Ace757
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2003
- Posts
- 267
Ok....SO I graduate from one of the BIG flight schools this summer, thinking im some hot shot pilot, come back to college, and didnt shoot an approach for 4 months. this past weekend I went to see an old pilot friend in NJ, and I figured I would get in the senica (sp) and go up and nail all of my approaches. Well guess what? immediatly after takeoff I lost total SA. I was totally uncomfotable with the environment I was in. I have only ever flown in FL, so this was a huge difference. Another thing I noticed was that I didnt have some fancy plane with the dual garmins, hsi, and rmi. I just had a HI, and 2 Vor's. I didnt realize how dependant I had become on those instruments during my training, and I became easily flustered. I mean its not that I cant fly with just 2 VOR's, and DME, its the fact that I felt comfortable having the Garmin and the HSI to back me up. Well after a little flying I started to become more comfortable with the situation. I found that the hardest thing about going to one of the big flight schools, is that you react like a robot. You know your airplane inside and out. You have set checklists, and tons of memory items, and every plane you fly there has the exact same panel. Not that it is a bad thing, but it is a problem when you go flying somwhere else, espicially your local FBO. So my plan of action now is to broaden my horizons and try flying many different aircraft, and flying in unfarmiliar environments. I know I can fly a seminole like a robot in FL already, now I need to learn to think outside of the box and realize that you cant always have the perfect environment to fly in.
