Post-Flight Thoughts

As much as I hated posted about my bad flight last night, I'm glad I'm keeping a record of this. Not only to help other budding pilots, like myself, but to help myself as well. Really helps go back and read over stuff.

I read over last night's entry and the entry about my best flight, comparing them. One thing that came to mind was the landings. I took note yesterday about her landing - it didn't bounce much more than mine did the last time. Which maybe indicates that my landing wasn't as bad as I thought it was. It's hard to explain, but it really does feel different when you are in control. Not sure why exactly, but you feel every little nuance of the plane more. So to me, with my hands on the wheel, it felt like the plane bounced more than it actually did.

Secondly, after a friend read my last entry, she pointed out that maybe my disappointment came from not being allowed to do what I thought I could do. I remembering feeling that way during the first flight as well and I remember from the second flight that the joyous feeling stemmed from doing new stuff, being challenged and actually doing stuff. And maybe part of the disappointment came from feeling like I wasn't being listened to, like in the meeting I had with them (will update about that later, too). There were things wrong with that plane. Perhaps not catastrophic things that would cause it not to work right, but still things that were amiss. That's the purpose of the pre-flight check. Doesn't matter how big or small those things were - they are still important. Felt like maybe she overlooked them, due to running out of time and that's a BIG no-no in aviation. You ALWAYS need to take your time, especially when it comes to pre-flight. And maybe that's where my nervousness came from yesterday, even though I wasn't able to identify where it came from at the time. It wasn't just a different way of doing things, it was deviating from the set guidelines.

Regardless, I still need to take responsibility for my nervousness and own attitude. Not gonna blame her, the weather or the plane. And also, if skipping steps or having things amiss made me nervous, then I needed to speak up. That's one of the key things about being a pilot-in-command. It's YOUR responsibility to determine if the plane is air-worthy or not. That's one of the things on the final test, actually. Granted, I'm still new at this and put my trust in her and didn't realize at the time why I was so nervous. So I learn from this and know next time to speak up if something seems out of place.