Despite my trying every tactic I could possibly think of to talk
myself out of flying, and despite the ignominy of having to abort my prestart
procedures to grab my headset from the back seat, the actual flight wasn’t as
bad as I thought.
Despite my initial misgivings, I rapidly realised that I didn’t
actually care that the person sitting beside me wasn’t Bob. I really thought
that was going to freak me out but it honestly didn’t. I made the decision, conscious
or otherwise, to just do what I needed to do.
Again I appeared to have decided to talk through the flight,
although I settled for a commentary on what I was doing and why rather than my
usual every-second-word-is-an-expletive. This was a decision I was to be commended for
later.
The actual mock flight test itself was kinda ….. well okay
actually. I mean I just took it one exercise at a time as a million people have
advised me to. Very little in the debrief came as a surprise to me. I know what
I need to work on and well, yeah it’s doable. I don’t think it is beyond me.
I’m flying with Bob very soon. I’m sure TOI will have filled him in
on all the gory details but I don’t think anything will come as a surprise to
Bob either. I’m hoping that although it wasn’t a perfect flight he’ll be kinda
happy with the outcome.
I know I am.
Hi , Your last sentence says it all.
ReplyDeleteYou must have had an idea of how it went , otherwise you'll be saying that you should have done this , should have done that etc. I don't see much evidence of this 'kicking yourself' in the above.
Obviously you didn't make any mistakes so bad that TOI had to take over the controls for you , and the debrief (hope it didn't involve clothes ;-) ) wasn't too surprising.
If the instructors didn't think you are capable of passing the exam ,then they wouldn't recommend you take it.
Just work on your self-confidence a bit , WE all know you are capable of doing this , RTH knows , Bob knows and I know.
Believe me , I have had over 40 years worth of Piloting experience from 747's to flying the Concorde , so I have seen a lot of students become great pilots , and there's no reason why you can't be one of them.
Sincerely
Joe Patroni
well good morning Mr Patroni
ReplyDeletealways a pleasure to hear from a pilot of your calibre.
You are correct of course. I'm generally happy with how it went. I've got a few more blog posts on the topic but a date has been set for the flight test .......