The weather seemed to be building to a thunderstorm. I called my instructor earlier and asked if he thought the weather was okay. He said that we could work in the traffic pattern and stay close to the airport. I pre flighted and as we taxied he asked me where the thunderstorms were coming in from. I had to admit that I didn't actually check on that. I had just checked on the winds and clouds. I admitted to him that I had a rough pre-weekend but that I felt that I could keep my head in the flying game. I was wrong.
We had complete chaos on what was turning out to be an okay Thursday evening. It was our last day at work and I was all set to leave early for my birthday weekend. Just before we were ready to head in for shift change we got the call for an injury accident. When we arrived on the scene we found that a women had accidentally run over four of her family members in a parking lot. The woman had hit the gas instead of the brake while parking. We arrived to find the driver's 75 year old mother-in-law down and unconscious, another family member with both of her arms partially amputated, and the driver's 4 month old daughter unresponsive. In addition the family, including two young girls, was around them and were understandably horrified and screaming. I watched my partner hold the little baby in his arms. The baby was still and quiet with her eyes wide open. The only sounds were the screaming of her mother as she pulled and grasped at us. There was little we could do to comfort her or help the child. My partner administered infant CPR and turned her over to the paramedics who had just arrived. A wash of helplessness came over me. I assisted the woman with the severed arms not even realizing as I held her left arm that it was 50% amputated above the elbow. The paramedics began to clear the victims from the scene and load them up for med-evac by State Police helicopter. The driver proceeded to faint and before the night was over the women who had been holding the baby went to the local hospital with non life threatening injuries. It was hard to keep it together. We busied ourselves with the crash investigation. A call to Johns Hopkins Childrens Hospital later on confirmed our fears. The baby was not doing well and would most likely not survive. I am still unsure even four days later whether or not the baby has died. The last update I got lead me to believe that the family was going to discontinue life support and arrange the funeral.
All of this led to the admission to my flight instructor that I was still stinging from the events four days ago.
We took off and went around the pattern. There was a crosswind from left to right on final. I was determined not to land hard this time. Since I was a little too high on final we performed a forward slip to landing. These were getting more and more fun. I got us over the runway and sank down, rounded out, flared and... no bounce but a pretty healthy side load on the main gear. Success, sort of. I didn't land hard but I did impose the side load on the main gear. At least I didn't break the airplane. We taxied around and made our way back to the runway for takeoff. I was excited to have made a "better" landing but my mind was wandering. Another takeoff and another time around the pattern. We arrived too high on final and I made the decision to go around. My instructor concurred as we went around for another try.
Around we went. I had some trouble keeping the centerline and the crosswind was forcing me to the right. My instructor asked me to get my left wing down to compensate. We touched down off center and I really had to get on the rudders. We went zig zagging down the runway before I got us under control. After that I could tell that I wasn't giving this my undivided attention. I told my instructor that we were going to "knock it off" for the day and try again later. Besides that the weather was starting to get worse. I ended up with 0.5 Hrs, 2 landings, and three times around the pattern. Not too bad.
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