I sort of forgot I needed to land

Today was a weird lesson. Looking back at my PTR I realized that the last time I was out at the practice area was July. So it’s been a while. I’ve almost forgotten how to get there!

Which was actually the point of today’s lesson. I need to start learning how to navigate my way to the practice area, prepping for the time when I’m cut loose on my own out there. Actually it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I am slowly starting to learn the local landmarks. I need to practice my position calls a bit more. I’m out of practice, more used to doing my circuit calls.

The original plan was to do some steep turns and some approach stalls. The cloud base wasn’t cooperating though. So we made it out to Claremont and decided to stick to steep turns instead. You could see there was a lot of moisture and precipitation in the air and to be honest it made me kind of nervous. That combined with the mechanical turbulence generated by the northerly winds made for slightly uncomfortable flying. It took me into about half the lesson before I felt comfortable. I haven’t felt that unsettled for a while.

Steep turns were fine, maybe more about that in another post. The fun came on the return journey. Navigating back is a lot easier, as long as you can see the big pointy thing you are good. Failing that you fly til you hit the shoreline and then make a right. I requested and was duly given an approach over the lake to runway 33.  Then ATC changed their mind, pushing me north of the CN tower. With some prompting from Bob, we declined their invitation to climb into the low cloud over the city and we maintained our altitude as requested.

I’ve never landed on 33 before, the approach is unfamiliar, and I’ve got no visual markers to fall back on.  Mentally I’d probably already set myself up to have a hard time. The main problem was I was already well high thanks to ATC. I wasn’t ahead of the plane and found myself having to dump altitude pretty damn quick.

To be 100% honest I was so far behind the plane I may as well have been in a different time zone. I didn’t make the mental transition from returning from the practice area to being back in the circuit. I didn’t manage my speed in the base turn, I looked confused when Bob prompted me to make the radio call before turning final.

I genuinely think that I forgot I needed to land the plane. Looking back I’ve never come back from the practice area and landed. Subconsciously I was waiting for Bob to say “I have control” and land the thing. Apparently that’s my job now J

Despite approaching high and fast, I still managed to get the plane on the ground with no civilian casualties. I’ll get there. Despite the slight unease on the way out and the hectic approach on the way back I’m slowly getting the hang of this stuff.