Every pilot at some point has a really embarrassing story, right? That's how they come up with callsigns. Well, here is how I almost got mine, sooner than I expected.
It had been a rainy day, I encountered a fierce storm on my way to the airport, at the same location we were planning to fly to. But by the time I got to the airport, things were clearing up. We were going to go out and practice landings at a rural airport, and there weren't too many other planes around because of the stormy sky.
The air was nice and calm on the way over there. It was a few hours before sunset but darker than usual because of the cloud cover. I wasn't familiar with the area, so my instructor, Chuck, pointed out the airstrip, and we approached to enter on the downwind leg of the traffic pattern. As I turned to final, I could see I was not aligned with the runway at all, so I decided to go around. I made my announcement on the radio and opened the throttle, raised the flaps, etc.
Well I was fairly new to using the radio, and still timid. It was still hard to remember the things I was supposed to say when, or even remember what to call my aircraft on the radio. As we climbed back to the traffic pattern, I looked behind me to see if I was finally lined up with the runway... and couldn't see it at all. Now, maybe the land was the same darkness as the runway since the clouds blotted out all the sunlight, but I really couldn't tell where it was. But I had just been over it 2 seconds ago!
Still amazed by this fact, it was time to turn to the crosswind leg of the pattern. I keyed the mic to announce my turn, but instead of doing that, I said "How did I LOSE the RUNWAY!?" I looked over at Chuck, expecting an answer, and saw the shocked and amused look on his face. I looked down at my thumb, which was still on the push-to-talk button, and quickly removed it. Something had gone wrong, but I couldn't exactly place it.
"You just said that on the radio!" Chuck said, laughing. But I was still expecting him to explain how I had lost the runway. "Here, I'll show you." He finished turning the plane to the crosswind leg of the pattern, and it was right there out the window. Wow, I felt smart.
But wait, I had just said WHAT on the radio? Hadn't I made the radio announcement and THEN told him about losing the runway? Looking back moments before, I realized that is not what happened. I started to blush with embarrassment. "I just said that on the radio?"
"Your finger was on the push to talk button!" Chuck said.
"Well..." I said, trying to think of something to make it better, "but there's no one else here at the airport, so no one heard me, right?" I said with a hopeful smile.
Chuck just shook his head, "This frequency is used by several airports in the area, maybe they heard you."
"AUGH!! I don't want to talk on the radio anymore, you do it!!" I said, nearly relinquishing the controls, as embarrassment turned my face red.
"No, you're going to keep talking on the radio!" he said with a mischevious smile, not letting me escape from my duties.
"Fine!" I said indignantly, facing the seemingly endless opportunities for further embarrassment. Well I was going to do it right this time! I attempted to recover quickly, making my next radio comments sharp and exact, even though half the time I forgot what to say until the last moment. I was still flustered, but there were landings to be done, and I was still figuring out how to think about everything at once. I knew I couldn't let Chuck do the radio communications forever if I was ever to fly on my own.
We got back to our home airport in good time, after an otherwise uneventful though educational flight. No one ever responded to my unusual radio communication, but one thing is for sure: Chuck will never let me live it down!
