I do, because she's so needy that way. Read her blog though, it's a good one.

On Deciding When to Remain Grounded

At this point of my flight training, it's hard for me to describe the kind of focus that I need to attain in order to feel comfortable flying an airplane by myself.

(Isn't that quite the opening sentence for a blog post? Poignant, to the point, with a bit of melodrama thrown in. Not to be confused with Melo-drama...)

That is why today, as I held the keys to the airplane I would be flying, I decided to give them back.

I've had a lot of things on my mind. Things that don't relate to flying. Things that everyone goes through at one time or another. But I suppose it's my time to go through them. Things that are potentially lifestyle-changing, finances and living situations. Some people don't let those things get in the way. But in my own experiences, situations such as these do affect my clarity of mind.

And so today was a very important lesson learned for me. Not that I learned it through a mistake, for second chances in the air are hard to come by.

I got to the airport about a half hour earlier than my booking. I knew I needed to do performance calculations, weight and balance calculations, as well as be grilled on emergency procedures by a duty-pilot, which is part of flying solo for students.

I'm not going to go into great detail, for I fear I may lose your interest, but through doing the calculations, trying to remember emergency procedures, and trying to get myself psyched up for flying, I could tell something was off with me. I had to re-do a few of my calculations, I had to brush up on my emergency procedures because I answered wrong when I was questioned about a procedure. I was at the airport for about an hour and a half before I was finally given the go-ahead to fly. As I stated above, once I got the keys, I decided that I better stay grounded today.

I've read some about the importance of not flying if you're lacking sleep, if you are sick, or if there are other big worries in your life. It's a common topic that comes up in the industry. Fatigue has been documented to cause many accidents in the air, as has an unfocused mind. I think having that knowledge influenced my decision of not to fly today.

I was given the choice of whether to fly or not. In the end I decided not to, but it was a close call. I contemplated it for a while, but looking back, the decision should have been easier and quicker. I think that as jumbled as my brain was, because of other worries, I had a hard time even getting my head wrapped around a decisions as small as flying or not. In the end though, sound judgement pulled through.

Funny enough, this feels as important a lesson as I have learned since I began my training. Thought it was a bit embarrassing to give the keys back and tell the duty-pilot that I'm probably not fit to fly, I'm still glad I did it. Who knows? Chances are it would all be fine, really. Chances are that I'd realize I'm sitting in a tin can with wings and it's up to me to fly it, and I'd focus right there and then. But there are no second chances in the sky.

In the past I've stated that flying keeps me grounded - almost like meditation. In the past, flying has made me forget about small worries, and made me focus on an exhilarating experience. But how about this for change? Sometimes staying grounded, will keep me flying.

This is one weird blog post. Sorry you had to go through that.

Shout-out to Adam! Thanks for your support, on AND off the court!

Another First... should have thought about it that way

A picture I snapped after my first solo "lesson". Can you see the total bewilderment in my eyes? Look deep. Look hard.

Hello Person!

I had another lesson today. I use the word "lesson" loosely, as it was just me and the airplane this time. Though, I'm sure that in the future, referring to renting an airplane and flying it on my own as a "lesson", will come in handy, as it will remind me that what I should be doing is practicing, getting better at the art of flying, instead of just flying around.

Regardless, today was the first time I rented an airplane on my own, and was responsible for it from the time I ignited the engine to the time I turned it off.

It caught me by surprise, as I took off for the first time today, that I felt quite anxious. It was that feeling that I talk about in prior posts, of not feeling comfortable in the airplane, not being one with it. Kind of wishing that the lesson would be over. It shouldn't have surprised me though. I should know by now that these feelings will happen from time to time. Taking into account that it was a "first" for me, and that I hadn't flown in almost two weeks, and that it was only my second time flying an airplane on my own... I should have seen it coming.

On to the lesson though. Before Dispatch gave me the keys to the plane, they tested me thoroughly, making sure all my paperwork is in order and that I have all my performance calculations and weight & balance calculations in order. They also asked me some questions about emergency procedures and normal procedures, that in all honesty, I didn't answer as well as I thought I knew them. It's ok. It's part of the process I suppose, but it's something that I'll have to study and improve on for next time. Regardless, I answered the questions, or maybe corrected my answers, well enough that they gave me the keys to the airplane in the end.

For the flight itself, I decided I would just work on normal circuits today, just to acquaint myself and get used to flying on my own. I ended up only doing three circuits before I called it quits. This was due mainly to heavy traffic. After every circuit, I needed to wait in a line-up of airplanes waiting to take off, which cut into my flying time a whole bunch today. That fact, coupled with the fact that after three circuits, I felt like I had enough for today, resulted in me only being in the air for a half hour (0.5 hrs) today. Figuring that it was my first "lesson" alone today, I think it was the right call. I have another booking for Thursday, where I can hopefully fly some more, but for the first time doing this, I learned enough in that half hour.

In the second circuit that I flew, there was lots of traffic ahead of me in-line to land. When I got to the place where I usually turn for the base leg, I called the tower to tell them I'm turning base. The tower informed me that I will have to extend my down-wind, due to traffic ahead of me (on final approach). What they meant, was that I have to wait before my turn to base, in order to keep the right spacing. And so, I extended the down-wind far beyond the point where I usually turn to base. After about 30 seconds of extending the down-wind leg, I got permission to turn to base, and I did so. But when I tried to look out the window for the airport, I couldn't find it. Funny what a 30 second difference will do in an airplane.

I made sure not to panic at this point. I did know the relative direction the airport would be at, but I just couldn't spot it at the moment, and so I flew that direction. At the point the tower told me that I'm cleared to land, I decided to make the relatively embarrassing call to the tower. Paraphrasing, it went something like this:
Me: "Buttonville Tower, this is Romeo Foxtrot India, I'm a student pilot, and I can't find the airport."

At the moment I said that, I found the airport. It was to my right. I wasn't that far off the approach path of the runway, but I did need to adjust my heading, and make a slight right turn. This happened because I didn't fly the base-leg long enough. In other-words, I kind of cut a corner too short there.

By the time I realized all of this, the tower responded to me "Romeo Fox India, no worries, I see you there to the East of the airport, just make a slight right turn."

I responded that I found my bearings.

While the feeling of being "lost" was not a fun one to experience, it was still an experience. It would happen at some point. Better to happen sooner than later, I think. And it might still happen again, as I believe my weakest suite of piloting, is navigation. Just another thing to work on.

I'll mention that I also forgot to do my pre-landing check list because of the whole commotion. Not to worry though, I did it on final, and everything went smoothly. As stated above, all of my landings today were very smooth. I also made sure to thank the all-mighty tower person for his help, before I left his frequency.

Hopefully I get back to myself on Thursday. See you then.