When I was a new pilot I got in hot water with a controller one time, and rightfully so, for forgetting to tell him I was on a three-mile final, as he’d requested I report to him. I could have made a couple of reasonable excuses, including that it was a busy flight (which it was) and that there was a lot of radio congestion (which is why, I now realize, that he wanted me to report), but the bottom line was, he asked me to report, I didn’t, and he was surprised to see me on short final. The real reason is, that I was so busy with other things, I forgot that he’d asked me to report. It was a stupid mistake.
It’s natural to forget to do something when you’re busy with a thousand other things. For me one of the biggest ones is remembering to turn off the hose when I’m watering a part of the garden that’s out of sight. After trying in vain for the longest time to “be better about remembering,” whatever the heck that means, I simply started setting a timer on my phone to remind me to turn off the water, or I should say, “to turn off the water, stupid.” The phone trick works.
