I still can't believe I was that stupid...

[Confabulous]

Twas the minute before I cocked up and all was going badly. We were bimbling along, with me trying to hold 1800ft and my instructor nagging me to hold altitude within +/- 200ft. It had been 6 weeks since I had my previous lessons, which went so well I was actually pleased with my performance. That was the first problem, me being a humble student pilot and cocky b*stard.

This day was completely different. I was 3 hours and 300 miles behind the aircraft, wondering why I couldn't hold altitude and why the power kept gradually decreasing. Then my instructor asked me to get my map, which I'd casually tossed in the back a few minutes before, so I began a search of the untidy back seats,tossing things this way and that.

After a minute or so of scrabbling around my instructor spoke up. 'Have you forgotten something?' 'No', I replied frantically, 'I'm sure I'll find it somewhere!' 'No, no', he insisted, 'You have forgotten something, something important.' I stopped searching and looked around, but couldn't spot anything amiss. What was the damn problem?

I looked again.

No-one was flying the aircraft! I'd forgotten to utter the magic words, 'You have control'

Burning with shame I put my hands and feet back where they were meant to be and uttered the words, confirmed he had control and turned back to my search.

The power had been reducing because I'd been resting my hand on the throttle (PA28), and I couldn't hold altitude because I'd been slightly out of trim.

As an aside, I once completed a landing thinking my instructor had control - I was wrong, I had control all the way to touchdown - I only found out a few hours later. The landing was fine, but still, it makes me confirm who has control now.


I learned about flying that day (and every other day) and I write this as a sort of informal ASRS report - I frankly don't care if it makes me look stupid, if one person takes it on board then it's worth it.