Flight Training - January/February 2021 - 8

AROUND THE PATCH BY JILL W. TALLMAN

Technical Editor JILL W.
TALLMAN'S logbook entries

for 2020 were pitiful. Here's
hoping 2021 is better.
jill.tallman@aopa.org

RUSTY AND DUSTY

If you had told me a year ago that I would go six months
without flying-and it wouldn't be because of a health
condition-I'd have laughed.
But then 2020 and COVID-19 happened.
I had last flown 799BS, the Cessna 182, in December 2019 when I'd repositioned
the airplane for its annual. I figured I'd be flying again sometime in January-no big
deal. Then the annual dragged on a bit, as annuals sometimes do. In this case 799BS
had a leaking fuel tank that needed draining and sealing. The airplane came back to
Frederick Municipal Airport in January 2020.
January and February aren't my favorite times to fly. The weather can change
on a dime; it's cold; and there are many other reasons to keep me out of the cockpit
and at home, warm and snug. Having six partners means somebody is usually flying
799BS, so I don't have to worry about the problems that can creep in when you let
an airplane sit idle.
And then the coronavirus came to town in March and decided to stay.
At the start, nobody was doing much of anything, much less flying. AOPA staff
were working from home. The local flight schools shut down. AOPA was allowing solo flights in its aircraft but not dual flights, because you really can't socially
distance in a cockpit. I couldn't lay my hands on disinfectant wipes to put in 799BS,
and so I didn't fly it-not even solo. Four months went by, and then five. For the first
time in 19 years of flying I wasn't passenger current.
By now I realized I couldn't fly 799BS solo if I wanted to. When I had a
160-horsepower Piper Cherokee 140, I flew that airplane every week to two weeks.
8

FLIGHT TRAINING JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

There was no way I was going to climb
into the left seat of a 230-horsepower
airplane after such a long hiatus.
In May businesses started opening
back up, and I started trying to get onto
someone's flight instruction schedule. It
was almost mid-June by the time I was
able to make that happen.
I expected to be rusty. What I did
not expect was the volume of rustiness
at almost every stage of the flight. It was
sobering.
During preflight, I somehow locked
the laminated checklist into the baggage
compartment and then spent 5 minutes
searching the hangar for it.
My radio calls were bad. Like, really
bad-so bad that I almost keyed the mic
and told the controller, " I hope you're
getting some entertainment today. "
I put in what I thought was 20 degrees
of flaps yet neglected to check the indicator
to see whether the electric flaps had actually settled at 20 degrees-they had not.
Then there were countless little things
that can be remedied with better use of a
checklist, such as forgetting to reset the
trim before takeoff during a series of takeoffs and landings.
My right-seater, CFI Brenda Tibbs,
knew I wanted to get passenger current. When I said we could just stay in
the pattern, she suggested we fly to the
practice area and back to get the feel of
the airplane before starting in on takeoffs
and landings. What a great idea that
was-the high-workload environment of
the pattern is no place to get reacquainted
with power, carburetor heat, and flap
settings. Sure enough, that brief flight out
and back gave me time to relax, breathe,
and focus on the tasks ahead.
By the fourth takeoff I felt as though I
were flying the airplane instead of the other
way around. My landings were acceptable:
I pulled off one squeaker and subjected
Brenda to one banger. The pattern got
very busy and at one point we held short at
the departure end of Runway 23 for what
seemed like eons in 90-degree heat. Brenda
said that I was very proficient at holding
short, which is why I love flying with her.
During our debrief, Brenda recommended
I go up solo once or twice before taking passengers. Another excellent suggestion.
Here at AOPA we always recommend
flying with a CFI if your skills need
polishing, and we're not too proud to take
our own advice. Get out there and fly! FT

Flight Training - January/February 2021

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