I showed up at the airport today ready to fly — the ceiling was around 4,000ft, winds were a calm 3-4kts, and visibility was unlimited. Seemed like I might even be able to get some more solo time in (assuming I didn’t scare the crap out of my instructor during the first few laps around the pattern).
I went out to preflight and everything looked good. My instructor came out and I was just climbing into the plane when he yelled over from the passenger side: “Hey, did you preflight this airplane?”
Uh oh…that could only mean I had missed something, and miss something I had! My instructor showed me the passenger side main gear tire, and there was a flat spot (which I had noticed) and a bit of the tire cord peeking through (which I had not).
I didn’t think to take a picture, but here’s an example of what we saw (but our tire was nowhere near as bad as this one — it had just the tiniest bit of cord visible):
So, that was it, plane is grounded, done for the day.
I am kicking myself for not noticing this on preflight. My instructor emphasized just how important this is — a tire in bad condition can lead to a blowout on landing and turn a fun day into a tragedy.
You can bet I’ll be paying more attention to the small details during my preflights from now on. I feel like I’ve gotten a bit complacent in that regard, and that is dangerous.
I’ll file this one under Ground School — I’m glad I learned this lesson on the ground and not after touching down on the runway!