It was the day of my flight test. The weather was not good but not so bad as the day before yesterday. The test started at 10 o'clock as had been scheduled. There was no problem in the ground portion except for a little problem of my English conversation skill with the examiner. The examiner and I took off around 11:30. The upper air was not so good as I had expected before taking off and as the weather forecast had said. Soon after taking off I had to fly clubbing more than 20 degrees, which means flying against the wind to keep the planned track. Plus, there were so many clouds in my way that I couldn't climb to the planned altitude. To fly at the low altitude, I had to communicate with the ATC(Air Traffic Controller), which was a kind of extra procedure. In spite of all these happening, I could do the navigation successfully and there were few problems about my upper air works, but when the examiner closed the throttle and told me to do forced approach, I miss judged the wind direction and failed to make good landing. I was shocked because I had never failed in this subject for these weeks. I got a so called "partial failure" in my first flight test and I have to re-take a partial test again after a few more lessons with the instructor. I was disappointed in no small way. I need a few more weeks before getting the license and going back to Japan. Ahh!.
Ohh, too bad. You have to pay close attention to the strength of the wind and stick closer to your field in strong winds. But you know that now.
Note that "fly clubbing" should be "fly crabbing." It's called that because you go a little bit sideways, the way crabs walk, waving their claws.
I'll miss your blog.
Posted by: Aviatrix | January 01, 2006 at 04:50 PM
> Aviatrix
A Happy New Year! Vancouver Downtown is now a little bit noisy because of private fireworks. Of course I was disappointed at the result but I'm thinking about being a safety pilot who can survive any kind of engine failure.
Anyway, thanks for your pointing out my mistakes. For us Japanese, it is very difficult to distinguish the difference between "l" and "r".
Posted by: mochi | January 01, 2006 at 05:26 PM