Is it a sign of advancing memory when you need reminders of your senior moments?
Originally Posted by tmmorris
flying most of the way to France in a Robin with takeoff flaps;
My flap screwups were not really senior moments. More like junior ones, I was in my 20's and still getting used to the darn things. I learned to fly in a PA12 without flaps (and a lot of other stuff people seem to think vital).
After I had 100+ tailwheel hours in the flapless PA12, I got checked out in the C152. One x-c flight to Portland, Maine I was not making much airspeed. I had been stuck with the doggiest C152 the school had, so I put it down to the crappy airplane. About 15 miles out of Portland, during my traffic scan I happened to notice the flaps were down about 5 degrees. The C152 has a flap position lever, so the flaps go to the position indicated by the lever. I had the flaps down for preflight. After takeoff I slapped the lever all the way up, except it bound a little bit and didn't get all the way to the top. When I carefully pushed it up the rest of the way, I picked up 10 or 15 kts. I felt kind of dumb.
My other flap issue was my single most humiliating experience as a pilot. No wonder I forgot it until tmmorris reminded me. So here I am, a young 20-something going for a little flight in the C152. I'm preflighting the airplane, some little hottie is preflighting the 152 next to mine. All is well in the world. Now I'm in the airplane, about to start it up, and I hear banging on the wing. Look up, said hottie is asking to come over. Turns out something was wrong with the other 152, she needed to go to Goodspeed airport about 20 miles away, wanted to know if I was a student or rated and would I be willing to drop her off there. Life is good.
Now, before I get to the humiliating part, a little background about my primary training. I was taught tight patterns, power off approaches, steep enough that losing the engine in the pattern is never an issue. I'm not trying to launch this thread into that debate, but right or wrong that is how I was taught and how I was flying.
We get to Goodspeed, not an overly long runway, and I set up the first approach. But for some reason I've completely blown it, way too high, and I go around. I do the same thing a second time. The third one she talks me through it, going way further out on downwind, shallower descent than I'm comfortable with, and we land ok. She was fairly laughing at me, as I remember. Or maybe I'm remembering the nighmares. So on the flight back, I'm questioning my flying ability. How could I be so screwed up? I fly steep turns, stalls, it feels like I'm right on though I haven't been flying enough lately. Go back home, where I know the pattern and ground references extremely well having learned there, and my first approach I'm way too high. This can't be happening. Finally I figure it out. That stupid binding flap lever stopped at about 22 degrees of flap, and losing the last 8 degrees makes a huge difference in the drag and descent angle. I get the flaps all the way in and all of a sudden it's like I know how to fly again. I never tried to search her out to explain the flap issue, I know that anything I said would make me seem like more of a loser than I already appeared!
-- IFMU