Interesting Flight-Lesson Learned

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dvlourie
Posts: 38
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2016 6:01 pm

Interesting Flight-Lesson Learned

Post by dvlourie »

So tonight I attempted the CAT 8 and boy, did I learn a few lessons I wanted to share. The first attempt (yes, there were two) I got off fine but when I was told to contact departure, my brain heard and decided it was OK to "resume own navigation". BOOM! Fail. No problem, my mistake. I took a break and planned again for the 2nd attempt. I usually fly with real world weather and now Southern California has a MAJOR TFR in effect due to the fires. I ask and was told that PE doesn't really hold to the TFR's EXCEPT the one permanently in place over Disney. OK, got it. I decided to fly as if it mattered and that was probably a mistake. Having to fly around the TFR caused me to not only fly further away from the coast then I would have like, the ceilings kept changing due to the smoke from the fires. I manage to get to my destination at KBUR but did fail the rating due to a 300 ft overshoot of the airspace at Van Nuys! My mind was pretty focused on the smoke, traffic (a LOT of planes tonight) and by the time I noticed the altitude, it was too late. The controllers were great all the way from Santa Barbara to Burbank. My thanks to all of them for the help and all the patience. Using PE really has made me a better RW pilot (yes, even RW pilots do fail the CAT ratings!) and tonight was humbling but a heck of a lot of fun! Thanks PE for all the attention. Great Job!
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