An anonymous forum to allow you to share those moments in flying that caused you concern. You can post without registering a username, registered users can log out to post
By Anon
Anonymous poster
#1419926
OK, not a big deal, this one, just a reminder ...

The club was short of an aircraft, but were doing their best to give everyone a flight, rather than cancel people. (Which I sort of approve of, in principle, I think. Beats the alternative, which is cancelling all your regular customers so you can keep the trial lessons going.)

Which meant that I got an aircraft somewhat later than my booked time (not a problem), and was asked to bring it back by xx00 for the next punter. Now I know that time pressure kills people, so my reply was along the lines of "sorry mate, it'll be back when it's back".

So I didn't take any short cuts, did I, knowing that way madness lies. Except that I did - I didn't bother to tune in and test all the nav gear on the ground, to save a couple of minutes, 'cos I could do that in the air, whilst still over completely familiar territory.

And when I did fire up the nav gear I discovered that (1) NAV1 wasn't working, and (2) NAV2 wasn't working, and (3) the GPS wasn't working. Good call, eh, not testing them on the ground.

In fact this was nothing other than a minor irritant - I had after all drawn some lines on the map, and I could stay below the cloud and navigate by looking out of the window. And the GPS fixed itself after a few minutes, and eventually I worked out that NAV2 was in some weird mode that I'd never seen before, and found a button to press to get it back to something I knew how to use. (Never did get NAV1 working though.)

Anyway, no harm done, but next time I'm in a hurry I really really won't take any short cuts.
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By Tristan
#1420073
I've also experienced this.. And whilst doing some Instrument Flying with an instructor (IR(R) Course without the test, just the syllabus) I've now got to appreciate not to rush checks etc. The reason I probably was rushing was because the engine was running and therefore the tacho was clocking, therefore I was being charged money for every turn of that dial, hence I was keen to get going as soon as possible.

I was then actually keeping an eye on the tacho whilst I was properly setting the aircraft up, Comms box, Instruments, Displays, Idents etc and the tacho hardly moved at 1200RPM.. So I then understood, I'd rather set up and test everything now, rather than in the air. Because it will save me time and possibly save my life when I'm in the air.

Yes, ok, there are times that you don't need to make sure the Nav's are selected, idented etc if you were only in the circuit, but still it's important to check everything is correct as it should. And.Always.Use.Your.Checklist... Every single time :) Follow it religiously!