Stranded In The Southland

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Wussin' Out

So, I was supposed to head out and practice landings at Chino yesterday. The weather was pretty close to the legal minimums, plus it turned out that they were using runway 3 instead of the usual 26R and 26L, so I stayed home. I was also worried about whether I had to right signoffs in my logbook to practice landings; I'd hoped to ask J. about it.

Then I went out today, and noticed that they were using 8L and 8R instead of 26R and 26L (that is, the opposite ends of the runway from usual). J. was home sick, and I actually got the person on the desk to call him up and verify that I didn't need the signoff. I forgot to ask about the 8R/8L thing, so I just went out and preflighted the plane and taxied out.

There was a whole line of aircraft at the runup area, and it occurred to me that J. and I had never flown this end of the runway, and I finally wussed out and taxied back to the ramp. (Not before watching a P-38, P-51, and P-41 taxi past me to the run-up area -- woo hoo!)

Getting back to the tiedown area, a couple with a child were standing in my parking place, which kind of complicated things. I managed to wave at them and get 'em to move, but it kinda freaked me out.

I was kind of concerned about wussing out, since I've heard tales of folks being scared to go out and fly by themselves. I don't think this is me, but it was still a little weird to fail to fly twice. I'm sure I could've handled flying a completely new runway at the airport I was familiar with, but I was just concerned with what J. would say, and whether I'd be spending more time worried about flying the pattern right than I spent making sure I landed right.

Oh, well, I'm signed up to fly again Monday and hopefully I'll get up and get some time in then.