In Flight

Learning to fly: August 2001 - ?

Monday, September 24, 2001

Ouch! That was...interesting.

We did touch-and-goes today. The wind continued to be out of the North, today at 15 kt gusting to 18 (heading 010), so we used 34. I practiced taxi maneuvers on my feet before we took off. Climb into, dive away. Still don't coordinate my nosewheel (feet) with the wings (yoke) on the ground. That needs work.

Downwind was fast, and I frequently found myself with a longer final than I would have wanted. I need to practice getting ahead of the plane and acting, not reacting, to necessary setups for approach. As it was today, it always seemed I was behind. If I can find a way to develop good habits that don't require my exclusive full concentration to accomplish, life in the pattern will become much easier.

Managed a decent takeoff and entered the pattern downwind about 500' too high. Bled off altitude, but too slowly...need to yank the throttle back to lose that height quicker. Did first t-&-g and felt the wind push me to the left...was so distracted that I forgot to push in carb heat and raise flaps. I forgot the carb heat again a few t&g's later, but aside from that felt as though the landings were OK. I'm still getting used to the sensation of "flying the airplane down the runway."

Then came the last landing to a stop. Tower put me into a right pattern (it had been left all day) and as I flew south of A&M Andy pulled the power and told me to land the plane. Short term panic gave way to an assessment of speed and altitude and I realized I could make it to 34. Wanted to flare it to about 4 feet and fly the plane into the runway, but where I had thought it was 4' Andy tells me it's 15! Then I did something stupid...I dropped the nose and lost the 15' in a hurry. STUPID. I should have flown the plane down the runway to touchdown and instead I bounced the nosewheel and lost it to the right. Andy stabilized things and I taxiied to a stop, but not before John R got an eyeful of my worst touch of the day. That sucked.

On the other hand, the other four weren't too bad and I'm pretty confident that I could do the job myself when necessary. The FAA restrictions have set me behind, but with three good days this week, who knows?

0.9 hrs today/13.4 total