Whos In Charge?

I started my lessons (at 50 years old!) at an airport called Howell-New Lenox in Illinois. On my first solo, I had to go around due to a back taxi by another student with his instructor (my first exposure to being PIC in a two-pilot operation. But I was cool; I also learned that I was pretty calm in an abnormal situation-when Im alone.

Editorial Staff

Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

During his early flight training, the author experienced both a challenging solo go-around and an incident where a lack of clear communication during a control exchange with his instructor resulted in a minor, low-speed nose-in to a snowbank.
The incident, despite causing no damage, highlighted confusion over pilot in command (PIC) responsibility and underscored the instructor's ultimate role in ensuring flight safety.
As a direct result of these experiences, the author now strictly enforces the FAA's "positive exchange of controls" discipline ("Your airplane—my airplane—your airplane") in all flights with others to ensure clear communication and prevent misunderstandings.

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A few weeks later, after the runways had been plowed after a recent snow, my instructor and I were on short final when she thought I was not going to stay between the snow banks on the sides of the runway. She took control—but didn’t say anything, so I didn’t relinquish control. We did land on the runway, but on rollout we swerved at the runway intersection and nosed into snowbank. We were at very low speed, so we just pulled the plane out and taxied back to the FBO. No damage—just snow under the cowling.