P3 Check: The Day Murphy's Law Strikes

10.00am, 20th Nov, 2007: Ring...Ring...Ring...Damn! Who would have call me at this time early in the morning. "Hello, this is the planner speaking. You have been bumped off again for P-check tomorrow". What the hell? I have already waited 10 days for P-check and still couldn't get it done. How much longer should I wait and be stuck with the Cessna 172? Feeling grumpy, I threw down all the charts and maps. Bah! Another unproductive day ahead. Might as well just relax for now and prepare my flight another time.

1.30PM: Ring...Ring...Ring..."Hello, this is the planner again. You're up for P-check." "Oh, that's great. When will it be?" "It is 1 hour from now." I nearly fell from my chair. WTF? How on earth can one be prepared when the flight normally needs 2 hour planning ahead and also some revisions the day before? "Who will be the instructor?" "It's Andrew Spencer." Hmm...wait a minute. Now that changed the whole scenario. I did my P2 check with him as well. It was great and fun to fly with him. "OK! I take it."

When I got over to the ops room, I only had another 30 minutes. Oh no, this is getting bad. In a rushed and unprepared state, this where Murphy's Law comes to strike. Started the engine of VH-YXZ, but the ADF was found not working. Crap! More delays. Managed to change to another aircraft of VH-BZI. But by this time, my departure time was already 30 minutes behind schedule. Everything seemed fine after I took off. But Murphy visited us again. Unknowingly, the DGI had precessed more than 10deg from the compass. I was darn sure of it being set correctly as I had synchronized it just before entering the runway. Also on a climb, it was still showing 240 and I was aligned with the runway. I was flying all over the place trying to figure out what went wrong. There was no way to tell the problem as I was in a climb and cannot synchronize the DGI yet. Perth Radar started to call in to inquire about the erratic movement of my aircraft. Only when I reached the top of climb, I was able to find out the problem and quickly rectified it. By this time, I have already lost half the confidence. Add in the bad turbulence, my concentration was thrown off further.

On the way back, I had already lost all hope on this flight and was prepared to repeat it. Andrew broke the silence and said overall the sortie was a pass. I couldn't believe what I just heard. I wished I could have done better and I felt so bad at that moment. He said he will not pass a student without any reason. That lifted up my spirit. I kept thinking about the bad things and never see the good points in my flight. He was right when he advised me to correct the mistake found and then move ahead, don't dwell on the past. Thanks Andrew, for your advice and the flight.

So, that was my last flight on a single engine Cessna172. Till now, I have already completed 3 phases and will be entering the final phase. Baron, here I come!