I fought the map and the map won.

I thought I’d got this sorted but I really have got an organisational problem in the cockpit. Today, on top of everything else, I was having major problems just getting my chart to be usable. I’m fine if I’m working on the one panel and can get it folded up nice and tight and tuck it in the yoke clip. The second I need to unfold it though, it all goes to pot. I ended up dropping it at one point, I lost my pencil somewhere along the line and got completely lost because I didn’t have my map oriented correctly.

To be fair this was exacerbated by the problem that JPM doesn’t have front pockets, so I was already short on storage space. I’m having a really hard time with this cockpit management stuff; it is having a detrimental effect on my flying as well. I get distracted by the fact that things aren’t where they are meant to be, I spend too much time and energy p!ssing around with pencils, pens, charts and other paraphernalia that I stress about the flying aspect.

Last flight I tied myself in knots with it and much to Bob’s disgust, tucked it into the side of the dash and hoped for the best. That doesn’t work in case you were wondering! In the debrief, Bob scolded me for “giving up on my chart.” I suspect if he could have reached, he’d have smacked me round the head with it “you never, ever give up on the chart WMAP!”

I know he’s right but I suspect the chart has given up on me!