Every day is a school day
All the training in the world is for nothing if you don't follow procedures and start cutting corners.
My flying today involved jumping in the plane for what I deemed a "local" and straightforward flight 70 miles up the coast including getting a transition thru controlled airspace to a fly-in at a small airfield I had visited at least 3 times before. The weather was overcast at 2000 with great visibility and light winds so all in all I viewed the days flight as a "no brainer" all the terrain enroute is a few hundred feet above sea level and I looked forward to the BBQ and the hospitality the destination field excels at during their annual fly in.
The flight up was smooth enjoyable at 1000amsl, after several hours of hangar talk, catching up with friends and meeting new ones, eating burgers and taking 3 ATC cadets for individual flights round the circuit, I realized I had spent a few hours longer than I had planned and there was some nasty weather moving in from the west from the direction of the Grampians, cognizant of deteriorating conditions of light rain and lowering and darkening bases being concern but not a show stopper as my recently completed IFR and Commercial training afforded me an air of confidence I would not have had 6 months ago.
Take off straight out easterly into a light shower after about a mile I hit the coast and turn south with the bases now at 800 agl with vis 4 miles, check in with the controller to get my shoreline transition thru CAS down the coast . ATC advised they were unable to provide the transition due to workload and weather and I was to remain clear of the CAS (bugger number 1), to say this caught me totally by surprise is an understatement, I started to circle outside CAS to ponder my options, I reach round to get the chart and (Bugger number 2) it's in the baggage area out of reach ("it's a local familiar flight I won't need it remember") .
I realize I can't fly south keeping to the east of the CAS as it would put me uncomfortably far out over the North Sea, I can't fly down the west side as that is where the weather is coming from and there is an slight obstacle called the Grampian mountains. At about this point the ATC to his credit implied that he could give me the transition but was not crazy about the idea and asked if I could accept an IFR clearance?
My first thought being freshly minted IFR was sure I can, then I remembered that my only pen had rolled under the seat during the circuits with the cadets (Bugger number 3) my knee pad/notepad was keeping the charts company in the baggage area (Bugger number 4)and I just did not feel comfortable flying IFR without the routine and familiar tools and setup I had used during training so I declined a clearance and advised I would continue to circle while pondering my declining options.
It's now pissing down with bases about 700 AGL and darker, I decided to head to the only clear area to the northeast were the shoreline turns from running north to 90 degree west turn, I think if I can't go round either side of the CAS I will go over it by going north out to the the only clear area and climb up over the weather and to ceiling of the CAS which is ,,,, (Bugger number 5) no chart and pissing around with the GPS at 600agl is not appealing prospect with a gas venting station, antennae farm and more wind turbines than you can shake a stick at in the immediate vicinity.
About this time I had moved far enough north that ATC had handed me off from a terminal to area controller on a frequency I was unfamiliar with, I advised that I was still considering my options and he advised that as I was pretty close to my field of departure circuit area I should give them a heads up and switch back to him after. I went to switch frequencies and (bugger number 6) I had forgotten it and the only 2 frequencies I had in my single com active and standby was the terminal and area ATC, so I switch to a familiar flight information freq to get the departure field freq then go to switch back to the unfamiliar ATC by using the recall feature and mess it up losing that frequency (bugger number 7) .
So I decide if I try and get over the top I may get pushed to far out to sea trying to climb and stay ahead of the weather pushing offshore , so I opt to return to the field of departure, oh the humiliation after the big goodbye on departure, I land at the field and as I am walking in to the radio room I hear over the air ground speaker an Irish accent of a regional airline pilot relaying ATC attempts to contact a "lost" aircraft, the local air ground guy advised them I was on the ground and a few seconds later ATC called the field to say the weather had cleared slightly and I should get back up and they would give me a transit, after profuse apologies to ATC from going off frequency and landing without signing off from them the transit went fine and the weather cleared to sunshine for miles,
Bottom line, I completely and utterly messed up in every area I had been trained in from not being completely familiar with how the equipment worked or more accurately forgetting when a bit stressed, not following own self imposed rules for being equipped and whole bunch of other issues,
Every days a school day. Hope I am not the only one that can learn from this balls up
Last edited by piperboy84; 6th Jul 2014 at 08:27.