Bit hard by complacency/inattention.

Holocene

Holocene

Well-Known Member
I've got about 120 hours. Last week, I made a mistake so profound, I'm still having a difficult time accepting the fact that I did this.

This was a rare occasion that I had a passenger. Further adding to the embarrassment, he's a regional airline pilot.

For some reason, I confused the 1,600' field elevation as being the pattern altitude. So determined to make the damn altimeter read 1,600' feet, we ended up at something like 400' AGL on downwind.

It should have been so obvious to me that we were too low, but I didn't even question it until he spoke up. My damn head was buried in the cockpit, just waiting for the “TPA” to be indicated on the altimeter. Little did I realize the “TPA” I was shooting for would have put me in the trees.

Now, I know I wouldn't have run the plane into the ground, but I just can't believe I made an error of that magnitude, and that I allowed the situation to progress as far as it did.

This has really been bothering me for the past few days. I thought I was better than this, but obviously not.

Let's not kid ourselves, if you flew with someone who did that; you'd never fly with them again.
 
Live, learn, move on..... Not that this is a failure but there's a great quote out there, the author I forget, but its something like this: "Failure is only failure if you do not learn from your failure." Therefore if you learned from this something it is not a failure. Rather a learning experience. Thus chalk it up as a learning experience and move on. I had a go around the other day. Allowed myself to get into CHA too fast too high and couldnt get it configured in time to make a safe approach.... Did I sit around the hotel thinking damn it! No chalked it up and moved on. Other wise the next time I flew I would not be doing my best thinking "oh dont mess up." YOu must move on!
 
You'll often find its the small details that will get you killed in aviation.

Learn from it and move on.........
 
First off, you should be lucky he was in the plane, otherwise who knows what would have happened. It sucks that it happened. And it will stay with u for a lil bit, but you have to eventually move on. Ask anyone of us on the board, and we can tell u something idiotic we did flying. Whether it was while we were learning or flying heavy iron.

It happens, learn from it, and continue flying. I can almost guarantee you wont make that mistake again.

Live and learn. we continue to do that as pilots. Otherwise, darwinism takes over and we are left with one less pilot.

good luck
 
If it makes you feel any better, I did something very similar when I had about 100 hours and was a private (no instrument).

I was on a night cross country to go pick up a friend in a very mountainous airport. Trying so hard to concentrate on not smashing into a mountain, I glanced at the AFD and saw the field elevation and mistakenly thought it was the TPA. If anyone has ever flown into KSGU in Southern Utah, you'll know that the field is on a plateau and not a smart time to be low and on the downwind.

All an experience like this taught me was being legal doesn't equate to proficient flying.

As the others have said, learn from it and make damn sure it doesn't happen again.
 
meritflyer said:
I was on a night cross country to go pick up a friend in a very mountainous airport. Trying so hard to concentrate on not smashing into a mountain, I glanced at the AFD and saw the field elevation and mistakenly thought it was the TPA. If anyone has ever flown into KSGU in Southern Utah, you'll know that the field is on a plateau and not a smart time to be low and on the downwind.
Click to expand...
Um......hairball
 
Keep your eyes outside and don't dwell on it. The fact that you're taking it so hard means you're probably going to learn from it, and that's all you can really hope to do. Trust me, no one has not made at least one or two stupid mistakes in an airplane!
 
Holocene said:
Further adding to the embarrassment, he's a regional airline pilot.
Click to expand...

No need to feel embarrassed in front of a regional pilot; they do things just as silly all the time. And they don't have the excuse of having only 120 hours.... Well, ok, some of them do.;)
 
Everybody screws up every now and then. But as everyone else has said, learn from it, figure out a way that will prevent it from happening again. Maybe a little more preflight planning is the key (just as an example). This is a great example at why having two pilots on board is a great asset.

I would venture to guess that you will not make this mistake again. Not just because it was probably a brain fart, but I think you'll find yourself double, triple, and quadruple checking TPA's from now on. That's how I am with fuel caps and cowl plugs :-P
 
I can relate. I was doing my first flight with a passenger at an uncontrolled field. I for some reason turned the COMM 1 volume way down so that I could hear my passenger as we taxied back for takeoff. When I got to the the departure end, I made my departure call and started slowly towards the active runway. As I was about to cross the hold-short bar, I looked towards final and see another plane on about a 1/4 mile final. I stopped abruptly and waited for him to taxi off. I was confused on to why he wasn't making any calls while landing, when I realized the volume was way down on COMM 1. When I turned it up, he called to say he was clear of the active and asked if the Cessna about to depart had heard is calls. So I responded that I had only heard the last one. Luckily, I made that last glance at final before going onto the runway. Dumb mistake to say the least, especially in front of my first passenger. We learn though, I now always make sure the volume is up whenever in doubt.

Jtsastre
 
Hey you know some TPA's are 500 ft, so you could say you were only off by 100ft!!

(Sorta being sarcastic, but knowing I've done stuff like this before)
 
Look on the bright side, An experience like that will be the best teaching tool you will ever have. You will not forget it!

Now, Let me say this...VFR...keep your eyes outside the airplane! I’m not just pointing my finger at you either. I admit I tend to watch the needle too much sometimes. I have to get after myself and remind myself if you are vfr your eyes should be out side! You should have a picture in your head what a normal TPA looks like and should be able to keep it pretty close with out looking inside!.

My first instructor realized this and tried breaking me of it. On one approach he seen i was watching my airspeed, so he covered it up. Funny thing happened; I had probably one of my best landings I ever had up to that point! Because my attention went back outside!

Another time I was flying with a friend (he was pic) just so happens there is a ridge just out side the downwind portion of the pattern. Normally this ridge is about 2-3 hundred feet below and right. Well, we had some t-storms rolling in and I look out my right window to see the ridge line tops about 100 above us. I look at the altimeter and it showed we were right on the tpa. Obviously the pressure had changed on us real fast, but he was watching the gauges not out side. We could have real easily flew right into the top of the hill had we been over the ridge and he continued to "hold" tpa!

Keep the eyes outside!
:nana2:
 
Not to sound flip, but you should look out the window under IFR, too. That's what it's there for. That said, don't beat yourself up too much. If I had a nickel for every time I've done something stupid in an airplane, I could feast from snack machine instead of the popcorn machine.

PS. What the sam hill is a "TPA"?
 
Man what is it with the FAA these days? Do we really need a three letter acronym for everything? "Cessna 123AB, LOC'd at the FBO on the WST ramp, TXI with INF Alpha!" :rolleyes:
 
That's certainly not the last mistake you'll make, dude at 120 hours you're just a beginner really. That's why they call it a License to Learn. Most of us have done far dumber things; don't worry about it.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad nobody has said to cut up the pilot card and take up boating. Either way, I doubt I'll ever allow myself to do that again.
 
:tmyk:
Congratulations, you've passed the Darwin test! Its a well known fact that all pilots will be administered this test multiple times in their flying career. :rawk:


Seriously though, it's good that you've learned from your mistake. We've all made mistakes like that. Be on the lookout for the next "test"

-Doc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top