Ty-erred

Welp, there ain’t no such thing as a flight that doesn’t teach you something.

To recap the last few days:

Friday: work per nominal ops all day but stay out too late.
Saturday: Up early, flight review in a Cessna 152 (way fun); drive to Boston for the weekend; once again stay up late.
Sunday: Sleep late (awesome); relaxing day, fantastic fireworks, perfect weekend ends…but I stay up too late once more.
Monday: Up early, drive to Rhode Island from Boston; work all day in the heat, attempt to fly the Decathlon late in the day with horrible visibility.

I never really felt tired all day. I was hopped up on coffee and riding a high from having a great weekend. For whatever reason I wasn’t thinking at all about flying when I got home. Then 7pm rolls around and I realize that the Decathlon is flyable and I should be flying it. A quick IMSAFE checklisk run through and I felt fine (Illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, eating…normal self check to make sure you are ready to fly).

At 3000 feet, 140mph indicated airspeed I was ready to warm up with some rolls. Slow rolls are difficult to do well in any airplane and almost impossible to perfect. Right before the D was down with the camshaft issue my rolls were looking pretty decent (let obese jokes flow freely.) Tonight…what transpired was an aerobatic atrocity. I was all over the place. If flown right, your nose should end right where it began. Mine was all over the place. Altitude was being held fine but sheeesh…every else just wasn’t coming together. I kept looking over my shoulder back towards Providence only to find that it was slowly disappearing behind a veil of haze.

Loops have always been my forte so I switched gears for a moment and did a loop. It just didn’t feel right. It was fine, altitude and airspeed and heading all normal but it just felt wrong. I decided I was just too tired to push anything and decided to call it a night. It was a good decision because I had about 4 or 5 miles of visibility. At 140mph, that is not much room to see. My landing was beautiful so at least I ended the flight on a high note.

Lesson learned, pay closer attention to your energy level. If you’re tired…sit it out.

Oh and yes, I would gladly be tired in exchange for a good/great weekend. Totally worth it.