Distractions? Very distracting.

I thought I had no problems with distractions. After all, I'm a highly
trained and experienced pilot. But today I was taking some friends out
flying, and just as we were leaving the class C airspace I noticed a bit
of a strange noise - and I looked over and realized the door wasn't
closed. I slowed the plane to 80 knots and tried to get the passenger to
close the door, but he couldn't do it. Unlike the club's other aircraft,
the Lance doesn't have a strap you can yank on to pull the top of the door
closed.

Now you and I both know there is nothing wrong with having the door open
except for the breeze and noise, and the potential for having your charts
whisked out of your hand at a bad time. But I didn't want to do a two
hour scenic flight with all that noise and wind.

Fortunately, Ledgedale Airpark was about a mile off my right wingtip. So
I told Rochester departure that I'd be making a landing there, and did a
180 degree turn to enter the pattern. But I was having a terrible time in
the pattern. The winds at Ledgedale down low were gusty as hell. But I
can't blame the horrible pattern I flew entirely on the gusts - my speed
control was ridiculous. I heard the stall horn a few times, I got the
"Landing Gear Unsafe" light a few times before I put the gear down. I was
so low on final I had to put in full throttle so I wouldn't touch down a
dozen feet short. And then my landing was, to put not too fine a point on
it, a bit firm. I must have let the door distract me. And that's not
good.

I guess it's time to spend some time with an instructor re-learning how to
deal with distractions.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
ALL programs are poems, it's just that not all programmers are poets.
-- Jonathan Guthrie in the scary.devil.monastery