Nav Ex - my apologies!

[Thumpango]

There comes a time when one feels honour bound to admit ones mistakes and do the decent thing - apologise.

Yesterday, I was on a Nav - exercise routing Southampton, Blandford, Mere, Southampton and what an interesting little exercise this turned out to be!

Firstly I would like to apologise to the'Banana' lake on the approach to Blandford for thinking it had been filled in, couldn't see the thing at all, then my instructor calmly indicated that it was beneath us! A slight error in calculating the time to this feature didn't help.

Apologies to Compton Abbas A/G for confusion caused when I was doing my 'good airmanship' thing and called in to notify them that I was overhead their field on route to Mere. They came back with their QFE and "land at your discretion"!

And to the nice lady at Boscombe Zone, what can I say? When I said I was routing back to Southampton via Bishops Waltham I actually meant Romsey- sorry, the workload was getting to me by now.

Apologies to my instructor David, who reserved his wrath for the de-brief.

I promise I will do better next time.

(does anyone else have days like this?)

[AerBabe]

Absolutely not. Wouldn't catch me making any silly mistakes.

[Dave Gittins]

We all went through it. You know what you did, and no doubt your instructor reminded you of everything and probably a few things besides.

Don't get too concerned .... next time they should be the mistakes you don't make. Most of the mistakes we make are due to too high a workload .... the workload lessens as the tasks become more familiar so it can only get better.

I hope that next time you surprise even yourself .... I certainly used to

[FlyingForFun]

Oh boy. I hope we don't all have to start apologising for every silly mistake we make. If we did, I'd be here all day :eek:

If no one was at risk from your mistakes, as seems to be the case here, then learn from them. Or at least pretend to have learnt from them until your next silly mistake. ;) If you did put someone at risk, then go out of your way to apologise (but not on the R/T), and make absolutely certain that you've learnt from it.

Or alternatively, post on here - I don't know about others, but I'm having a good chuckle remembering all the similar mistakes that I've made at various times! :D

FFF
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[Wide-Body]

FFF

Why not say sorry on the RT. It might be the only effective communicative measure you have. A quick sorry on the RT can save a lot of verbal later on. I have much expierience in making mistakes and saying sorry.

Wide;)

[flyingwelshman]

....... there was a time when I got 020 and 200 degrees slightly mixed up, could not work out why the map and the real world didnt add up....... EMA APPR very kindly turned me around and sent me off in the better direction....... as long as your honest, declare that ur confused when you are, and be nice about it, people are usually nice back! We all make mistakes, the skill is to spot them.

Never thought I would fly again after that...... but unfortuatly I did!

FW

[rotorcraig]

I did very similar during an early land away. Approaching runway 10 was given the wind as 010. Brain thought "wind straight down the runway" (actually at 90 degrees, of course!)

Couldn't work out why the hover was a complete b@gger! As I was also unfamiliar with the aerodrome and came to the hover at the wrong end of the looooong active, I ended up doing a particularly wobbly "hover taxi of shame" to the parking area!

Didn't realise what I'd done 'till the following morning. These days I always mark the *expected* wind on a chart or diagram to reduce workload at the other end.

RC

[MikeSamuel]

I think we've all been there!

There was the time on my first landaway solo when I was happily approaching on final for 07 at Sywell when 03 was the active...the FISO noticed before I did and advised me of my mistake :ouch:

Those of you who've visited will know that they have the frequency blaring out of a tannoy at the restaurant, so a good 50 people would have had a good laugh :ugh:

Survived it though, and will remember to glance at the DI next time I'm on final :D

[pulse1]

I tend to go over flights in my mind afterwards, sometimes for days if it has been a bad one. I think I can honestly say that, in 250hrs flying I have never carried out a flight without at least one mistake in it. Usually I am the only one who knows about it but I can certainly share the more public ones of approaching the wrong runway. Once, when I was totally overloaded by sharing the circuit with a BAC111, I was 90 degrees out.:confused:

The big question is. Why does our brain shut down as soon as we strap an aeroplane to our bums. I was discussing this last night with one of my boys who is in the very early stages of training as a military pilot and I understand that one of the first filters they apply is to assess how they cope with mental overload.

If anyone has any performance enhancing tips I would be grateful. In my case I am aware that, as soon as you start the engine, you are under some sort of time pressure. On the ground this is usually because that's when you start paying. In the air it's because you are constantly moving and trying to keep ahead of the aeroplane. Is it any easier in helicopters where you can at least stop and think about it (like having a pause button)?

[rotorcraig]

Pulse1 asked: Is it any easier in helicopters where you can at least stop and think about it I don't find it so ... in fact I didn't fly as pax in a fixed wing until after I'd qualified as PPL(H), and couldn't believe it when my friend trimmed the aircraft up and proceeded to use a ruler and pen to draw some extra lines on the chart!

Can't do that in a heli (unless you can control the cyclic with your :mad: I guess :D)

RC