ASRS Reports

I was using Foreflight for flight planning and airspace avoidance purposes. I was not aware that on the airspace menu the tab for SUA had been set to the “off” position. I was following a direct path between ZZZ1 and ZZZ, which resulted in flying directly through the restricted area completely unaware of its existence.

Everyone, including Approach, is well aware of this and they are forced to hand off in-bound traffic to New Braunfels Tower way too early and Tower, being non-radar, is blind to that traffic until acquiring them visually.

From now on I will make sure to have a more “big picture” understanding before rolling for takeoff — I was thinking why did I not see him on my ADS-B and I realized because both my GPS units were zoomed in to airport taxi diagrams.

I was very lucky to have made the airport before oil starvation and engine seizure, which could have occurred minutes later.

For this reason, I will carry this lesson with me through the rest of my flying career and be hyper vigilant about entering the correct altimeter setting.

Even the smallest routine should not be taken slightly and, with this being said, I hope that others can learn from my mistake and avoid making the same mistake that could have potentially cost us our lives. Create your own checklist before getting into the plane with your student, analyze all aspects of the situation, and do not get complacent.

I should have stopped with the first indication the brakes weren’t as I expected. I am super glad there was no equipment damage and that I didn’t just fly off somewhere.

I turned my head left to look out the side window hoping to make sense of what I was seeing but the pitch blackness with only a couple lights was of no help. I immediately looked at my attitude indicator and what I saw made my head spin!

A CFI reports his flight school gives his student the green light for his first solo — on the CFI’s day off. Things did not go well.