5th flight - No joy.

That's one of the things I've "always" hated about preflight inspections.
No matter how thorough I thought I was, I always felt there was something
I'd missed. It's a learning process, Kevin, there will be things that slip
by you. For now, that's what the instructor is for. Later, whether they're
an instructor or not, it's always helpful to have a second set of eyes
looking things over.

On thing's for certain, you won't miss "that" little drop of oil again! ;-)

Fly Safe,
Steve R.


"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz *AT* adelphia *DOT* net wrote in
message ...
Closer inspection shows a small drop forming on the underside of the
tail boom. I felt pretty damned stupid for not catching that one, but
learned one more thing to look for when I'm preflighting the ship.
I'm really annoyed with myself because I run my hands over the
tailboom twice as I'm preflighting to check for secure mounting bolts,
dings and missing rivets.. I bet my hand wasn't half an inch from
that drop more than once and I still missed it.

The other Kevin said:

Someday I hope to be one of those guys
with thousands of hours and dozens of "oh ****" moments to share.

I sincerely hope you make it to the thousands of hours mark, but with any luck
you will have very few of the "oh ****" moments.

Most of my moments seem to be of my own making and own stupidity!

Most of my moments came from a self-induced pressure to go out and get the job
done. Pilots as a group are very goal oriented. Sometimes it is very hard to
change a plan once you have set it in motion. In flight instruction you learn
the aircraft and the regs, but getting out in the "real world" you will find a
whole new set of pressures, and have to figure out ways of dealing with them.

Remember, it is always better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air,
then to be in the air wishing you were on the ground.

Jim