Bad habits (again)

Sometimes I both love and simultaneously loath the videos of my flights. It’s good from a review point of view. I’ve flown the 360 method for forced approaches a thousand times in my head now; I’ve gone from not having a clue to a fairly good mental picture. So that’s good.

The bad thing is that I can’t hide my bad habits at all. RTH asked me about some video he saw of me where I had my right hand on top of the instrument panel. He wasn’t being a jerk or anything, just pointing out that it is actually kind of dangerous to fly like that really. Your hand should be on the throttle if it is not required elsewhere. I quickly assured him that I only rest my hand there when Bob’s demoing; I do it so that there’s no doubt about who’s flying the plane.

Except that may not be entirely true. I do have a sneaky habit of holding-on-to-the-dash-for-dear-life. Especially if we hit a few bumps in the air, or the plane does something wonky. I think it goes back to my fear of grabbing onto something I shouldn’t! Despite my protestations to the contrary it became blatantly obvious from watching the video of my last flight that the hand creeps up there occasionally. RTH didn’t say much, just a pointed “ahem!” every time he saw it happening.

Oh I need to stop doing that, kill the bad habits now before they become a serious liability. That’s why I hate the camera. It doesn’t lie. I can’t bullsh!t my way out of that. Probably this is a good thing.