That damned TOL (takeoff/landing) Eval..

I

ImAParrot

Pre-Flight
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Jun 14, 2023
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ImAParrot
Ok so I was asked to come back. I did.

Redid the Eval. Passed.

I didn't want to mention this last time because I didn't want to think about it, but last time I failed because my uncle had a stroke the night before. And we are close. My mind was focused on him. Yea it was my fault I should have canceled but I thought it would be better not to

Lesson learned. Anyway that's all.

Oh and the lead. Was suddenly very nice and friendly today? Weird? Maybe my nervousness about my uncle made him feel that way? Idk but everything's good now.
 
Congrats on passing! It is extremely important to actually take good account of your emotional and mental abilities before a flight, whether that be a lesson or evaluation, and be honest with yourself about it - and continue to take periodic "rechecks" during solo flight. It's very scary to realize that you are solo and you alone are capable of putting yourself and the plane on the ground safely...and you are too tired or too distracted to land the plane well. There's a reason that there are preflight checklists for the pilot as well as the plane! I also hope that you were able to talk to your instructor about configuring for landing, because not being confident about that could really bite you in the backside if something goes wrong and your head gets saturated (or too tired or too distracted, etc.).

As far as the flight instructor, he could have just been grumpy because he could tell that you were not "in the game" and were very unprepared to deal with flying. CFIs aren't very happy with students who don't show up prepared and ready, especially for something as important as the solo evaluation. The rest was probably just you feeling things that weren't there, which would have been super easy if you were already distracted and upset about your uncle. Did you tell him about your uncle and mental stress/distraction? I hope your uncle is doing better, by the way!
 
SkyChaser said:
Congrats on passing! It is extremely important to actually take good account of your emotional and mental abilities before a flight, whether that be a lesson or evaluation, and be honest with yourself about it - and continue to take periodic "rechecks" during solo flight. It's very scary to realize that you are solo and you alone are capable of putting yourself and the plane on the ground safely...and you are too tired or too distracted to land the plane well. There's a reason that there are preflight checklists for the pilot as well as the plane! I also hope that you were able to talk to your instructor about configuring for landing, because not being confident about that could really bite you in the backside if something goes wrong and your head gets saturated (or too tired or too distracted, etc.).

As far as the flight instructor, he could have just been grumpy because he could tell that you were not "in the game" and were very unprepared to deal with flying. CFIs aren't very happy with students who don't show up prepared and ready, especially for something as important as the solo evaluation. The rest was probably just you feeling things that weren't there, which would have been super easy if you were already distracted and upset about your uncle. Did you tell him about your uncle and mental stress/distraction? I hope your uncle is doing better, by the way!
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Right. Well this time I wanted to go at an earlier time so we would be alone in the pattern. But he got delayed so by the time we took off once again we were number 3/4/5 to land. The whole YEAR in socal has been cloudy and basically winter making it difficult to spot traffic, until today finally it was sunny everywhere especially near the coast where my flight school is. That makes it easier to spot.

Also, I connected my foreflight to the ADSB in to help guide me in spotting traffic, knowing when to configure etc. Overall it was good.

Yes I did tell him
 
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