Fumble In The Desert

Tuesday morning, my instructor and I were supposed to finish up the complex portion of my commercial training in the Piper Arrow. However, one of the Arrows was down for 50 hour maintenance and it happened to be the one we were scheduled in. Suddenly, I found myself with nothing to do. It was a slow work day and a perfect opportunity to knock out 4 or 5 more hours with a cross country.

The next planned cross country was with my better half over the weekend to Las Vegas, so Vegas was out. I have flown over Palm Springs several times but had never actually landed there, so PSP it was.

My parents were on a cruise to Hawaii and when my phone rang, it was my mother telling me that they were back in LA. They were going to be driving home to Phoenix via I-10. I told them that I was actually flying to Palm Springs and we decided to meet there for lunch.

I filed IFR, had the plane topped off and departed KIWA after a brief IFR clearance hold. It was a clear, calm day with excellent visibility. The flight took 2.4 hours and the approach to 31L was stunning. Palm Springs Approach vectored me over La Quinta & PGA West, Palm Desert and Cathedral City before lining up for final. On a 10,000' x 150' runway, it's hard to do anything but a perfect landing. It was much more impressive to see the King Air 200 land parallel to me on 31R, which is 5,000' x 75' and looks tiny in comparison. I taxied the tired old former UND plane to the slums at Signature Aviation.

This is the part of the story where the chain of stupidity begins...

The door lock on the aircraft I was flying was INOP. For whatever reason, I thought it would be prudent to take my Bose headset and Jeppesen IFR knee board with me. Usually, I just leave them in the aircraft. I know that a beat up old Cherokee is where I would look for quality gear to steal when surrounded by aircraft like Barons, SR22's and a TBM 700. So I strapped the headset case to the knee board and headed in to order fuel.

I ordered a top off and carried my stuff in to the pilots' lounge to wait for my parents to show up. I brought along a brand new issue of Road & Track to read as I waited. A few minutes later, my phone rang and they were pulling in to the parking lot. I was careful to remember my headset, knee board and R&T. When I got to their car, I found the back seat completely full. Things would have to be re-arranged. I carefully set my headset on top of the car, re-arranged the contents of the back seat and settled in for a quick ride to Fat Burger (really good burgers, by the way).

We chatted about Hawaii and enjoyed a nice lunch. When I got back in the car for the brief ride back to the airport, I reached for my headset. Then I reached again. I started to get a combination of a sick sinking feeling, tunnel vision and vertigo all at once as I realized my headset was not in my possession. I started hyperventilating and sounding like a cross between Felix Unger and Raymond Babbit as panic took control. Uh oh...time to go to Signature...time to go to Signature.

I had left the headset on top of the car. Yes. Really. When we got to Signature Aviation, I got out of their car and, like a scene from a John Hughes movie, noticed dusty skid marks the shape of a Jeppesen IFR knee board across the roof, down the window and trailing off of the trunk. It did manage to stick until we got out of the parking lot and on to a busy street.

As I drove out on to La Cielo Drive, about 100 yards down in the middle of the road was something flapping in the breeze. It was Road & Track with my name on it. It was nearly shredded and covered with tread marks. I looked around fully expecting to find a smashed headset but found nothing. My Bose headset was gone. I instantly had a mental picture of someone picking it up and grinning ear to ear. Christmas had come early for someone at my expense.

There I was in Palm Springs without a headset, low en route chart or sectional. I inquired at Signature's front desk and a a flight school. Nobody had turned it in. I needed a headset and at least a sectional to get home. I inquired at the flight school (The Flight School at Palm Springs) and the Andy, the owner/director said that he had an inexpensive headset for $100. I explained to him that I would only use them once and wanted to inquire with Signature about a rental. He didn't hesitate to hand me a headset and said, "Take this. If you need it, keep it. If not, send it back to me when you can." He refused to accept money from me. What a nice gesture. A good deed. Anyone in need of flight training in Palm Springs, make sure to check with Andy Dutzi at The Flight School at Palm Springs. Many thanks, Andy.

I made my way to aircraft, still mourning the loss of my Bose headset and departed VFR for Phoenix. A nice tailwind would get me home in just over 2 hours. As I approached Phoenix at 9,500' the most stunning moon rise I had ever seen came from the northeast. It was giant, completely full and the most beautiful shade of orange. Phoenix approach vectored me nearly direct to Gateway for a nice finish to a bad luck day.

After tying down the aircraft, it was no surprise to see that I had about 10 voice mails waiting for me. I checked the missed call log before listening to the messages and noticed a missed call from the 760 area code, the area code for greater Palm Springs. A glimmer of hope. The next to last voice mail was from a man that just asked me to call back...at a 760 number! I stubbed my finger dialing. When he answered, I told him that I knew why he had called me. He said, "Tell me". I told him that he probably had a Bose headset in a black case and a black tri-folding navigation book that said Jeppesen. He had indeed found my headset and wanted to return it to me.

He volunteered to take it back to Signature Aviation so they could ship it back to me. He flat out refused a reward and just wanted to do a good deed. He said that when he found it, he knew it belonged to a pilot and must be important. What a good, honest man. Thankfully, I am obsessive about putting my name and phone number on everything. Someone could have just as easily pawned the headset.

So here I stand, totally impressed by being the recipient of not one, but two good deeds in one day from perfect strangers who went out of their way without seeking reward. My faith in humanity is fully restored and am finding myself more in the holiday spirit.

Jeff, the GM at Signature in Palm Springs, called me this afternoon to inform me that the headset was dropped off, was undamaged and was being shipped to me priority overnight today. It will be in my hands tomorrow morning. How lucky am I to be saved from such a stupid mistake?