A Horse of a Different Color

Monday: Weather
Tuesday: Weather
Wednesday: Weather
Thursday: Hosted an FAA Seminar that went til 9:30pm
Friday: Weather

Anyone see a trend here?

My objective for the week was to “kill it.” Instead of me killing it the weather killed almost every chance I had to fly. I am scheduled to fly at Keene, NH tomorrow in Executive Flyer’s Decathlon and I still have not flown the entire sequence from start to finish.

Imagine being in a horse show (Equestrian show? The competitions where you ride around on a horse jumping gates and what not? Yes. Those.) You spend months training with one particular horse. You learn its personality for better or worse. The horse also gets to know you. By the time you get to the competition it is old news. You know you can do the routine because you’ve done it before and you trust the horse.

Granted I’m not flying a horse but 317SD certainly has its own personality. Example: At 120mph it develops a slight rolling tendency to the right. I’m used to it and counter it accordingly. I am also used to having just myself in the airplane. Tomorrow, should the weather hold out I’ll be flying a different airplane with an extra 200 pounds of weight in the rear seat. Same show, new horse. Even though I will be flying a Super Decathlon it will feel different. The rudder pedals will require a different amount of pressure from me. I will not have the same view as I am used to because the seat will be different. There is a universe of subtlety in these machines.

I could focus on all this or I could say screw it and fly. That’s my real attitude at the moment. I know I can fly the sequence. The airplane will tell me everything I need to know to make it sing. The only real x-factor at the moment is the weather. The current forecast shows overcast skies and low visibility.