Flunking a CAT rating was the best thing for me
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:44 am
I flunked my CAT 11 rating not even two minutes into the flight. I heard clearance give me my departure instructions, but I didn’t listen to them. I watched others on YouTube and just assumed mine was going to be the same. So I took off from 25L at KLAX on a heading of 255 and flew to the coastline and mad my left turn and proceeded on course. What I didn’t do was make a left downwind departure like I was instructed to do. When the SOCAL departure informed me of my error, he said one thing to me, “Pay attention”.
So I started to pay attention, especially to the details. I haven’t retaken the CAT 11 yet, but I have been prepping for the flight like I should do for all my flights. I am a Florida native and never visited the west coast. I am getting myself familiar with the areas I will be flying. I have my TAC charts and studying all of the VFR landmarks on the chart, so when instructed to fly to one and report over one I will know where I am going and won’t be fumbling around the chart hunting. I am also becoming intimately familiar with the Class B airspaces. This is helping with my situational awareness.
Thanks for the fail.
So I started to pay attention, especially to the details. I haven’t retaken the CAT 11 yet, but I have been prepping for the flight like I should do for all my flights. I am a Florida native and never visited the west coast. I am getting myself familiar with the areas I will be flying. I have my TAC charts and studying all of the VFR landmarks on the chart, so when instructed to fly to one and report over one I will know where I am going and won’t be fumbling around the chart hunting. I am also becoming intimately familiar with the Class B airspaces. This is helping with my situational awareness.
Thanks for the fail.