I should really think about giving up this aviation thing

[steingar]

My flight of weekend last was to be some landings and lunch. First landing was supposed to be on a north facing runway, so for reasons unexplainable to anyone including me I proceed to set up to land on the south facing runway.  Duh.  Caught it time, but still stupid.  My next landing I wound up badly out of position, too high and fast on downwind.  Just for fun I decided to see if I could make the landing (really intending to go-around), and indeed I did, albeit just a bit long.  The next take off certainly got my attention.  I'm pretty certain I forgot to redo the flaps and trim.  By the time I had the gear up I was about 3mph from a departure stall.  Of course, I would have had plenty of room to recover, I was climbing at around a thousand feet a minute.  Got it all back under control in little time, but still...

Rest of the flight was relatively uneventful, though my landing back at home base was a bit bumpy.  My worst flight in memory, other than the one that struck the prop.  

[Marauder]

My flight of weekend last was to be some landings and lunch. First landing was supposed to be on a north facing runway, so for reasons unexplainable to anyone including me I proceed to set up to land on the south facing runway.  Duh.  Caught it time, but still stupid.  My next landing I wound up badly out of position, too high and fast on downwind.  Just for fun I decided to see if I could make the landing (really intending to go-around), and indeed I did, albeit just a bit long.  The next take off certainly got my attention.  I'm pretty certain I forgot to redo the flaps and trim.  By the time I had the gear up I was about 3mph from a departure stall.  Of course, I would have had plenty of room to recover, I was climbing at around a thousand feet a minute.  Got it all back under control in little time, but still...
Rest of the flight was relatively uneventful, though my landing back at home base was a bit bumpy.  My worst flight in memory, other than the one that struck the prop.  

And this is the allure of aviation. The attempt to achieve perfection.


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[TonyK]

2 Our Fathers, 2 Hail Mary's and a trip around the pattern for you.  Go in peace.

[thinwing]

Hey everyone has a bad day...at least no bent metak

[rbridges]

Yeah, you suck.  Thank goodness I've never made any mistakes flying.  

[Andy95W]

You recognized the mistakes and still had the guts to post it here for all to see.  That shows a dedication to improvement- which is one of the hallmarks of professionalism.

You've learned, you'll do better next time, and you're a better pilot for it.  Good for you.

 

[INA201]

Anyone take off on one mag? Not me of course, just asking. I bet if you did though you would wonder why the plane won't climb. You might also do a nice and easy 180 back to the airport to figure out why it feels like DA is 15,000 feet.

[RobertGary1]

Aviation is like golf. If you could hit for par everytime you'd lose interest 

-Robert

Edited August 28, 2017 by RobertGary1

[Mooneymite]

I know the "Mooneyspace spirit" is to encourage and to promote sticking to it.  However, sometimes that little voice inside you is telling you something you need to pay attention to.

It is a fact that not everyone is pilot material.

Recognizing a shortcoming and avoiding a deadly demise in a fiery crash by pursuing something else may be the best Aeronautical Decision one ever makes....but you have to make that determination.

(Apologies to the Mooneyspace spirit.)

[Tommy]

Yes it's amazing how tolerable sometimes Mooney is to our mistakes - kludos to the engineers for adding in some margin when it comes to performance. Many airline crashes happened because flap or slat weren't set properly. 

 

Your issue is purely a human factor one. Namely, the lack of perefct memory and the tendency of getting distracted. Luckily the solution is already been invented and it's a cheap one: using checklist for all phases of the flight - no matter how experienced you are and how time-limited or how simple the tasks are. And maybe add an item to your decent / approach checklist  - putting your course to the runway heading so the CDI line mimics the runway with the course arrow indicating the runway heading. 

[rbridges]

25 minutes ago, INA201 said:

Anyone take off on one mag? Not me of course, just asking. I bet if you did though you would wonder why the plane won't climb. You might also do a nice and easy 180 back to the airport to figure out why it feels like DA is 15,000 feet.

Slow climb could be flaps you didn't forget to raise. Lol

[steingar]

Just now, Tommy said:

Your issue is purely a human factor one. Namely, the lack of perefct memory and the tendency of getting distracted. Luckily the solution is already been invented and it's a cheap one: using checklist for all phases of the flight - no matter how experienced you are and how time-limited or how simple the tasks are. And maybe add an item to your decent / approach checklist  - putting your course to the runway heading so the CDI line mimics the runway with the course arrow indicating the runway heading. 

You are of course correct, and normally I do use a checklist for the runup every time, and that's when I reset flaps and trim.  I don't have a checklist for just bringing the airplane around for another try, I don't do a runup if the engine hasn't been turned off.  Usually I have no problem remembering to do everything.  I imagine that the harm sacrum landing previous distracted me to the point where I forgot.

Maybe I should just stop doing these multiple landing sorties to improve my proficiency and just stick to long flights with one landing at a the end.

[flyboy0681]

He who is without sin...

I've had my share of foul ups but luckily am still here to tell the stories. One thing is for sure however, each of the situations that I got myself into are things of the past because they still linger enough (some of them after 30 years) to make me mindful to not do it again. Case in point, back in 1982 I was flying through an airport traffic area and was told by the tower to pass overhead at 2,500 feet. When I flew over the airport I was asked to verify my altitude, at which time I noticed it was 1,500. I got the Brasher call but the incident was never pursued. To this very day I constantly monitor my altitude under similar circumstances, all because of that one day during the summer of '82.

 

[Tommy]

"Usually I have no problem remembering to do everything." 

Here in lies your problem.

ps.it happens to all of use,last month during my BFR, I left the pump going for a good 3 minutesand flap at take off after a go around in a hilly country air strip battling a 35knot gust. It's only when I do a cruise checklist I realised it. But I remembered I didn't call out aircraft clean after take off. 

[TTaylor]

Might help to list some of your background.  Age, total hours in aircraft, hours in Mooney's, hours in the last 12 year, etc.  Mooneymite raises important issues.  Is this something new or have you always had issues with staying ahead of the airplane.  At one time were you comfortable and now it is more difficult?  

[nels]

Don't feel too bad, last week I landed with the auto pilot still on. I really thought the wind was playing with me. I landed ok and then realized why I had so much difficulty. I'm glad it happened this time and all was ok...but I learned something and... it won't happen again.

[mooneyspeed]

55 minutes ago, TTaylor said:

Might help to list some of your background.  Age, total hours in aircraft, hours in Mooney's, hours in the last 12 year, etc.  Mooneymite raises important issues.  Is this something new or have you always had issues with staying ahead of the airplane.  At one time were you comfortable and now it is more difficult?  

I agree.   How often do you fly or how long do you go in between flights?

[Raptor05121]

The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" and "Oh S--t!!!!"

In the span of one takeoff I've said 1 and 3 at the same time.I forgot to bring the gear up once. A quick visual scan confirmed why she was climbing like a dog. Thankfully it hasn't happened the other way around.
 

[steingar]

1 hour ago, mooneyspeed said:

I agree.   How often do you fly or how long do you go in between flights?

I am a VFR only pilot. Hence I only fly in VFR weather. My aircraft was down for 9 months due to a prop strike that was entirely my fault.  I got it back in May and since have put on a little more than 25 hours.  Every weekend with good Wx I either fly a trip or go find some runways to land. I tend to fly 40-50 hours a year. It's been pretty constantly that since the turn of the century.

I bought the Mooney as a travel aircraft and have achieved my mission to some degree. My plan is to add an IFR GPS ( bought here on Mooneyspace!) and an ADSB transponder to turn it into an IFR trainer and learn to fly IFR. I think it important taking trips in a fast airplane in a part of the country that gets lots of weather.

[Skates97]

I have taken off without the electric fuel pump on, forgot to reset to takeoff trim, forgot to set altimeter, forgot to set directional gyro before take off, lined up on the left runway instead of right once but tower questioned me on about a 2 mile final, and I'm sure a number of other things. I'm still a low time guy, around 175 hours total with about 115 of that in my Mooney over the last 9 months. I think what you need to do is slow down when you are on the ground and use your checklists religiously. In the air it is hard to "slow down" but that is when you have to plan ahead and get through your checklists a little early. In cruise review your descent checklist, once established in a descent review your landing checklist, etc... I have found that when I am complacent thinking "I'm good" and don't pay close attention to the checklists is when mistakes start happening. Verbalizing the checklists when I go through them is also a big help. 

[Firebird2xc]

8 hours ago, steingar said:

My flight of weekend last was to be some landings and lunch. First landing was supposed to be on a north facing runway, so for reasons unexplainable to anyone including me I proceed to set up to land on the south facing runway.  Duh.  Caught it time, but still stupid.  My next landing I wound up badly out of position, too high and fast on downwind.  Just for fun I decided to see if I could make the landing (really intending to go-around), and indeed I did, albeit just a bit long.  The next take off certainly got my attention.  I'm pretty certain I forgot to redo the flaps and trim.  By the time I had the gear up I was about 3mph from a departure stall.  Of course, I would have had plenty of room to recover, I was climbing at around a thousand feet a minute.  Got it all back under control in little time, but still...

Rest of the flight was relatively uneventful, though my landing back at home base was a bit bumpy.  My worst flight in memory, other than the one that struck the prop.  

Don't beat yourself up.  The really bad pilots make mistakes like that and then write them off with excuses. You are holding yourself accountable and seeking wisdom.

If I may make a suggestion, I think you'd really benefit from some chair flying and some concentrated standardization. You can put together (or your CFI if you aren't sure) a core set of functional flows and checklists.  Sit in the seat in the hangar, or at home in a chair with a reasonable mockup of your panel and practice procedures.  Do this until you can run them from memory, then use the checklists anyways.  Make callouts to yourself just like you were a two pilot crew.  Make sure you're really looking and checking indications when you need to.  Drill until you cannot get it wrong... and this goes double for emergency procedures.

All of this will reduce mental load in high workload or critical moments.  Standardization with scripted flows is how a lot of professional aviation does it and it does a lot to help manage things.    I think it would help.

[gsxrpilot]

I'll go the other way. Don't change a thing, just go flying again. You'll not make those same mistakes again and you'll be a better pilot.

[Alan Fox]

Not sure why everyone has missed the obvious , but how recent have you done training with an instructor ,  Unfortunately the first victim of complacency seems to be training , A good instructor will point out your deficiencies , and suggest remedies for them......Not going to tell you not to stop flying , Don't know you , never flew with you , and you may be spot on with the decision to stop flying , But if you decide to continue flying , sounds like you should continue to do training ,     Good luck , whatever you decide.....

[jlunseth]

All of the above.  But it does sound like there should be more focus on checklists and flows.  I use one religiously, and the more hours I put in, the more items get added.  If I find myself prone to missing something, it gets put in red in the checklist.

[Shiny moose]

I have flown with many people, many different airplanes, everyone makes mistakes. Any pilot that tells you that they have never screwed up, forgot something, got confused, needs to have a memory check completed. The idea is to keep the big mistakes out ( stall spin, collision, CFIT ) , and never let the small mistakes( everything else ) pile up in your head to allow the big mistake to happen. take a trusted pilot/CFI with you, to help make this fun. It's suppose to be fun right


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