Well I’m halfway done my 4 hours of solo time in the practice area so I needed to do another checkout flight. I went up with Brad yesterday which was nice, seems like I haven’t seen the guy in a long time.
Yesterday was yet another bonehead day for me, at least at the beginning of the flight. I listened to the ATIS before calling up clearance (as usual) and found out what the information identifier was…I think it was Hotel. Anyways, called up clearance but they couldn’t hear me because of my position, so after Brad jumped in, I moved forward a bit and then called them back. Well by this time my infamous short term memory was failing me and so when it came time for me to tell them that I had the information, I said, and I quote, “…with information…ah crap I can’t remember…”. Needless to say, that didn’t go over so well. Clearance replied with, “You’re not allowed to say crap on the radio.” Which naturally wasn’t a surprise to me…it was just a surprise that I had actually said it. Oh well, yet another live and learn type situation.
After that, the rest of the flight went pretty good. Go out to the practice area and showed Brad a little slow flight. Then we did some steep turns and a few stalls. Brad pulled out the power at one point, I looked at him and said, “what the heck are you doing?” while I pushed the throttle back open. “Hello…engine failure!” he says as he closes the throttle again. Oops. :)
On the way back I headed out over the quarry but was told that the runway had changed and I had to head back over the river towards BC so I could join the left base for runway 04. It was raining slightly at this point and Brad explained to me that because of the rain it may look like we’re coming in high when in fact we would be coming in low. I didn’t notice that, to be honest, and just landed the plane. :)
So all in all not a bad day, except for the crap comment. :) I’m hoping the weather is good enough today for some more solo flight. We’ll see.
Well, he said it on the radio too! Also recall my previous post about what happens when the controllers go out flying. :) If you forget the identifier just say “With the numbers”. It sounds cool plus you don’t have to remember the actual letter.
Also, good reflexes on the power setting, if any of your passengers ever do that on you be sure to push it back in, don’t just start your forced approach :)