The weather gods shine (and rained) down on me today. It was FINALLY a day with calm winds, actually, I think it was the first one ever since I started training. Winds were at 0kts and stayed there through the start of my lesson. I was SO excited. Obviously, this was a great opportunity to do touch and goes without a crosswind for the first time.
We ended up doing 9 landings! And I remember most of them, if not all of them. Maybe knowing what I’m actually lets me remember, instead of it being a blur.
1. A nice start. I felt the ground effect and came in pretty good. I believe the only thing my instructor did was just not allow the yoke to far forward.
2. I was good coming in. I felt fast, but I was starting to understand that I can bleed off that speed in ground effect. I did lose my flare so it was a bit of a rough landing, but not terrible.
3. Best landing of the day! It was practically perfect and I knew it coming in. I bled off the speed, touched down nice and soft, kept the center line. It felt amazing.
4. The winds were starting to pick up on this one. I added a bit of crosswind correction in to the right. Just a bit of a crab. It was good too. Maybe a bit off the center line.
5. Still some wind, but not much. I think I was starting to get tired, because I was flying with a heavy left hand my instructor told me. So I was having problems lining up with the runway and staying that way, I kept drifting to the left. I had to fight this the rest of the lesson. I was trying to hold the yoke differently but nothing seemed to work. I kind of just built in a correction of my own for this.
6. We switched it up for the first time. She told me to do a landing with no flaps. Tower was busy and so our downwind leg was really long. So I had plenty of time in a straight line to work on my speed. It wasn’t much of a difference at all to me. My instructor said it wouldn’t be when the winds were calm.
7. We did a regular landing again. A husky was in front of us and Tower asked us to do an S turn to give them a bit more space. It was kind of fun. Definitely made me have to line up with the center line quickly after coming out of the turn.
8. Spot landing this time. She told me to pick a specific spot to land this time. We picked the numbers for an easy spot and went over when I should flare. I was low sooner than I expected. It was a good landing, but landed about 20 feet in front of the spot.
9. I missed one in there somewhere, I don’t remember which landing I missed.
So overall I’m happy. My instructor said it seemed like it finally clicked, which is awesome. It was a weird day to fly with the weather. The winds were calm, but it rained for part of the lesson then it was sunny. The weather was all over the place. It was cool to see virga (rain that doesn’t reach the ground) from the sky in front of us. My instructor is now sticking with what she said last lesson, 2 more lessons (one for maneuvers, one for landings) and the progress check before I solo. She wants consistent landings.
Before when I thought of soloing, I was nervous that my landings wouldn’t be up to par. But after today, I’m more confident. I do still think I need those lessons, at least to make sure my nerves are calmed.
Lesson Time: 1.5 hours
Total Time: 13.9 hours
Congratulations! Landings were hard for me to get at first but as I got more practice it became my favorite part.
They are definitely the most challenging part. I’m hoping the progress that happened today sticks!
There used to be a saying among CFI’s that “crosswind landings build character”. I agree but it’s better to get the hang of it in calm winds first if possible.
I wonder what it would have been like doing calm winds first and then crosswinds. But after doing crosswind landings so much, it made landing without wind super easy!