Well, I dodged a bullet yesterday... a $5000 dollar bullet. Thank God, and Don from the airport for all the help. I'll quote from a post I made at JetThrust.com to make it easier... Man, I'm dumb...
"I don't feel like being bashed, but I thought I'd share a story for the learning aspect of it.
"I went on a nice cross-country flight yesterday, with a couple of friends from my church who happen to be working on their private licenses. We flew to Brampton from Sarnia (my home base), left in the afternoon, about 2:30, and flew a VFR flightplan. The trip there was great, uneventful, and it gave them a chance to hear Toronto Terminal and get a feel for ATC. After landing, I called the flight school to let them know we were there safe and sound, then closed my flightplan with FSS. We spent a couple of hours in Brampton, and about 6:30 we were back at the airport ready to fly back to Sarnia, I called the flight school and left a message that we were leaving (they close up shop about 5:00, but the CFI was going to meet us to put the plane away), filed my flightplan for the return trip (1:45 min.), and we were on our way by 7:00
"The trip back was a little bit stressful because there was a front that was coming towards Sarnia from Michigan that was supposed to bring rain with it, so my mind was on that most of the way back until I saw that it wouldn't be factor (saw the city from about 40 miles away). We landed in Sarnia at 8:25 and taxied in and shutdown... the CFI helped put the plane into the hangar, and we sat around and talked for an hour or so.
I went home, and sat down on the computer and was talking to some friends when, at 10:25, I get a call on the phone. It's the police... they're looking for me. SHIT! I forgot to close my flightplan! (Add in some more expletives that you can imagine). I quickly explained to the officer what had happened, and he gave me a direct number for the London FIC. I called them, and they were glad to hear from me, and mentioned that the SAR weren't in the air yet, but they were getting ready to do a search (SH*T!). So, let this be a lesson to all, including myself... DID YOU CLOSE YOUR FLIGHTPLAN???
"I still can't believe that I did that, and I feel like a total idiot... but, the lesson has been learned. Now lets hope that the CFI and the owner of the flight school don't kill me... Fire away with the snide comments, folks, I deserve it! That's one more mistake I won't make ever, ever again. Anyone have any tricks for making sure they don't forget? I'm thinking about putting a little sticker on the dashboard of my car that says "Closed your flightplan?" "
The end... so now I'm terrified of forgetting again... doubt I will!
No comments:
Post a Comment