What we have here is a failure to communicate

One thing "nice" about flying at a school with an aging fleet, like my first school, is that you get to practice emergencies for real.  Nothing so severe as, say, engine fire or the wings falling off;  but in the span of my private license training, I did had tachometer failure, electrical failure, and Comm failure, to name a few (oh, and an oil pressure scare).  Though perhaps the least serious of these, the Comm failure was the most unnerving.

 

It happened right after my first solo (which by the way was incredible.  Weird to see my CFI, so large in my imagination, become so small alongside the runway as I approached final).  I was doing routine solo pattern work when my radio went out.  (By the way, what is it about working the radios that is so intimidating at first becomes so routine later on?  Perhaps it's that any rookie ineptitude would have witnesses?  I think it is linked to people's fear of public speaking, a top anxiety)

 

I read back the tower's clearance and took off.  I was upwind when the tower started asking me about my radios.  I had done what tower had told me to do, but apparently they didn't hear me readback their clearance.  I felt a slight panic grip me, as I was a novice in a problem.  I had to remind myself that the rest of the plane worked just fine.  I could still hear tower, but they couldn't hear me.  Tower had to clear the pattern for me.  They asked me to rock my wings if I could hear them, which I managed OK. 

 

I was concerned about the crosswind, which was near the limit I was endorsed for.  I remembered my CFI's advice - to use 2 notches of flaps instead of 3, giving me more speed but also more control.  This trade-off is usually acceptable, although I was dealing with a pretty short runway (2400 feet - relatively routine now, but demanding when beginning).  I decided to go with 2 notches of flaps.  Though the landing was far from ideal, the plane and myself were in one piece, and at the end of the day, that's what counts.

 

Now in retrospect, what I forgot in the heat of the moment is that I had 2 comms.  I tried Comm 1 and it's standby, but neglected Comm 2, which when I contacted ground worked well.  As luck would have it, the same thing happened a few weeks later.  This time I switched to comm #2, and everything went swimmingly.  Lesson learned.  It get easier.  Not easy, but easier.