"Come to the edge."
            "We might fall."

"Come to the edge."
            "It's too high!"

"COME TO THE EDGE!"

And they came,
and he pushed.

And they flew.

— Christopher Logue.

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Today was my third supervised solo. I wanted to combine it with some cross-country practice and tick off a few more airports.

The day started auspiciously when John R successfully soloed at Coulter. He came out to wish me well after his flight, and was noticeably missing the back of his Captain Hawaii shirt, the same one he took his first lesson in! Said he banged down a couple of times, but hey! That's what practice is for! Way to go, guy! Unfortunately, I was soon to find out that banging it down was something I would wish I could do...

We flew CLL to T72 (Hearne), then to 14R (Caldwell) pretty much by VOR and hit them all pretty good. I also soloed at T72 and 14R, so as to get them signed-off in my logbook, which was also pretty good.

In between, however, it was pretty ugly.

CLL-T72 went as I hoped, at 3000' and 100 KIAS. Entered downwind for a left pattern and had to lose a bunch of altitude AND airspeed, which is a lousy combination. Went flying into the downwind and had to jerk with the flight controls all the way downwind and into base. Kept right on jerking with stuff down to the go-around (start counting...that's the first). Climbed a little too meekly for Andy's taste (Note to self: Never again) back to pattern altitude for another try. Came in too high. Go-around (#2). Andy's turn (I hadn't heard the dreaded phrase "My plane" in a long time. I hate hearing that phrase.) He let the plane fly itself to a high approach, but landed it fine. My turn. Around we go. Let plane fly itself with gentle proddings. Good one! Andy gets out...my plane.

Once more unto the breach. Once more a go-around (#3 if you're keeping score). Then again around and a good landing as I finally stopped fighting the plane up and just let it fall. Back taxi, pick up the professor, and we're off to Caldwell.

Once more my VOR skills paid off, as we made a direct flight to Caldwell (thanks Fly!2K for the practice). Entered a left downwind by a rather circuitous route. Once again fast. Once again couldn't slow down too well. This is a narrow runway (60') and there was a little cross wind, and, well, you know the rest (#4). Lecture from Andy. Let plane fly. Let plane land. Dump Andy. Up and around. Fighting crosswind on the approach. Oh well, what's another one? Number five...'Round again and got it down fine with no flaps (My thinking? What the hell...it's not like the flaps are dragging me down anyway). Pick up the ball and chain and realize we've been gone for over an hour and a half.

Back to Easterwood for a tower-assigned 2-mile right base that turned into about a 5 mile approach. Plain landing, a little floating but not bad.

The scorecard at the end of the day? Five go-arounds, five landings (two of them solo). Two hours airtime, two new airports signed off on. I know what you're thinking, and you're right! ("Some pilot he is! Ruining 5 out of 10 perfectly good go-arounds by putting the plane down.") Sorry. If the landing's not right, I go around. Period. Then I get to write a goofy entry like this instead of "Damn. I bent the prop tonight when I bumped myself off this 60' wide runway..."

And most importantly, third supervised solo out of the way. I'm now free (or at least, I'm a bird in a 50-mile aviary rather than a 42" cockpit. Tweet!