Has this ever happened to you?
 

I have to get this off my chest. A few nights ago I flew one of the worst instrument approaches I have ever flown and it's really bugging me.

It was 4am, raining, mist and ceilings at around 800ft. The conditions weren't great but that's no excuse for my terrible perfomance.

I was ahead of the plane, all configured and everything in order until GS intercept. Then it all started going pear-shaped, weaving through the LOC like a drunk driver, way too high on the GS, I just couldn't get the approach stabilized.
I managed to salvage it and landed.

I just sat there thinking about how crappy of an approach I had just made.
I knew all of the things that I did wrong but that still didn't make me feel any better.
So now I'm really annoyed with myself. I feel I need to take the humble approach here and admit that I'm not immune to this sort of thing. I'm not a 'super pilot' by any means and I shouldn't think that it couldn't happen to me.
Being arrogant and not admitting that there was a problem would probably be worse. I don't want to sit around feeling sorry for myself, I want to fix it so that it doesn't happen again.

So tell me that I'm not alone in this. Do you guys go through the same thing once in a while?

Hell I had a phase that lasted a month where i was screwing up simple things like radio calls and clearances. I still remember I shot an approach just like your describing, It was really embarrassing all I could do was apologize to the captain. Good thing Ive been flying with him for over a year now and he knows thats not my usual style.

Ive been flying light GA a few times this week and I couldnt remember how to say midfield left downwind.

It was left midfield downwind
midfield on the left downwind
mid downwind left field

You get the idea ive got a thousand hours + in the pattern but sometimes our brains do not want to work. I have flown a few times at work as well and been like "what the hell am I doing?"

Just couple the auto pilot, let the HAL 9000 do the work.:D

I don't fly 135 (yet) but have my own airplane and sometimes fly in poor weather to maintain my instrument currency. Last Oct I went up on a day much like you describe - rain, mist, 800 ft ceiling plus a 60 kt wind at 3000 ft. Bumpy ride.

I was up at Frederick, MD shooting the ILS. Inside the OM on glideslope but the loc shows me drifting to the left. I turn to the right. Knowing that the wind is from the right this makes sense. However the loc needle shows me going faster to the left. I turn more to the right. Not long after the needle goes to full deflection and I execute a missed. This made no sense to me. It was almost like the needle had reverse sensing.

I went around and shot the approach again without a problem. When I got home I looked at my course on Flight Aware and it showed me right of the localizer turning right. I still have no idea what happened but it troubles me to this day.

Okay guys. You don't necessarily have to be so hard on yourselves. Was there another aircraft in front of you on the approach? As a long time CFII I can tell you that there have been instances of when another aircraft is on the approach directly in front of you and exactly on LOC and GS, the hull of the aircraft can deflect some of the transmission from the antennas to make you think you're wacky. I don't necessarily condone this, but sometime fly the approach about a half dot left/right and half dot high. You just might see a difference.

Having totally spaced the tail number, "I'm the third white... er... airplane on downwind."

It was only my third flight of the day.

It happens to everyone (at least I think - hopefully).

The other night I had the worst landing ever... real nice VOR-A approach raining a little - trying to be as professional as possible - was going to make it a real greaser.....everything looked good... just forgot to flare or something - no float, no nothing...just wham! - really found the runway there.... so hard... I was very suprised the gear didn't call it a day and fold.... stopped on the runway and debated checking the gear, nervous about the turn onto the taxiway... luckily it was an empty leg and just one other person saw that... and he won't let me live it down (hey remember when we were coming back, and you almost folded the gear) - basically every bad landing is compared to mine now.

Yeah that's what I figure, I feel better now that it's not just me.
It still bugs me though, but I'm going to work hard at not letting it happen again.
Thanks guys.

Everybody has been there.....and anybody who says they haven't is a liar.....or they have so few hours they don't count.