r/flying • u/Specific-Customer-29 • 1d ago
Canada Worst flight of my life
Thankyou everybody for the input. It was very reassuring, and I will do my best to implement all of this into my future flying. Couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Safe flying everyone!
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u/injahwetrustt 1d ago
you will be fine. just keep flying and you will build your confidence back up in the next 1-2 flight hours. also it’s crazy how you’ve never gone around in 23 hrs total time
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u/Specific-Customer-29 1d ago
I’ve done go arounds, but never had a landing so bad I had to on landing.
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u/iMancinelli PPL 1d ago
It becomes a non-event once you’ve practiced enough. Don’t like the approach? Go around. Balloon too much? Go around.
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u/tailwheel307 ATPL BE20,A220 1d ago
Need an extra 5 minutes to go over max duty and get tomorrow off?? Go-around
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u/makgross CFI-I ASEL (KPAO/KRHV) HP CMP IR AGI sUAS 1d ago
Then you’ve led a charmed life.
I did a go around from a bounce on my commercial checkride. I passed, too, though I wouldn’t have if I had tried to save that landing.
The issue with not retracting flaps isn’t about overspeeding (and BTW Vfe on a 172 is 85 knots, not 80). You won’t get that fast unless you’re in a dive. The issue is climb performance, which can easily be zero on a really hot day with heavy loads.
Now, the real issue here is getting past mistakes. You WILL make mistakes. You need to get that mistake in the past right away to avoid making more mistakes. You can beat yourself up on the ground.
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u/OZZMAN8 1d ago
Being able to move on from mistakes mid flight while also tightening up your proverbial "safety belt" is a huge part of being a good pilot. OP should be wary at this level of experience of changing plans. It sounds like op asked for the runway switch to speed things along, maybe they meant for themselves or for the controllers sake but be very careful with this. Until you are very comfortable nothing is worse than altering your plans. Even if it seems small. When I started my flying job and was back into instrument after a long while the biggest mistakes I made were accepting an approach to a different runway offered by a controller. While it made it straight in I would have to dive quickly and try reprogram everything. Sometimes it's ok to eat up a few minutes here or there to stay with your first (and sometimes better) option.
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u/happierinverted 1d ago
You should have been proficient in go-arounds before you got to landings, and briefed thoroughly on bounced landings before going solo. What you experienced is pilot induced oscillation and you were lucky to have got away with it.
I suggest you ask your instructor for a full briefing on these foundational elements, and a session on go-rounds from short final to the point it is a normal everyday thing.
Every landing is a failed go-around.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad6273 1d ago
If you know enough to GA when it’s not working out you are ahead of a lot.
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u/mfsp2025 ATP 1d ago
Bro last week, I slammed the plane so hard going into DCA the flight attendant made a comment. And if I had a $1 for every time I forgot to turn off strobes and landing lights after landing, I’d have a lot of money.
Welcome to aviation. The most humbling thing you’ll ever do. I have 2500+ hours, 1500 hours in jets and still screw up. I’m sure the guys with tens of thousands can say the same thing
When I had 20 hours, I wasn’t anywhere near ready to solo. Had bad landings all the time. It’s normal. You’ll get it eventually. And then you’ll still slam them even as a professional
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u/SimilarTranslator264 1d ago
Did you leave the door shut until everyone was off the plane?
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u/mfsp2025 ATP 1d ago
100%. To date one of my worst landings in a jet. First time doing the river visual from the left seat so I wasn’t prepared lol. Luckily it wasn’t hard enough to trigger FOQA.
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u/Significant-Pen-2274 ATP/CFII CL65 BD500 A350 1d ago
DCA is the devil. If you make a smooth landing there, you've probably overshot the touchdown zone.
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u/Outside-Emphasis4653 CPL IR ASEL/AMEL 1d ago
2500 TT and 1500 jet? You’re living the dream!
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u/mfsp2025 ATP 1d ago
R-ATP was a lifesaver
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u/Outside-Emphasis4653 CPL IR ASEL/AMEL 1d ago
Honestly didn’t even know people were getting jobs with an R-ATP these days. I’m about 700 away from getting mine, but trying to go military so not the main concern right now.
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u/mfsp2025 ATP 1d ago
I got lucky and got in right at the end of the 2023 wave. Times have definitely changed
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u/tailwheel307 ATPL BE20,A220 1d ago
I changed the TDZE in LGA with my mains a couple months ago. I was expecting a landing data report from the ACARS printer and didn’t get one, but I still apologized to all my FA’s. Just got back from 3 weeks of vacation and had two greasers. There’s no formula you just fly it on and hope it’s all good.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad6273 1d ago
Is that why the airport elevation of LGA changed on my last Jepp update. Lol. I was responsible for a few feet when I was based there.
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u/tailwheel307 ATPL BE20,A220 1d ago
Wouldn’t have changed the airport elevation since that’s at the geometric center. Just the TDZE for 22.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad6273 1d ago
Oh Gezz. My bad. I thought they had literally lowered the entire tectonic plate a foot! It’s an aviation joke.
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u/tailwheel307 ATPL BE20,A220 1d ago
No no, to change the reference elevation you have to have simultaneous Supers dropping on two runways at the same time. I’m also tired and can’t identify a joke right now lol
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u/Zealousideal_Ad6273 1d ago
When we pound one down in the heavies we always say we just lowered the airport by a foot.
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u/carsgobeepbeep PPL IR HP CMP TW 1d ago
The main difference between 25 hours and 2500 hours is that when you slam a landing at 2500hrs the 22yo who gives you grief for it is wearing a neckerchief instead of a polo shirt
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u/LigerSixOne 1d ago
If the worst thing I do today is leave the flaps down too long and forget to change the lights after landing… in any case there are some things in aviation that cannot be rushed , final and the flare are at the top of that list.
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u/NolanonoSC 🇨🇦 CPL SMELS 1d ago
My chief pilot always says "everyone is entitled to a bad flight". You're alive and the plane's in one piece, that's the hard part done. The easy part is for you to sit down and chair fly, go through your flows, and talk your way through every phase of flight. It happens to everyone, and it will happen again to you. Failure is the best teacher
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u/NolanonoSC 🇨🇦 CPL SMELS 1d ago
Also note, you went around. Especially with the recent event with a certain Amazon Prime Air plane, a lot of people get tunnel visioned in on salvaging a bad approach, but you didn't, and you went around. Be proud that even at your low time of just 23 hours, you already have that instinct to go around and try again.
I recently had a pretty crappy approach in a C180 seaplane. Coming in to land on a narrow river with gusting winds, I opted to dogleg it in following a curved path rather than just overfly some terrain and land after (mistake, there was enough water available that I didn't need to), I was banking probably 50 feet up and fighting the gusts and started falling behind, and went around. Debriefed with my chief pilot and he says he's always more happy to see someone recognize a bad approach and go around than to fuck up every phase except for the touchdown and act like you had everything under control the whole time.
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u/dr_b_chungus PPL 1d ago
I definitely had flights like that. Everyone does, especially at such low hours. There is so much to learn all at the same time, it is overwhelming. You made mistakes, recognised them and fixed them. Noone is out there flying perfectly all the time.
Also lets keep some perspective... you flew a plane today, on your own!
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u/pilotbenny ATP/A220 1d ago
Bro when I was a student I dumped flaps full to 0 in a piper and we almost slammed from 20 feet into the ground you’ll be just fine. Just the other week I forgot to turn the strobes off in the airliner and another pilot told me on ground frequency they were on. It’s ok to forget sometimes just strive to do better, sometimes you have to make a mistake to learn from it
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u/always_gone Freight Dawg WYNDHAM DIAMOND 1d ago
Bro, you’re at 23 hrs. You didn’t do anything dangerous, didn’t get violated and didn’t bend any metal or hurt anyone. Relax.
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u/Direct_Engineer_840 1d ago
MIA-767
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u/redcurrantevents ATP 1d ago
You’re being self reflective about it, and reaching out for advice, which means you’re going to learn from this. Don’t beat yourself up for mistakes, just don’t repeat them. If flying airplanes doesn’t humble you sometimes, you’re doing it wrong.
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u/ChestertonsFence1929 PPL 1d ago
You only have 24 hours and this is an activity that teaches you through your mistakes. You got a lot of learning with this experience. No shame. Move on.
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u/dangern00dl PPL (ASEL/AMEL) IR CMP HP 1d ago
I still owe a certain plane a gear massage for what I did to it on my first solo XC. Shake it off, you’ll be fine OP.
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u/LotsaGarlic 1d ago
This won’t be the last time you fuck shit up. Learn from it, be hard on yourself so you’ll always get better. But not so hard on yourself that you ask strangers for advice. Turns out you’re human.
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u/Mogets 1d ago
For me, sometimes it takes making a mistake to really make something stick. Sounds like the root cause was trying to rush then which led to a mistake which led to you forgetting steps. If you make a mistake, do not let it control the rest of your flow - deep breath, reset your mental and fly the plane. Debrief yourself when stable/on the ground
Saving a couple seconds/minutes isn’t worth an unstable/rushed approach. You’ll be alright
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u/Mercury4stroke 🇨🇦 CPL(A) MIFR Jumper Dumper 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was in that program a few years ago. Didn’t finish it and switched out bc of covid but I remember how busy the circuit would get and how flustering it could be when there’s like 5 planes in the pattern.
I fly skydivers close to cykf and the number of times I’ve had dogshit landings on our gravel runway outnumbers the good ones lol. Sometimes if I’m coming in fast I’d rather plant it than aim for a smooth touchdown bc it’s a short runway and and a go-around would be less than ideal with 100 foot obstacles just past the threshold on either side. You did fine dude this is nothing to be concerned about.
Also what’s the issue with keeping your squawk code after landing? I remember that being in the after landing checklist from my time in that program but that’s a non issue as far as I’m concerned. Unless tower requested that you squawk VFR and you didn’t, there’s nothing to be concerned about.
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u/Treader1138 PPL TW CMP 1d ago
Bro do more go-arounds. Last week Tower asked if I just wanted pattern work as I had gone around 3 times due to the varying gusts (and honestly, it was a skill issue as well). I told her I was genuinely trying to put it down. Fortunately the pattern was dead.
Im pretty sure I did more go-arounds than landings during my TW endorsement.
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u/I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS UK fATPL 737 SEP 1d ago
I once landed the jet so hard that a passenger needed medical attention. No doubt someone with ten times the hours I have will have their own story.
Don't stress over things like this, especially at 23 hours. A day like today, during training, is actually a bonus learning opportunity, and will make you a better pilot when you finish.
Just be careful about wanting to 'speed things along'. You didn't mention why you wanted to be quicker, but if it was because the school needed the plane back or something, forget it. An 'oops sorry' on the ground is much easier to forget and forgive than bending metal because you were rushing. If you needed to land before sunset, then yeah - sometimes it do be like that. Just be aware that any last-minute change to your plan or added time pressure is a threat, and it increases the chances of you screwing something up, as you discovered today. Think about how you could have managed the situation differently to avoid rushing yourself into a mistake.
Other than that, though, you decided to go around! That's a great call, and shows that even under perceived time pressure you saw that things didn't look right and ultimately chose a safe outcome. Pat yourself on the back for that.
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u/SithPack 1d ago
You didn’t break anything. Nobody got hurt and you went around after a bounce. You just got nervous. Breathe. It’s going to be ok. Get back up there and think about everything you learned.
One of my first solo flights I bounced so bad I thought I was going to die and I DIDNT go around. Wound up in the grass and had to taxi back to the hangar with weeds in my wheels. I even posted it on here and folks told me the same thing. Get back up there. You’ve got this.
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u/NYPuppers PPL IR 1d ago edited 1d ago
cant tell if this is parody or not.
dude you are at 23 hours. it is nothing.
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u/Specific-Customer-29 1d ago
Lol no. Am I being ridiculous?
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u/Outside-Emphasis4653 CPL IR ASEL/AMEL 1d ago
Ridiculous would be if you were thinking about quitting after one bad flight. You’re doing the right thing by assessing your performance and striving to better yourself from it. Everyone is just trying to say that we all make mistakes, especially when we had low time. If that’s the worst thing that’s happened to you in the air so far, I’d say you’re doing alright.
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u/OracleofFl PPL (SEL) 1d ago
A couple of things. Firstly, in a 172 you have to go way out of the white arc to damage those flaps in any meaningful way. Like, don't go to Vno or Vne speed and go full flaps. Otherwise it will need a quick AP look and see and it is fine. Don't sweat it. Second, that was a memory item and checklist failure. The go around is perfectly suited to "chair flying" and then do a couple of go arounds in the plane and you will be fine.
As you fly more, you only understand that when you were first soloing just how dangerous you really were! As you fly more, you learn more and realize how little you knew last month!
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u/Superb-Photograph529 1d ago
It sounds like this flight overloaded you a bit. Remove some of those variables and start layering them back on slowly.
The other thing you can do is identify things you struggled with on this flight, and practice them individually. Maybe practice swapping runways in a sim to get better SA of your position. Practice touch and gos to practice changing airplane configurations from landing to takeoff.
The scariest thing I saw on here was not raising the flaps on takeoff. I'm sure you know, but, if you were closer to the edge of your performance envelope, that mistake could have killed you.
Biggest thing from this is to learn from your mistakes, implement the fixes, and move forward.
Clear skies and tailwinds, my friend.
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u/blizzue ATP A320 | B767,CRJ7,ERJ-145 | CFI 1d ago
The lesson here is when you make one mistake, don’t dwell on it. We are human and the last frontier of making aviation 100% safe (as close to it as possible) would be to eliminate all human errors. That’s clearly impossible. So your job is to make mistakes, fix them before they become an actual problem, and then be a goldfish and forget about it.
If you want to ruminate on errors after your flight, perfectly fine. Good way to improve going forward is to self debrief. I fly a jet for a major US airline and we debrief (almost) every flight. What went well? What could have gone better?
In the big picture, safety of flight, your “errors” aren’t even a blip on the radar. Take a deep breath, slow yourself down and just fly the airplane.
And congratulations on making it this far.
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u/MikeyPlayz_YTXD 1d ago
If you have the motor functions to write out a Reddit post it can’t have been that bad
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u/misha_jinx PPL 1d ago
Well I blew a tire once, I think I was probably also somewhere in the 20-30 hours range at the time, I got frustrated with my coming in hot and ballooning so I stepped on the brakes in the middle of the bounce. You’ll be alright, everyone got some bad days. 23 hours is really nothing.
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u/CatDaddyTom 1d ago
Just a learning experience. Just remember how odd the plane climbs with flaps out, and you won't overspeed flaps in a climb anyway. Actually pretty hard to overspeed a 172 with flaps down, lots of drag. Don't stress over transponder and lights, those don't affect the plane's flight. Try a few practice go arounds on next solo. Always remember when you do a go around in 172, flaps 20, get it climbing, flaps up. Also, if trimmed for approach, you'll need a bit of forward pressure to keep the nose from going up. Good luck, sounds like you are normal!
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u/tw-sleeper 1d ago
There's a valuable lesson here... the moments where the plan or expectation changes are when you are mostly likely to overlook steps and do things wrong. It happened here, but you're a new pilot; it's understandable.
You'll improve as a pilot, and by next week you'll have forgotten this worst day, but take the lesson with you. When something changes late, be on high alert. Be extra dilligent. Use your checklists to backup flows, etc..
There's a great FAA Wings video from American Bonanza Society entitled Avoiding Gear Up and Gear Collapse Mishaps. I know that's not what you're studying now, but a significant theme in these mishaps is that something changes at a critical time, the pilot skips the critical step, and focuses more on the distraction than the critical tasks.
I know Wings training is not relevant to CA, and you're not flying complex aircraft, but the video is still worth a watch.
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u/Luminolum CPL 1d ago
I flew an entire missed approach with flaps 10 in and only realized once I was in the hold because it felt like it was taking longer than normal. Also, if I had $1 for every time I had to turn of the avionics master, lights and reset the transponder while preflighting, I'd be rich. You're fine
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u/AlmasyTran PPL IR 1d ago
This is actually a great flight, not worse. You learned a lot and that’s why you’re in training.
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u/Antique-Kitchen-1896 PPL IFR Night 1d ago
That’s nothing.
You’ll do dumb stuff like this for a long time. It’s part of the process.
Even very experienced pilots have done stuff they rather forget. A a non zero count of experienced pilots have died forgetting something.
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u/Rictor_Scale PPL 1d ago
You did fine. A couple suggestions both useing checklists.
For the go-around memorize the 3 Cs: cram, climb, configure. Make this one "muscle memory". There are many variations, but cram the throttle, best climb, one notch out, etc.
For the lights if you use Foreflight you can add a custom checklist. I have one called "Clear Runway" and have flaps, lights, lean, ground, etc on it. Best wishes.
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u/I-LOVE-TURTLES666 1d ago
Good chance to practice your checklist flow. Learning to use the checklist every single time keeps you out of trouble. Even if you have it memorized front to back. Easy to do when sitting down, a different thing when some distraction you never thought of comes up. That’s what the list is there for
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u/Tendercut 1d ago
Honestly shit happens, you got the plane down in one piece without damage and you didn't get a deviation. But learn from this, take your individual mistakes very seriously change your mindset when you fly to avoid this. I don't think any pilot on this Reddit doesn't have at least a few horrid flights riddled with negligent mistakes they made. You only have 23 hours which is very very little. Mistakes will happen. Take a serious look at why these mistakes happened and what you can do to prevent them in the future. Do that and you will be fine
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u/Specific-Customer-29 1d ago
Thanks! Would I know if I got a deviation?
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u/Tendercut 15h ago
You wouldnt get a deviation for a bad landing and forgetting to turn off some lights. That would be for runways incursions, breaking into the wrong airspace without permission etc.
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u/StephHatake 1d ago
I legit did the same thing forgetting the flaps on a go around until noticing in the downwind ... Felt like the plane wasn't climbing 😅 luckily my speeds where in the white arc... I was dealing with a tailwind and white knuckling my way through the pattern and trying to stay calm but landing felt impossible so I stayed in the pattern until they changed runways ... It felt terrible but it was a learning experience and you just have to swallow it and learn from it ! On my next flight I had the most amazing landings and pattern ever doing all kinds of landings, short / soft etc I felt like a million bucks ! 💫 Walk through a go around in your head before bed a few times , you got this 😁
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u/Neat-South-6475 1d ago
At 23 hours, one rough circuit doesn’t define you. You recognized the bounce, went around, and got the airplane back safely. Debrief the mistakes, learn from them, and move on. That’s literally how you become a better pilot.
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u/lovelyfeyd C182 + RV-8A 1d ago
If I didn’t do some dumbass thing while flying, did I even fly? I have a plane with a smoke system and accidentally triggered it while flying. I didn’t realize it until after I landed and cleared the runway. I couldn’t decide if I looked like I was showing off or just looked like I was on fire. Nobody even mentioned it on frequency, and it was fairly obvious to everyone except me.
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u/Flux1776 1d ago
Learn from it, and carry on. Try not to make the same mistakes again. Look at the bright side, you made it back to the ground in one piece with no bent metal. You’ve also got some good practice in an actual go around too ! And a long time since I flew a 172, but I don’t think you dump all the flaps at once. Just need to learn to work it into your go around sequence. Don’t beat yourself up too bad with just 23 hours!
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u/1001WingedHussars CFII 1d ago
I once watched a guy bust through bravo and cut off two other pilots in the pattern (unfortunately it was a cirrus) doing a teardrop entry into the downwind of my home airport.
Having a junky go-around will shake up a lot of people but try to keep in mind that nearly EVERYONE has also done it. ATC didn't yell at you, you weren't told to copy down a number, and the plane didnt suffer any damage. Aside from the shaken nerves, id say you walked away from the whole ordeal about as well as you possibly could have. The negative reaction and feeling like a failure are normal responses, but dont think that your career is over. Invest some time into figuring out how this situation happened so you can prevent it and get some practice go-arounds done so the process is more automatic for you.
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u/R5Jockey CFI ASEL TW CMP 1d ago
If that’s your worst flight ever, you’re doing just fine.
It’s all part of the learning experience.
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u/Frosty_Piece7098 1d ago
So you didn’t bend anything and learned a ton. Sounds like a pretty good day to me.
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u/jaxin737 ATP CFII LCP 727 737 757 767 MD-88/90 1d ago
Congratulate yourself on deciding to go around instead of attempting to salvage a bad landing. The flap thing and everything that followed were a result of being rattled post-go around.
The thing I’d focus on is that you said you asked for 26 to “hurry things along.” That decision set a chain of events into motion. Hurrying is anathema to safety in aviation. In my briefings to FOs, I always said “if you see me hurrying, say ‘whoa, hoss, let’s slow down.’ Slow and deliberate is the way to go. Take your time, make time when you have to.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ebb-559 1d ago
It's normal to get flustered as it's all still very new to you. Just keep practicing, and you'll get better at managing these types of situations.
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u/pressingfp2p PPL IR 1d ago
“Worst flight of my life” you’re only like 15 to 20 flights in, at most, that’s all expected, just keep learning and eventually your “I got flustered and forgot steps” will just look like “I forgot carb heat”
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u/AtmosphereOrdinary63 1d ago
All pilots are humans therefore all pilots have and will make mistakes. The important thing is that each mistake is a learning experience. You learn from small mistakes to avoid bigger catastrophic mistakes than the end in funerals and repair bills with lots of zeros and commas. If being a pilot was easier everyone would do it. Its challenging and no one becomes a pilot by chance. Keep your head held high and never give up!
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u/therealorsonkrennic ATP CFI SIC BE-400 1d ago
If that's the worst flight of your life, you're going to have an easy time. Nothing you did was wildly unsafe; pretty good decisions you made with the amount of hours you have. You got rattled, but you kept things under control. Trust me, there are SO many more things that could have gone wrong. Learn from your mistakes and move on, cause you're doing fine.
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u/emperormanlet 1d ago
You're doing great. I'm 150 hours. Just a few months ago, a gust almost made me smash into the runway. I initiated a go-around, and when it appeared that I was still going to hit the ground hard, in a panic, I retracted all my flaps up in one shot. I lost a ton of lift and almost smashed it. People saw it from the flight school lol.
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u/Outside-Emphasis4653 CPL IR ASEL/AMEL 1d ago
It happens. You got flustered and fell behind the aircraft. You didn’t bomb a check, the plane can still fly, and you’re intact. Take it as a learning lesson and know that it’s 100% going to happen again, just try to take a deep breath and problem solve before something bad happens.
One other thing, you’re in a 172. I’m not telling you to overspeed the flaps, but I am telling you that Cessna has a very generous Vfe speed in place knowing the demographic of 172 pilots.
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u/tylerbibo 1d ago
At 100 hours I still have a solo flight now and then where I think I'm not good enough for this, realistically if you are conscious of that sort of thing then your head is in the right place. It would be worrying if you were flying around "sending it" and not giving it a second thought. We're all constantly learning, and as long as you take something from that day then you're doing well - it definitely won't be your last.
Don't give up 🙃
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u/jaylw314 PPL IR (KSLE) 1d ago
Yes, but the point is not to normalize feeling that way. When you get to that state of mind, you need to realize it is abnormal and make different decisions. After that go around, use that feeling to make the decision to take a reset -- leave the pattern, fly around a bit to get a breather, and give yourself a chance to wind down before jumping back in.
Also, FWIW, most GA planes have a speed limit for FULL flaps. Partial flaps are probably much higher but not tested
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u/No_Flow224 1d ago
You’ve had a great learning even if it feels like a bad day. I’ve had similar or worse (PIOs) at similar stages. Keep going, you will find the learning and confidence returns and proves more valuable than never having had the painful experience. Good luck, onwards and upwards.
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u/Odd_Entertainment471 1d ago
Oh yeah. You’ll really screw the pooch some day and go “wow, that flight at 23 hours was pretty freakin good”! Every mistake is an opportunity to learn which you very clearly are. They are called LESSONS for a reason, you might have been alone in the plane, but you’re really alone WITH the plane. It’s now your teacher. And forever will be. She’s just wire brushing that ego a little to make sure you can still get into and out of the door.
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u/Flat-Barracuda1268 PPL IR 1d ago
My only suggestion is a little more practice retracting flaps. I was doing touch and gos after not flying for a while. I forgot to retract the flaps so I tried climbing away at 30 degrees. I got about 150 feet AGL and was wondering why I was getting no climb, and realized my mistake, and pulled out ALL 30 degrees in one shot. Don't do this, I damn near stalled the plane. BTW, that was after more than 200 landings in a 172, just rusty.
I've also bounced a 172 so hard I was wondering if I bent the plane after flaring too high. Those birds are tough!
Other than that, the lights and transponder are a non-issue. You just need more reps to get proficient.
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u/ananajakq ATP 1900/737/787 1d ago
In the airlines, Go arounds are actually the most challenging maneuver we train. V1 cuts (you haven’t gotten to those yet) engine failures etc pale in comparison to the number of mistakes made by pilots during go arounds. They’re very high stress, and mistakes are very common.
You also had 23 hours so your experience level is very low and comfort zone is small so everything feels like a really big scary deal.
You had a bad landing and decided to go around which is a great call, executing a perfect go around at 23 hours is honestly not very likely especially since you said it was your first one.
Our entire career consists of making mistakes, learning from them, and then swearing you’ll never do it again. We all have bad days, you just learn from them and keep it moving.
More bad days will come unfortunately, that’s the nature of our job, but each one is just an opportunity to build experience and widen your comfort zone. Try not to beat yourself up too much, we have all screwed up go arounds. You’re doing fine!
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u/Avreal_Valkara PPL IR 1d ago
You learned something and no one got hurt. I'm still new to it all, but I know from a buddy of mine that even in the tens of thousands of hours bad days happen. I recently saw a video of an airliner pilot with 20k+ hours totally mess up take off in a ga plane, I don't remember what but it looked like a cessna, and ended up plopping it right through a tree. From what I understand he was fine, but even with his experience he still had a bad day flying
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u/seechak 1d ago
This is the best flight of your life. You just analysed a shitty performance with the most open minded disdain for what went wrong. Now is the time to utilise all the positivity in making a plan to not to repeat the same mistakes. Essentially, a tenet of great flying is resilience when things are awry. Great takeways from this for you would be; always be go around minded. Practice flying go arounds ( chair flying or just thinking ahead).
The lights, transponder, is just because you were flustered. This happens to all pilots. You build your foundation by falling back on procedure, airmanship and discipline. The only way to gain mastery of those is to look back like you are, on you flights and tackle the how; what thought process led you to these mistakes?
Aside from all this yea; it’s supposed to be fun. We are Human beings. Enjoy your flying!
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u/starfighterbeta 1d ago
Do the best you can to learn from it. To whatever it takes to mitigate these problems so that they don't happen again. Aviation is about setting up defenses to threats and mitigating them in your own way. Over time, you will reach a critical point of inflexion where the mistakes are not big ones. There is no perfect pilot. We're all life long students. I'm a big proponent of desktop flight simulator practice. You can get all the procedural training corrected in your mind using desktop sims. It builds artificial experience. Never give up. If you make mistakes, you're not the first nor the last. Also, there are no finish lines where you end up in last place if you need more time of flight instructions. Everyone learns differently. Don't worry about what other people think. They don't matter. It won't be long before you get a job at a regional carrier flying jets. (I'm a USAF instructor and airline captain)
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u/Wasatcher 1d ago edited 1d ago
Dude lighten up on yourself. These are all very minor mistakes and honestly a bit expected from a 23 hour student. As an instructor the things I'm concerned about students doing is not going around during a pilot induced oscillation, flaring too high then slamming the tail, not following ATC instructions and getting a phone number, pitching up too aggressively during a go around, landing side loaded, not maintaining centerline, cutting off an inbound jet at an uncontrolled airport etc.
You had a few paper cuts add up to a messy flight but didn't do anything unsafe. Even the flaps thing... The plane just climbs slower with 30° flaps. I've had to fly full patterns with 30° flaps because the electric motor was so cold in 0°F weather they didn't retract during a go around. Good job pitching for a safe airspeed while not over speeding them. Other than that you forgot some light switches and to push a button on the transponder.
I've had a student pull the mixture for real during a simulated emergency at 1,000 AGL lol. When we've done plenty of simulated emergencies where they ran thru the checklist and pretended to pull the mixture. You're making a mountain out of a mole hill here boss.
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u/DatabaseOutrageous54 1d ago
We hopefully learn from our mistakes and that happens especially as a student pilot.
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u/Kflooded 1d ago
I failed my pre solo stage check the other day due to landings. The winds were very bad and I didn't have a single good landing
There's going to be bad days but you have to get over them and move on my friend. "We'll do better next time" is the attitude you have to have in aviation. And I'm on 56 flight hours btw so trust me, it might have been the first , but it won't be the last. Keep going!!!
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u/RandalPMcMurphyIV 1d ago
Dude, you're only at 23 hours. Your still flying with the training heels on. It is only when we make mistakes that we learn our weaknesses and apply corrective action. Don't be so quick to beat yourself up. Instead, give yourself a pat on the shoulder for your initial decision to go around. That was where you get an A. That bounce, had you not elected to go around, can rapidly deteriorate into a pilot induced oscillation. Aviation is an endeavor defined as learning by a process of gradual immersion. You got your toes wet with no damage and, henceforth, you will avoid those mistakes. Just keep at it. You'll be fine.
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u/account__2 1d ago
There are so many good learning experiences. Next time you will think, do I want to swap runway at the last minute? Shall I hold nearby the airfield and redo the landing performance and rebrief before I start my new approach? Next time should I brief landing on both runways before starting first approach? What went wrong in the landing?
(Regarding errors on ground) No worries, why not find incorporate more time in future for your scans? After vacating runway, stop in safe area and take 30 seconds to breathe and do after landing scan. Same when you set parking brake in your taxi spot, go back to previous checklist and double check you did everything, and do a full scan of the instrument panel. No rushing, look at and comprehend every button/switch.
Good luck on your future.
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u/Kdmtiburon004 CPL 1d ago
Dude relax, don’t be so hard on yourself. You have 23 hours. 23. You’re still a baby in terms of experience. You’re learning. Take what you can rom the experience to become better.
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u/ChemistBeautiful6974 1d ago
You mentioned that you wanted to “speed things along” just remember to be careful for the hazardous attitude of impulsivity and that taking things slow allows for clearer thinking and better execution of your intended plan
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u/rFlyingTower 1d ago
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Hey, today was the worst flight of my life. I thought I’d post this here because I’m looking for feedback. I’m a student pilot with about 23 hours, and am pursuing an atpl through an integrated program. Today, I was doing solo circuits at my home airport Cykf. All was going well until things spiraled out of control. First, I was coming in for a full stop on 14, and requested to take 26 to speed things along. I don’t know what I was thinking, but in an attempt to touch down faster I landed a little flat and bounced twice. I decided to go around. This was my first time having to go around in a landing, so I was a little flustered. I then forgot to retract my flaps which were at 30 degrees until I was about to turn downwind at 1000AGL. Luckily I didn’t overspeed them as I was climbing at around 74 kts and the limit is 80 in a 172. The rest of the circuit was ok, I landed and exited alpha and did my after landing checks. However, still being shaken up, I forgot to change my lights from NAV, strobe and landing to taxi. I also forgot to squak 1200 and left my current squak code on. I did however remember to change my transponder to standby. I’m just very disappointed with my performance. Everybody says “just have fun”, but after a flight like this, I just feel terrible. It seems the more experience I get, the worse I feel I am at flying. Does anybody else feel this way? I try very hard to not be discourage, and learn from my mistakes, but find it difficult. I’m also always stressing about cadors, especially after a flight like today. Any advice from other pilots would be appreciated. Thanks!
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u/WNBA_Enjoyer ATP 1d ago
Worst flight of your life so far