Does everyone do this?

I was more than a little happy after my last flight, taking my brother on a brunch trip to Muskoka. It was the first flight where I’d had to do the flight planning for real, where I’d had to deal with flight plans and flight services and proper navigation and all that jazz.

I was mildly elated that we made it there in one piece, despite the blustery north winds trying their best to shake the controls out of my hands. It was a high workload flight for sure and for the most part I did OK, I mean I got myself, two passengers and the plane there and back intact.

I even managed some funky stuff on return to city, but in reflection now I see so many things that I could have done better, some things I didn’t even think of at all and some things that I deferred to Bob’s judgement perhaps more than I should have.

Before this flight I was convinced that I was well on my way to getting that license, I was a pilot; dammit and nothing was going to stop me. It was just a matter of time.

Now, in reflection, I’m once again daunted by the epic scale of the task ahead of me. In terms of conquering that mountain, I’ve barely made base camp.

Does everyone pull their own performance apart like this, or am I just overly critical?

Lesser known items…

…In a conference organisers purse.

Flashlight – you can guarantee that light switches and IT connector panels are hidden in totally inaccessible places. Parking lots are also scary places when you are the last one to leave at night

Screwdriver/multi tool – the above normally need some kind of connector reconnecting or dodgy wire reattaching.

Hammer – useful for a number of reasons, this session it has been mostly used for breaking up bags of ice (I’m organiser, caterer and cleaner on this event). It has other uses. I’m not saying anymore ;)

A smile – obligatory  at all times- sometimes needs faking.

Not what I meant.

I was sat here being the conference host type person looking yearningly upwards.

The sky was blue, the temperature above freezing, the winds light.

I was gutted that I wasn’t going to get airborne this week.  I want to fly, I want to get back into my training regime. I want to debrief the last flight with Bob, honestly without an audience present.

I was almost dreading today, another day of yearning at the wide blue yonder.

Well, it snowed, it rained, the winds are due to be 30 odd knots.

This really wasn’t what I had in mind at all weather.

Go home winter, you’ve really outstayed your welcome.

Stuck

Am at work, am going to be here all weekend, being the happy smiling face of my employer.

Normally I enjoy running conferences but this one is leaving me a little flat.

Maybe it’s because I’m hosting on behalf of someone else, so this isn’t my baby.

Maybe it’s because they are all theatre-arty types

Maybe it’s because this particular workshop isn’t a revenue earner

Maybe it’s because Spring seems to be slowly pushing through and I don’t get to fly this weekend

Stuck here. Want to be elsewhere

Missing the blindingly obvious

Just when I think I’m getting on top of all this stuff and might just be getting slight less behind my instructor than normal, Bob throws a curveball my way.

OK, so this time it wasn’t so much him being deliberately tricky more me missing the blindingly obvious!

I was doing my very best to visually spot the landmarks I’d identified for our trip to Muskoka. Some were easy, Claremont for example, I’m fairly familiar with and Thorah Island in Lake Simcoe is blindingly obvious even when the lake is frozen. Others are a bit more tricky, I always struggle to correctly id Uxbridge and I’m not convinced I ever really spotted Sparrow Lake.

One thing I did spot (with a little prompting from Bob) was Orillia airport.. With a single east-west runway ploughed straight into the snow it was pretty obvious*. Once we were both happy that I had it in sight and was sure of my position on the chart, I went back to the important business of enjoying the view. A minute or so passes.

“So WMAP, if your engine quit now, what’s your plan?”

Ha, I’ve played this game before. I take brief look around me. “There’s a nice field at my 9 O’clock. Flat and square, means I can come at it from any direction.”

“okaaaaay,” contemplates Bob. 

Damn, this means I’ve missed something. “or, perhaps…..” he prompts.

Ah Crap !!!

“Ah, yeah, ermm I guess I probably could make the airport from here.”

Yes, airports are better than fields for landing. I think that’s generally considered to be one of the earlier lessons in learning to fly.

Talk about missing the blindly obvious.

  

* which makes this report a little bizarre to be honest

Not my fault this time.

Yay I’m famous (infamous?) in another CADOR report! This one totally not my fault. Full report is here

 Main jist of the text is below:

Winds variable from NW gusting 20kts, Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited (CAVU). A privately registered Piper PA-32RT on a local flight from Toronto/ Billy Bishop, ON (CYTZ) elected to land runway 26, blown front tire on landing, unable to exit, stopped at intersection runways 26 & 33. An Island Air Flight School & Charters Cessna 172S (C-GSAR) from Maskoka, ON (CYQA) to Toronto/ Billy Bishop, ON (CYTZ) on final runway 26 instructed to pull up, go around, orbit in downwind, not interested in using runway 24 nor orbiting over city. Runway 26 inspected, tow coordinated for Piper PA-32RT-300T. An Island Air Flight & Charters Cessna 172R (C-FJES), VFR on a local flight from Toronto/ Billy Bishop, ON (CYTZ) elected to depart runway 24. Spacing coordinated for Porter Airlines (POE724). Wind reduced to 8kts, C-GSAR elected to land runway 24. Runways operational 1758Z

Now I don’t have a huge amount to say about this but again the wording is odd, apparently I “wasn’t interested” in using 24 or orbiting over the city.

Let’s look at the facts, I was just completing a high workload and fairly long flight. Runway 26 would have been a reasonably sporty crosswind, 24 would have just been icky. The approach over the city had been bumpy enough to leave me wishing that I was wearing a sports bra!

No I really wasn’t “interested” in either of those options. As it was the landing on 24 was exciting enough.

Service with a smile

I took on many firsts during this flight, the subtleties of many of them will probably escape most of you but I have to give a special shout out to the fine people at London Flight Services. Thank you so much for making my dealings with you a total pleasure despite my nerves.

My first dealings with flight services was the usual weather briefing, a cheerful flight specialist confirmed my interpretation that any lower ceilings and scud would stick to the west and not bother me too much, we discussed the strong north winds and commiserated over the frigid temperatures, “at least it’s keeping the parachutists away!” they joked.

The next horror to contemplate was the flight plan. I’ve never filed a flight plan before, Bob’s sneakily filed one on my behalf, but I’ve never filed one myself. It’s not that difficult, you fill in a paper form with various bits of info and then phone up Flight Services to file it. You tend to leave the paper copy with dispatch so they know what you intend to do.

Both Bob and RTH have taken time to go through filling the paper form in with me. I was relatively confident about what goes where. Unfortunately neither of them could prepare me for the worst bit of the process, actually having to talk to someone on the phone. I don’t like this. I’m sure I may have mentioned this fact before!

I met Bob early to go through my planning, as we looked over the flight plan Bob was happy with what I’d done. “Am I really going to file a flight plan for this flight?” I asked, desperate to find a way out. Hoping against all hope that Bob’d confess it was all just a training exercise.

I picked up my phone. I looked at it. I looked at the flight plan. I looked back at Bob “I really don’t want to do this, “ I try one last ditch appeal to his better nature.

“You’ll be fine,” fixing me with a steady gaze, the implication being I’m not getting anywhere near a plane until I make that phone call

So I reluctantly call flight services, hesitantly I open with “Good morning, I’d like to file a flight plan please”

First question I’m asked is the plane’s registration. This I can do. So far, so good. They helpfully inform me that they already have some info on file for this plane. I’m asked to confirm the name of the flight school as the owner. I do so and instantly realise that the person on the other end probably has a fair idea that I’m a student. Relief washes over me as they lead the conversation, asking me for the bits of info that they don’t have. Infinitely patient as I struggle through the fact that they are skipping some sections of the flight plan, they don’t seem to be too bothered by the fact that occasionally I suspect I’m answering a different question to the one they are asking.

Flight plan filled they chirpily wish me a good flight and I gratefully hang up. Actually it was relatively painless.

Onwards and upwards.

My next encounter is once I’m airborne and out of City’s control zone. I need to contact London Radio and confirm my flight plan has been opened and revise my time airborne. Once again I’m hesitant. Unlike my dealings  with City Tower, I’m not sure how this conversation will work out. I’m used to City’s radio chatter. I know its forms and patterns. I know how it works, this is unknown territory.  I stumble my way through the call without any major issues and once again am confronted by a polite and cheerful person on the other end of the radio. Again my relief is palpable.

At the half way point I brave another call, this time with a VFR position report. Once again, new territory for me and once again the radio operator infinitely patient as I blunder my way through the call, one eye on my knee board. On the ground my notes made perfect sense. In the air, wrestling with a laden plane in bumpy weather, the nuances escape me.

My dealings on the way back are similarly uneventful. The operators cheerful and helpful, prompting me for information when I neglect to provide it. At some point it occurs to me that maybe these people actually like talking to pilots, maybe they are genuinely pleased to be offering this service. Unlike the hectic control zone around City, where the more you shut up the more ATC like you, these people actually seem to want to talk to you.

Let’s wrap it up to say that I’m very grateful to everyone from LFS that I dealt with today, you left me with a very positive experience and it means that I’m not worried at all about dealing with you in the future. In fact I’ll actually try to match your cheer and good humour, please understand I was a little stressed out this time.

Still, I  hope I gave you a little bit of a giggle when I got my radio frequencies mixed up and was still on your frequency when making a radio call that went like this “Simcoe traffic this is Golf Sierra Alpha Romeo, currently…….oh crap!”