Unlucky or skill issue?

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Creative-Grocery2581@reddit

You will do fine next time. Sounds minor fixes.

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I mean, it’s unlucky that they just opened a new runway but the extending downwind is common. How many other wide runways did you practice on before the ride? You CFI hopefully took you to a reasonable amount of other airports with wide runways.

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YourLeaderSays@reddit (OP)

I mean not a whole lot. I have landed on the wider runway a couple of times but its always usually a normal runway our school uses as ATC uses the wide ones for takeoffs and landings and re-routes us to use the narrow one for touch-and-go practice. Our school just does touch-and-gos at our airport, I think I've only gone to other airports 2 or 3 times with different instructors. I've flown to different airports during solos but I'm not doing touch and gos for solos and only touch down once.

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TheJohnRocker@reddit

How many hours of solo do you have? It can help build confidence flying to other airports if your CFI is willing to sign off.

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burnheartmusic@reddit

Ah bummer. Ya I was taken to multiple airports all around the area to get a variety of different experience. It’s something you should think about when doing ifr training. Make sure to do a bunch of different approaches around your area so you don’t get stuck on something you’re not used to

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Lumpy-Salamander-519@reddit

I feel a few hours away for my ppl so I get the whole new environment/runway thing. It does suck but it’s just something u have to deal with like u said. Everyone messes up at some point. Once u pass commercial, everything else is a joke. I now have no idea how I ever struggled with landing on a dime. It just took a bit lol. U will get there, keep ur head up, keep grinding, and u will be shocked by how quick shit just clicks.

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Manifestgtr@reddit

I had a similar thing happen on my checkride…it was at a totally unfamiliar class c (and actually the first time I’d flown into a class c). It wasn’t a width issue but simply a lack of familiarity with EVERYTHING and I ended up carrying a few extra psychological knots, landing longer than intended for every single approach. Luckily, the DPE saw what was going on and either took pity on me or decided that, while I was clearly a moron, I wasn’t a particularly dangerous moron.

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ElPayador@reddit

Congrats 🍾 It’s a pass / fail exam… Now go flying… Next IFR!! My advice: make most trip >50 miles and land (IFR) / look for Delta airports (tower) / ask for Flight Following often / real grass strips / practice soft / short TO & L and always keep looking for a place to land if your engine quit NOW!! memorize engine failure check list and practice that (eyes closed & sequence touching the nobs) and SLIPS!!! You are going to need them!!

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shockadin1337@reddit

You're gonna do great next flight and be so happy to walk away with your temporary airmans certificate

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hawker1172@reddit

I like your attitude. Fix the issue pass and move on

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AlexJamesFitz@reddit

Seconded. Something to think about: As a PPL and beyond, you'll be going to lots of different runways with various dimensions. Spend some more time with your CFI going to different kinds of airports/runways, which they really ought to have been doing anyway.

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Nnumber@reddit

Looks like a good self assessment of an area that can use some brushing up. Keep the altitude of “what do I need to do to be a safe private pilot”.

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SPRITZ69420@reddit

First time i took some friends up for a ride after I got my ppl was an xc. We went to 2 airports. Good landings at both then when we landed back to drop them off it was evening and the sun was staring directly at me. Hardest landing I've done in a minute fs and that's the one that they recorded ofc 😅.

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SaratogaFlyer@reddit

We all have off days. Chin up, practice, retest and you’ll be a certificated pilot in no time.

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cobinotkobe@reddit

Two things can be true at once: it’s unlucky that the DPE discovered your skill issue. No need to get discouraged though. Everyone has skill issues, especially as a low hour pilot. Just gotta work on those issues and move forward.

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hetheria@reddit

I feel like this was a pretty unlucky situation for me but I also just need to get better because these types of situations will happen in the real world as I'm flying to different airports with different runways.

Good attitude to have. Runway width illusions are in the PHAK for a reason. It's totally fine to vent, but don't dwell.

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

I'm leaning more on skill issue, but I took my oral and checkride today. Did everything pretty good except for emergency decent and landings.

For emergency, I did everything fine other than landing with a tailwind rather than a headwind as I misinterpreted where the wind farms were pointed, but my DPE gave me a pass on it as everything else was fine and we still would have landed.

As for my landings... 😬

I thought I would do best on landings but I guess that made me overconfident? I also got a completely new runway that was under construction the whole summer and opened a week ago, so I haven't flown on this runway at all. Its the widest (I think, maybe second widest) runway we have, but I've only flown on the thin runway. So today on my checkride, I got a new, thicker runway to land on, and had the evening sun glaring directly at my face making the landings even harder. Not only that but other planes were in the pattern as well making me extend my downwind which also didn't help me setup correctly for landings.

I feel like this was a pretty unlucky situation for me but I also just need to get better because these types of situations will happen in the real world as I'm flying to different airports with different runways. I don't know what the point of my rambling is just wanted to share and get this off my chest as I'm kind of disappointed in failing. Better luck next time I guess.

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