…and sometimes we’re down. Like, really down.
Even though I’ve been doing really well in IF lately and I’ve learned lots of new stuff (how to use published procedures, how to communicate with ATC, how to keep Approach Mode from bugging out, etc.), every now and again I still have moments where I make some pretty critical mistakes.
Specifically these past few days, I’ve committed some really embarrassing errors so I’m sharing those errors here for the world to see, because I evidently Iove humiliating myself. Shall we begin?
“That’s a weird pitch angle…”
The first embarrassing flight on this list is one I made from KFLL to MMUN the other day. On takeoff, I rotated and pitched up a little to much. Trying to fix this while also wanting to free up attention for other tasks, I engaged the autopilot (hereafter referred to as just Otto) and then went off to edit my flight plan without checking what parameters I gave Otto. As I did other stuff, I noticed that the horizon seemed unusually low in the background. When I closed the flight planning menu, I also saw my speed was dropping rapidly. Even though my engines were at 100% I (like an idiot) decided the best thing to do would be to tell Otto to speed up which, as I’m sure you may have guessed, did nothing. Consequently, I stalled so Otto disconnected and I spin-dived.
I pulled out of the dive and got the situation under control before engaging Otto again, but you won’t believe it—I also forgot to check the parameters I gave him the second time so the vertical speed was set even higher than what it was before. As such, I stalled, spin-dived, and had to pull up again. After the second spin dive, I realized my mistake and the rest of the flight continued ordinarily.
“@TheRealOne what was that 😭”
My friend @LuckyRc announced in his ATC tracking thread that he was opening at KPHL so I decided to pull up and give him some traffic. I decided to depart from and land on Runway 17, KPHL’s shortest (I think).
After takeoff I made a full circle but then had to go around because approach mode kept me too high (a problem I’ve had before). After executing a missed approach I did another pattern and came down for landing. This time approach mode was still messing up and LNAV also started having issues (probably caused by me though) so last second I got destabilized and I had to land manually on short notice. I did not handle this sudden pressure very well and ended up swerving off the runway. In correcting this, I forgot to brake and nearly overran the runway, stopping probably meters before it’s end. Lucky obviously saw all of this and made the comment featured as this section’s title on his ATC thread.
“That’s weird, I didn’t see any crosswind?”
The next day, Lucky was hosting at KPHL again. I decided it was time to redeem myself. I pulled up in a snazzy JetBlue A321 to fly a couple patterns and give my guy some traffic. Before the flight started, I got the message that said to consider taxiing on one engine to save fuel, and even though I was literally flying patterns I decided I should do it for realism’s sake. I taxied out to runway 27R and checked for crosswind, making sure everything was just right before my departure. Except I forgot one thing…
As I rolled down the runway I noticed I was accelerating very slowly. I chalked this up to “something something A321 blah blah drag and whatever” and continued my takeoff roll. When I rotated I struggled to get airborne and sharply banked to the left. I checked for crosswind again—there was none—and was super confused as to what happened, but I decided to just try left rudder. That probably disturbed the airflow or something and I began to lose what little altitude I had. I touched down on the taxiway next to 27R and got airborne again, before once again falling. As I sank towards the ground, I decided to end the flight because whatever happened next wasn’t going to be fun.
Confused, I took to Lucky’s ATC thread to express my confusion and apologize for the disturbance. As I reviewed the replay for what went wrong, it suddenly dawned on me: I forgot to to turn on the number 2 engine before takeoff 🤦
Beep beep
I was making (yet another) JetBlue flight from KJFK-KBOS, once again in the “A Defining MoMint A321” (which is incidentally one of my favorite planes ever). I wasn’t expecting how short the flight was though and didn’t really realize when I started descending.
During the flight, since I was in class and didn’t want to be staring at my phone for obvious reasons, I decided to pass time by reading norebbo.com (I highly recommend his articles btw). As I read and blasted my music, I heard a faint little beep over my headphones. My head snapped down and saw a horrifying message: “Reduce speed below 260kts below 10,000 feet to avoid violations.” Apparently, I forgot to slow down as I descended and was at the ungodly speed of 310 knots at 9,500 feet. I immediately extended the gear, full flaps, and spoilers, and set Otto’s speed to 255. It slowed down very quickly but then it got close to 265 and Otto started adding some engine power to smoothly transition to my selected speed. As it turned out this sealed my fate, and I was issued a violation because I didn’t slow down fast enough: by the time it was given I was going 261 knots. Darn it. I safely landed in Boston afterward, but this is my second violation unfortunately.
Anyways, I still had plenty of fun on these flights despite the troubles! Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and I’ll see you in the next one. Peace! 🔥
Which of my near-death experiences was the funniest?
- That’s a weird pitch angle…
- TheRealOne what was that 😭
- That’s weird, I didn’t see any crosswind?
- Beep beep