N546RV
Well Known Member
When I say "routine," I mean in terms of things like checklists, preflights, etc.
This past Saturday, I reserved my favorite spam can (an Archer) for a couple hours of general rust removal. I'm flying into OSH for the first time this year, and I'm being very conservative about the whole experience, including making sure I'm comfortable with the airplane.
As always, my first stop upon arriving was to check the aircraft squawk book. I noted that someone had complained of trouble closing the door a couple days prior; nothing else recent though. I strolled out to the ramp, where I completed an uneventful preflight. OK, time to get going. Once in the plane, I pulled the door shut...yep, it was definitely difficult to close. After a bit of finagling, I got the main latch secured, but the top latch would not catch no matter what I tried.
I hopped out and took a look at the catch...it certainly looked out of place to me. Looking down from overhead, I could see that the latch hook was not about to grab the catch. Harumph. OK, no flying for me today. I proceeded to round up all my gear, tie the plane down and rechock it, then headed back inside. One of the flight school guys was still sitting inside. When I described the problem, he said, "Oh, Pipers do that all the time. I'll show you how to take care of it." Sure enough, we walked out and with some thumb pressure, he rotated the catch back into place.
Well, that was easy. After thanking him, I climbed back in and set about breaking my gear out again, then I got in place, shut the door, ran the prestart checklist, and fired her up. Check ATIS, sounds good, OK, time to call ground. For some reason I can't explain, I waited a second. Something didn't feel right.
Suddenly it occurred to me. I didn't remove the tiedowns and chocks.
*sigh*
Shutdown, hop out sheepishly (of course this has to be in sight of the airport restaurant's patio, the kid's park, and the observation area), remove tiedowns and chocks, OK, now to really aviate.
Should I have run a complete preflight again after coming back out? Probably not. But I should have done some kind of a quick walkaround before just hopping in, during which time the tiedown situation would have been pretty obvious. My mind, however, was in the mode of "I already preflighted, the problem is fixed, go fly."
In the grand scheme of things, this is fairly mundane. Pretty much the worst-case scenario would have been me calling ground, getting taxi instructions, trying to ease the plane forward, and rapidly realizing my mistake, prior to having to admit my idiocy over the radio. But it's a good illustration, I think, of the brain perceiving what it expects, and unexpected things happening.
Luckily, this time, it was just a little embarrassing.
This past Saturday, I reserved my favorite spam can (an Archer) for a couple hours of general rust removal. I'm flying into OSH for the first time this year, and I'm being very conservative about the whole experience, including making sure I'm comfortable with the airplane.
As always, my first stop upon arriving was to check the aircraft squawk book. I noted that someone had complained of trouble closing the door a couple days prior; nothing else recent though. I strolled out to the ramp, where I completed an uneventful preflight. OK, time to get going. Once in the plane, I pulled the door shut...yep, it was definitely difficult to close. After a bit of finagling, I got the main latch secured, but the top latch would not catch no matter what I tried.
I hopped out and took a look at the catch...it certainly looked out of place to me. Looking down from overhead, I could see that the latch hook was not about to grab the catch. Harumph. OK, no flying for me today. I proceeded to round up all my gear, tie the plane down and rechock it, then headed back inside. One of the flight school guys was still sitting inside. When I described the problem, he said, "Oh, Pipers do that all the time. I'll show you how to take care of it." Sure enough, we walked out and with some thumb pressure, he rotated the catch back into place.
Well, that was easy. After thanking him, I climbed back in and set about breaking my gear out again, then I got in place, shut the door, ran the prestart checklist, and fired her up. Check ATIS, sounds good, OK, time to call ground. For some reason I can't explain, I waited a second. Something didn't feel right.
Suddenly it occurred to me. I didn't remove the tiedowns and chocks.
*sigh*
Shutdown, hop out sheepishly (of course this has to be in sight of the airport restaurant's patio, the kid's park, and the observation area), remove tiedowns and chocks, OK, now to really aviate.
Should I have run a complete preflight again after coming back out? Probably not. But I should have done some kind of a quick walkaround before just hopping in, during which time the tiedown situation would have been pretty obvious. My mind, however, was in the mode of "I already preflighted, the problem is fixed, go fly."
In the grand scheme of things, this is fairly mundane. Pretty much the worst-case scenario would have been me calling ground, getting taxi instructions, trying to ease the plane forward, and rapidly realizing my mistake, prior to having to admit my idiocy over the radio. But it's a good illustration, I think, of the brain perceiving what it expects, and unexpected things happening.
Luckily, this time, it was just a little embarrassing.