Focus

A lot of things happened during today's flight lesson.

I pre-flighted the plane and towed her over to the fuel pumps to fill her up with some gas. As I was finishing up, two military helicopters landed on one of the taxiways. They had a landing gear, so they taxied over to the side of the ramp. A couple of national guardsmen got out of the helicopters and got into a car and drove away. They took-off again, hovering only 10 feet off the ground, turned 180 in formation, and landed on a nearby field. It was really amazing to watch, especially the 180 in formation. It's amazing how close military pilots get to each other. Up in the air, we do everything we can to stay as far as possible from each other.

After the mini-airshow, my flight instructor got into the plane and we taxied out to the run-up area. After the run-up we got to the runway threshold and I made my call to Portland tower. I practice my call to Portland tower all the time. I do it in the car, in the shower, running on the treadmill. Sure, people think I'm crazy, but my nightmare is to screw up a call to the tower. Well, the nightmare became reality today. I got on the radio to call Portland tower and said, "Portland Tower Cessna 19298..." At that point, I totally forgot what to say. Portland Tower got on and said "Cessna 19298 say again.." I called back and made my call correctly. Ugh. But the next thing I let happen was worse. I let my frustration make me lose focus on the task at hand. I made my call to Pearson traffic, and then proceeded to taxi onto the runway. I hit the brakes when I realized I forgot to go through my pre-takeoff checklist: altimeter set to "Alt", beacon lights on, mixture set to rich. I went through the checklist and did a fairly decent (I think) crosswind takeoff.

We went up and did slow flight, stalls, and steep turns. At that point, we saw that a nasty looking cell was heading toward Pearson, so we diverted to Scappoose to wait out the storm. Lately, my landings have been terrible. All this week, I've been going over the landing process over and over again. It must have worked because I think my landing at Scappoose was pretty good. We taxied the plane over to the FBO to wait out the storm.

While we waited out the storm, my flight instructor asked me several questions about the weather. I should have known the answer to these questions. I used to know the answer to these questions. But, for some reason, I could not focus and get the answer. I felt like I let my flight instructor down with my inability to answer her questions.

The storm passed over in about 30 minutes, and we headed back to Pearson. As we entered the Class D airspace over Vancouver, I called Portland Tower to report my position and obtain clearance. I gave my position report and the tower responded. I replied, "Thank You, 19298". The tower came back on "19298, that instruction was not for you." Ouch. The tower gave me clearance and we proceeded back to Pearson. My approach to landing was okay, but instead of landing on the main gear, I landed flat on all three wheels.

So, I got through one of these things I dreaded most...making a mistake while talking on the radio to the tower. And I did it twice. But, you know what, planes didn't fall out of the sky. While I'll practice those calls during the week, at least I know if I make a mistake, the world won't end. I just need to remain focused.