DOZED AND CONFUSED
Brody's been showing off his newly acquired two seater and I'm an honored guest riding up front. It’s the end of a long day and being a passenger has rocked me nearly to sleep, but as he turns final it occurs to me I should wake up and at least observe, just on principle. First thing I see is the shadow of an airplane at one o’clock moving parallel with us, and instantly I slam the stick left. In Brody's mind, of course, his former instructor grabbing control means, for whatever reason, I'm now pilot in command.
How many things are wrong with this picture? As legitimate pilot in command, Brody, not I, had properly cleared for traffic beforehand and was doing everything right. He was already on final approach with spoilers deployed for a steep descent before I jumped in unprepared and flew my entire circle in that configuration, numbly spilling most of our remaining height before getting back around to the runway. (Fact is, given the low sun angle of winter, an aircraft casting that shadow could not be anywhere near us; our shadow is a quarter mile off the other way!) These critical few seconds I search desperately over both shoulders to find the bogey that isn’t there – never thinking of the spoilers until we’re completing my turn and I realize how low we are.
Meanwhile, the pilot of the other craft is living a different story. A potential ‘transition’ student, he’d phoned that morning and arranged to fly in and take a look at our operation. Arriving hours later, he radioed, but we were not on frequency. Seeing us begin my low-level, high-drag circle, he also circled back (the opposite direction) then flew a pass down the runway a hundred feet above us as we rolled to a stop and dropped a wing. Unfamiliar with ordinary glider operations and not favorably impressed, he’d seen enough and flew away, never to return.
A reasonable critic could start anywhere and shred this story:
No radio
Inattention by an ‘active’ participant
Absence of situational awareness (only on my part)
Hasty, unthinking response
Erratic behavior in potential traffic
Bad public relations
And so on.
You could also fault Brody for too easily relinquishing control and responsibility — but coming from his former instructor that would be worse than unfair. Anyway, he knows better now!