I was turning final with another aircraft on the runway getting ready to take off. Because he was on the runway while I was making the turn to land, I made the mistake of taking my attention off my aircraft and focusing on him. This is a bad thing because the number one thing to remember when flying a plane is to first FLY THE DAMNED PLANE. Everything else is secondary.
The mantra of a pilot is: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. In that order.
So while I was paying attention to what he was doing, my instructor calmly informed me that I was nose high, the plane had slowed to 45kts (it flies at 60kts) and we were dropping rapidly toward the ground. Once I put a little gofast juice into the engine, pushed the nose down and picked up some speed, we recovered nicely, touched down on the runway and then headed back into the air at full throttle
He's a good instructor and now I am a slightly better student.
And for the record, the FAA sent me my Student Pilot Certificate today so I guess it's now official.
In case you want to know what a Student Pilot Certificate means, it means if you and I are ever on an airliner together and the pilots suddenly become incapacitated, I'm no more qualified than you are to fly the plane.
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The Small Emergency Backup Dog spotted this creature in our back yard this afternoon.
It's a Great Horned Owl fledgling and I'm hoping it's made our small patch of woods it's home. I'm hoping this because he/she will significantly decrease the general chipmonk population.
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I'm going to get into my stretchy pants and settle in to watch some baseball.
While I do that, you can click on these links:
- Key phrase in this story: "while supplies last".
- How much does it cost us every time they have to rescue this idiot?
- Key phrase in this story: "something went wrong."
- Chalk one up for the good guys.
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