Originally Posted by
scooter boy
I must admit to experiencing a feeling of impending doom during both my fixed wing and helicopter solo cross countries. A rapid splattering type of death seemed imminent and inescapable. Something to do with you suddenly realising you are in charge of a large lump of metal quite far above the safety of terra firma without having an instructor there to save your bacon if it all went pear shaped. SB
Great post scooterboy - you mirror my thoughts exactly!
The other day I was doing my second solo (just circuits obviously) and these very same things constantly played on my mind both before and during the flight. Nothing concentrates the mind like the prospect of a grisly death without your trusty FI there to drag you out of the mire.
Several landings and several pints of sweat later
I came back down to earth safely but even now those thoughts persist and I'm sure they will for many hours to come. Thankfully, the local aviators (and fly-ins) are able to spot duffers like me easily (I've been known to drop some clangers on my radio calls) and are remarkably patient and forgiving of our shortcomings. I only hope if something more significant as is being discussed here ever happens to me, they'd react the same way. We've all got to start somewhere. Quite often we may be 'in control', but that doesn't mean we're not sh1tting ourselves. Let's cut the guy some slack - at least he kept it together long enough to ensure he didn't become another statistic.