It seems
that I have written about the type accidents that are occurring over and over
again. Things like forgetting to lower the gear, or crashing alongside or off
the runway in the weeds because of inattention. No one wants to read about them
again. And, I don’t feel like dealing with them now either. So I am just going to
relate some flight adventures of my own. Yes, maybe I will repeat myself.
Remembering
some of my earliest flights as a young student or a neophyte private pilot,
makes me laugh and groan a bit. For instance shortly after getting my private
ticket, I invited three of my buddies for a short flight to the coast. Taking
off from Tewksbury, MA., on runway 21, I dutifully turned south according to
the DG (directional gyro). After a short while I noted the hills were getting
more prominent and wondered why. Finally cross checking the DG with the compass
I figured it out. I had set the DG off by 180 degrees. Nowadays, many DG’s are automatically
linked with the proper magnetic heading, eliminating this sort of error. By the
way, the trip finally went well, and we landed at Cape Cod and had a good swim.
One other
incident remains solidly embedded in my personal flight computer. I was making
a flight check for my instrument rating with an instructor friend of mine, in
an Aztec. We had done several approaches and touch and go’s and were on a final
flight. This had been a no gyro approach to simulate instrument failure. I
guess the additional stress of doing something unusual contributed to my
forgetting to complete my pre-landing check list. As a result as I was about to
touch down the instructor calmly said: “ Aren’t you going to put the gear
down?”. Wow, did that make an impression, as I added power and went around. I
never again failed to complete the pre-landing check list and drop the gear. Yes,
I firmly believe in check lists. Just keep them as simple as possible, and use
them faithfully.
That’s it
for now. Fly often and safely.
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