One of my worst habits during extreme maneuvers (especially when Bob is demoing them) is to flail my arms around wildly and grab on to something, anything.
In a plane this is bad. The cockpit is kind of small; there isn’t much to hang on to that isn’t going to affect the handling of the plane in some way. Really there are only two things to grab; the control column (really bad if you are not the one in control at that point) or Bob (also bad if he is the one meant to be in control). I wonder if they teach flight instructors how to fly a plane with a screaming woman attached to your arm?
Yesterday had the potential to be a traumatic lesson, for we were doing spins. The worst thing is that I knew that we were going to be doing spins. I had a whole week to stew over it. I oh so nearly did not get on that ferry. Bob was under strict instructions to force me to experience a spin demo; otherwise I would let my anxiety build up to a point that I could never, ever bring myself to do them. The good news about spins is technically I only ever need to demonstrate the recovery once (it shouldn’t be on the flight test). The bad news is that I have to demonstrate recovery from a spin at least once!
Anyway long story short, combined with fairly large amounts of profanity (I’m sorry Bob, I really am but it just kind of slips out!), I did manage to demonstrate an adequate recovery from a spin. Without actually realizing it! You see Bob is fundamentally evil (please understand, this is a compliment!), he got me to practice recovery in stages, sharing the workload. On our last effort I was actually doing all the work and didn’t cotton on. Then he said those magic words “I consider that aspect of our lesson to have been successfully completed”. This of course led to another string of profanity, as in Thank #*#% I don’t have to do that again.
I will admit to being slightly proud of myself at this point.
*Kudos if you got the Lost in Space reference J
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