The check ride

Today was the big day for the check-ride with the FAA Examiner. I added full power and began rolling down the runway. Shortly after the wheels left the runway, I noticed a very loud clanking sound of something hitting the airplane. Something was wrong, but I was not sure what. I looked at the examiner and he calmly said, "I think that's your seatbelt."

I looked down and much to my horror my seatbelt was not fastened. Half of it was hanging out the door and beating the airplane fuselage. We quickly went around the pattern and landed. I fastened my seatbelt and finished the flight test. The examiner could have failed me on the spot, but he did not.

The four C's

When you are lost, or starting to run into trouble, new pilots are taught the four Cs: Climb, Communicate, Confess, and Comply. I was flying a short cross-country to Georgetown Ohio, fifty miles south of Xenia. I had flown the appropriate heading and time, and by my calculations I should have been at the airport, but I did not see it. To get a better look I climbed from 2500 feet to about 5000 feet. The airport was directly beneath me. Fortunately this time I did not have to Communicate, Confess or Comply. You can almost always see better if you climb high.