AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2023 - 44

MARCIN WOLSKI
BRIEFING
MUSINGS /
Hanging it up
Saying thank you to the gods of flight and moving on
BY WAYNE PINGER
Then, as I was
announcing my turn to
base, I noticed my radio
was not tuned to unicom.
Oops, my bad, I thought,
and then realized I had
just completed two touchand-go
cycles with my
radio tuned off frequency.
Crap, was the singular
comment of my little internal
voice, and I quickly
tuned the radio properly
and re-announced my
turn to base, this time a
little sheepishly. But, OK,
I thought, No harm, no
foul, hoping the gods of
flight hadn't noticed my
little radio faux pas. Now
I was a little high, damn
distractions, so, when just
starting to turn final the
little voice suggested that I
should pay more attention
OK, NOW, JUST ONE MORE CYCLE, one additional trek around the pattern, and this time
keep it tight. I said this to myself when departing, climbing out at 300 feet, and
turning crosswind after my second touch and go.
Greased that one in, said my little voice proudly. Not all that bad for a man in his
ninth decade; and the little tremors in my left hand are hardly noticeable, they didn't
bother the landing a bit; hardly.
So, I was pretty happy and smiling internally while giving my ego a needed and
a well-deserved attaboy. It was a wonderful clear 65-degree Fahrenheit day at the
Merlin Airport in the Rogue Valley in southwestern Oregon. Nearly perfect with
only a slight, maybe two-knot right crosswind component on Runway 31; it barely
moved the windsock.
A few minutes later, on downwind at 90 knots, when just parallel to the numbers,
I reduced the power to idle, trimmed the nose, and grabbed the carburetor
heat. It was all in just one smooth coordinated motion that I had done hundreds
of times. Pretty slick, I thought. My little Cessna was at 1,000 feet agl and slowing
down; I was looking for 80 knots so I could drop 20 degrees of flaps.
OK, that seems about right. As I reached to the right to lower the electric flap
control, a Piper Cherokee was making a straight-in, but not a word on unicom. I
wondered why he hadn't announced; he obviously should have heard me and should
have said something. I thought, pretty poor radio procedure, and decided to mention
it, although I would wait until he was clear of the runway.
44
AOPA PILOT / January 2023
to my checklist. No problem, but stop bugging
me. I've been here and done this a hundred times.
Right now, I have an airplane to land, I'll work on
the checklist thingy later.
But then both unexpectedly and quite
sternly, my little voice spoke up again, this time
with a bit more volume: You're 80 years old and
getting more than just a little forgetful, stop trying
to build your ego and put this silver bird on
the numbers one last time, and then just park it.
Do it now, flyboy, before you hurt yourself.
Grudgingly I set up to do as the little
voice suggested, and although it was not a
hot day, a few beads of sweat appeared on my
forehead as the airplane seemed to float forever,
much farther down the runway than I
planned. It was a bit bumpy, and as I turned
left when taxiing off the runway toward my
hangar, I reached over to the right to raise
the flaps and noticed I had never put them
down. This was not good. As I arrived at the
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2023

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