Head Case

It’s funny how things work…

I had been itching to fly again since I landed last week. I was supposed to have my final checkout in the Arrow which would give me my complex aircraft endorsement this past Monday. Unfortunately, the A&P guys found something in the 100 hour inspection and they are “waiting on a part.” Oh well, I simply scheduled some time in an Archer for today and was planning a short cross country hop up to Payson (PAN) – I hear they have a really good restaurant up there.

I left home for the office at 06:30 and called Flight Services for a briefing on my way into the office. We had a cold front past through yesterday and last night and the net result would be a high of 90 degrees today. This is relatively cool for Arizona in June and I was hoping to take advantage of the lower than normal temperatures and density altitude.

According to the briefer, there was an AIRMET for moderate turbulence from the surface to FL160. Winds aloft were light and variable up to 6,000 and 290 at 12kts at 9000 feet. No convective activity. No PIREPS for anything. Other than the usual surface heating, I’m thinking that turbulence shouldn’t be an issue for my flight. The briefer agreed.

Got to the office at 07:00 and exchanged a few e-mails, talked to a couple of people, and printed my “trip kit” from the Jeppesen flight planning software. Pulled out of the office at 07:30 and headed out to the airport. As I began the 20 minute drive to the airport, I noticed that I was fairly distracted with some of the things going on at the office. Oh well, not to worry, flying should clear my head.

I arrived at the airport at 07:50 and couldn’t find the plane that I had reserved! A quick check in the office revealed that the plane I reserved, N287HP, was in for an annual inspection. They had kindly moved me to N4182L. No big deal – they’re identical planes. They have the same equipment and differ only in paint color. The electric trim is INOP in 82L and that was the only reason I reserverd 7HP instead of 82L.

I began my pre-flight and realized that the person who had flown before me forgot to order fuel. So now, I had to wait for the fuel truck. It was 08:25 before I yelled, “CLEAR PROP,” and started the engine. By this time, I had a few things from the office, the plane switch, and the irritation of waiting on fuel all swirling around in my head. None of these things are incredibly egregious but combined they are a distraction. Again, I defer to the supposition that the noise in my head will dissipate once I’m airborne.

I taxied to the run-up area. Usually we turn such that your prop wash is blown back into a grassy field next to the run-up area. Today there was a 152 doing a run-up on the taxiway. Fortunately there isn’t a lot of prop wash from a 152 but it is mildly irritating. I was finally cleared for takeoff (behind the 152). My DTK for PAN is 010* and we were leaving runway 04. The Cessna was supposed to turn right while I would essentially fly straight out and slightly to my left. I was catching up to him and he didn’t appear to be turning. I didn’t want to turn to my left because there is traffic off of runway 4L and I didn’t want to turn right because I assumed that the Cessna would eventually turn right. I was running out of options right when the tower instructed the Cessna to, “turn right immediately!” Thank you very much!

As I continue my climb out, I radio Phoenix approach and immediately know that my VFR request will be turned down just from the amount of traffic on the frequency. I ask anyway. They say, “Call back in 10 minutes…” I press on. Now I begin to realize that all of the crap I brought with me on this flight is still swimming around in my head and I am adding to it! I wasn’t enjoying myself at all. I wasn’t flying well and I was distracted. Time to head back.

I thought that flying would have a positive impact on all of the junk going on in my head. Instead all of the junk in my head was having a negative impact on my flying. Since I had all of this activity in my head, my gut jumped in and said, “Time to land.”

I was told to enter a wide right base for runway 4R. I was cleared to land right about the time they decided to switch to runway 22. I had just turned about a ¾ mile final and the controller cleared a Diamond for takeoff – no delay. When the Diamond asked for a repeat, I was already offsetting to the right for a go-around when the controller instructed me to do just that. She asked me to offset wide to the right, do a 360, and enter a mid field left downwind for runway 22L. Got to do a little extra flying anyhow.

I had about a 10kt crosswind on landing and floated a little. Nothing major and came back down right on the centerline. I tied up the plane and headed back to the office. I guess I had better take care of the stuff that was irritating me. I suppose that this is a lesson learned in that I made a good decision not to continue my flight; however, a better decision would have been to wait until I had a clear head before I attempt to enjoy the clear skies.

Flight time: 0.8

Total time: 90.8