Every flight is a lesson

Of everything that draws me to flying, there are two key aspects which rank towards the top: the ability to share the experience with others; and the challenges to your brain you encounter in every phase of every flight. 

Since I first got my license, I have always enjoyed taking people up with me.  I can't remember the last time I went up by myself - I view an empty right seat as a wasted opportunity.  Whether it is the excitement when someone sees the approach end of a runway for the first time out the front of an airplane or the questions from a passenger as their curiosity unfolds as the flight progresses, I really value the opportunity to take a non-pilot up (repeat customers are just as fun as first-timers).  What about flying buddies?  Talk about really enhancing the experience; I'll address my opinion of the endless possibilities of flying buddies in a future post.

Having recently been checked out in our flying club's Piper Dakota, I've been eager to take my wife up and show off all of the neat ins and outs of the airplane (and also provide a first-hand advertisement of where a high performance machine can take us).  So, I sort of threw together a rough flight plan to head out to the northwest of KPWK to enjoy the perfect flying conditions and do some aimless flying.  I like doing this when I'm new to an airplane to sort of re-familiarize myself / make sure I know where everything is so that there are no hesitations when I'm in the traffic pattern and other critical phases of flight.

Anyway, after cruising around Chicago's far northwest suburbs / southern Wisconsin, I wanted to pop into Schaumburg Regional Airport (06C) for a quick dinner at Pilot Pete's.  I've never been (which is embarrassing since it is like a ten-minute flight, max, from KPWK) and my recently instituted goal is to fly to a different airport as frequently as possible. As has been my luck recently, the weather for our flight was perfect - no clouds, surface winds of about 10 kts (perfect for some crosswind practice) and unlimited visibility.  We started our takeoff roll at the best time of day to fly, when the sun is nearly down, but there is enough light to still see what you are doing.  Tell me after watching this that you do not agree:

Shortly after the footage ended, we were rocketing to the northwest at about 1,800' MSL when ATC called to let us know that they weren't getting a read from our transponder. Within 30 miles of O'Hare, you are required to have an operative Mode C transponder (this is a device that essentially allows ATC to see your position/altitude on their radar screens) and so I needed to make a decision.  My first instinct was look down at the transponder (in the lower half of the right side of the instrument panel in this particular aircraft) and flip the switch on and off a few times and then cycle the numbers as well to see if anything was stuck.  ATC didn't pick up anything after my initial attempt to resolve. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be FLYING the aircraft.  As I've said before, I think it is easy to get fixated on all of the neat screens / instruments you have in a modern aircraft and forget that the most important information is located outside of the windows.  Thankfully, right about this time, I had a reminder of this lesson as we passed a Cessna 172 (coincidentally, the same 172 I used to fly in my pre-LEFC days) which was doing 360's in the northwest corner of PWK's airspace.  I had to deviate a bit to stay clear and that woke me up to the fact that there are always other aircraft, birds...etc. which you need to see to be able to avoid.

Because of this, I wanted to get out of the area, gain some altitude and take a logical approach to the matter rather than just terminating the flight early - it's hard enough to find time to get out to the airport as often as I would like, and we did not have a problem which would necessitate an immediate landing. So, we took advantage of flying outside of the transponder-required area for a while by cruising over Fox Lake and then up to Lake Geneva, where we traced the entire lake before deciding to return to base.  Once I reconnected with PWK ATC, they kindly let me know that the transponder was still not operational and therefore Pilot Pete's wasn't in the cards for this flight.   

I think one could walk away from our experience with one of two perspectives.  On one hand, you could say that we did not meet the objectives we set for the evening and had to terminate the flight early, thereby deeming the flight a failure.  I prefer the alternative in that we got to go flying and made the most of the opportunity that presented itself.  We certainly got to enjoy the great weather conditions from the air, log some time and learned a few things while doing so.  Success?  Absolutely.  A year or two ago, I likely would have made the decision to abort the flight shortly after getting the initial notification about our issue from ATC.  Back in the day, my first instinct at the hint of any abnormality was to terminate the flight and call the aircraft owner or my CFI to initiate resolution.  An example of this is when, shortly after I got my license, I returned to our parking spot and called my CFI when the magnetos were fouled in run-up.  A quick and simple problem-solving technique (which I should have thought of myself) applied by my CFI and we were on our way again shortly thereafter.  As my experience has increased, I've added the essential element of the decision-making process of assessing whether I can try to resolve the situation myself. 

Besides being representative of increased awareness and skill as a pilot, I think this element of decision-making is essential to maximizing the experience for non-pilot passengers.  If you have a big RPM drop in the run-up before takeoff, you don't need to just taxi back to the hangar and declare a maintenance issue.  Likewise, when faced with an inoperative transponder, we didn't need to land right away, nor did I need to address the situation immediately.  My opinion on dealing with things that happen in flight (or when you are about to go flying) is to first determine whether it is an emergency; second, continue to ACTIVELY fly the airplane (appropriate use of the autopilot meets this standard); and then take the best course of action.  In our case, both my passenger and I enjoyed our flight with only minimal interruption.

We pilots need to do all that we can to dispel common misconceptions held by the non-pilot community that flying is incredibly dangerous.  Being in control of the situation in the cockpit and making rational decisions when unplanned situations arise is one step in that direction.