Mydata. No, I was not able to fly until last Tuesday, and afterwards wished I hadn't!
I arrived to do a land away, EMA to Turweston (a small private field near Silverstone). I set about plotting the route/wind etc as normal, and was happy enough with the result. However as the plane was late back, I thought I would check the figures again. Hellfire, they were all over the place!! For some reason, my brain simply did not want to function properly - I eventually replotted the lot, and arrived at the correct headings based on the latest wind readings.
Somehow, I did not feel right, far from on top of everything as self and instructor walked to the plane. The viz was pretty shocking, and looked pretty dodgy over the high ground South of the field. It was agreed we would look and see, and if too bad would come back and leave it to another day. As it happened, the situation was not too bad, and we climbed to 2500 once zoned out. This took us into cloud, so I descended back down to 2000, and we were just below the cloud. The viz was shocking however, seemingly no forward view at all. Had I been on my own I would have turned back long before now, but we plodded on. The nav was working pretty well, but in myself I was not comfortable.
I was now aware I had a headache forming, and was pleased to be back down on terra firma at Turweston. A break and a cup of tea later, having watched a Spitfire take off to go back to North Weald (it's evidently privately owned and a regular visitor), we taxied out to the runway- the sound of that Spitfire was incredible by the way.
We took off and headed East for Podington (Sata Pod Raceway), and then turned North for East Midlands again. By now I was feeling curiously uncomfortable, and was finding it difficult to do all the RT, navigate in the poor visibility, maintain level flight etc. In a word, my brain was completely overloaded, and I was not doing at all well. In the end I made it back to the zone entry point at EMA, and simply could not find the right words to zone in!! I've done it dozens of times and can do it in my sleep, but today it was virtually beyond me. Couple that with a approach behind a 737 and a hefty crosswind (which to my amazement was just about the only thing I did right all day), ended my worst flying experience ever.
I was left sweating and feeling dreadful, not only physically, but mentally beaten up as well. "Not your finest hour" as my instructor sympathetically put it. I returned home in a daze, crawling down the M1 at 60 mph, trying to work out what was wrong with me. I seriously contemplated whether it was worth continuing I was so bad. Admittedly, for one reason and another, I had not flown for 4 weeks, but neverthless after 50 hours I should be better than that!!.
I went to bed early, and it was with some considerable relief I found the reason the next morning. I had a severe dose of the 'flu. I was sweating, had a thumping headache and so tired I could not stay awake. 48 hours on, I'm feeling much better, full of confidence again, and cannot wait to get flying again (which sadly will not be for another 3 weeks due to work/travel commitments)
So, a good lesson learned. DO NOT FLY, IF YOU FEEL UNWELL. I must confess I did not pick up the signs early enough, but there were plenty of clues:
1) The poor route planning.
2) The inability to think "straight"
3) Missing a couple of pre-take off flight checks
4) Crap RT
5) Mentally lagging behind the aircraft
etc,etc,etc
Hope I'm better next time when, 'cos of the time lapse I have to get up to date with stalling/steep turns etc. Then it's two solo navs/MATZ penetrations etc, another land away and then QXC (unless I continue as I left off!!!)
Good flying all!!