Tuesday July 21, 2009
Solo Cross country #2 is complete. This morning I flew from Lawrenceville to Macon Regional and from there to Milledgeville and finally back home to Lawrenceville. To preserve the integrity of this document, I'll be honest. Otherwise what's the point .. to look good? I did in fact screw up badly several times on this trip. But the silver lining is I recovered from those several screwups by myself (shamelessly spinning this to 'accidentally' look good). Here are the highlights.
(1) I got the runways at Macon backwards. I was supposed to set up to land on 5, but I set up on 23. Winds were calm so Macon tower told me to go ahead and take 23 at the last minute. I had to respond "unable, too high and fast" which I felt was the safe route. So, instead he had me fly the pattern into the correct runway. Silver lining: adapted safely and responsibly to a suprise situation and asserted my pilot in command judgment.
(2) I turned down the volume on Atlanta momentarily to hear the automated weather anouncement at Milledgeville .. and forgot to turn them back up. After the 3rd time calling them and receiving no response, I said "Atlanta, if you can hear me, I have Milledgeville in sight with Echo." Just then, I realized my error and raised their volume them only to catch the final part of an exasperated controller saying "THREE JULIET ALPHA. IF YOU CAN HEAR ME. FLIGHT SERVICES TERMINATED, HAVE A NICE DAY." Silver lining: What I experienced was a self-inflicted receiver failure, and I responded correctly by transmitting my intentions even though I was not receiving. Added bonus silver lining - the next time Atlanta Departure appears to be ignoring me, I'll know what's probably going on. That won't happen again.
(3) I bounced the final landing at LZU. I had too much energy on final and forced the flare .. all that energy has to go somewhere, so I skipped my way down the runway. Silver lining : I held it together and bad landings like that are the exception with me, not the rule .. and it was a learning experience. I should have let it ride out down the runway. You can't force it - especially a wispy Diamond that would just as soon take off again as touch down.
Remaining items: a few more hours of simulated IFR "hood time" and FAA test prep.
ETA for PPL: Augustish
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