After last week's poor show I was a little concerned that I'd lost the landing plot and I wasn't so excited to be going flying today.
The wx was forecast good - CAVOK, light winds, not too much across, sunny all day. At home it was very dull and murky but the airfield's a long way, and is south east of home. I therefore tried for optimism with a standby of asking my Instructor to fly one approach and landing if I hadn't got my eye in after the first one (yes, most of last lesson was that poor I doubted I'd get the landing picture).
Sure enough it was sunny, great vis, but a much stronger wind than forecast. So another chance to crack crosswind landings
Although my first circuit was good it took me a while to get the a/c to actually descend on Base due headwind!
Crabbed in, lined up, speed OK, saw the picture, put rudder in and flared at the right height but struggled to apply sufficient aileron into wind. I just find it counter-intuitive
Could do better.
Second go, Instructor suggested just use 2 stages of flap and reminded me about aileron
. It was much better.
Third circuit, no patter, all good, a thumbs up from the RHS
By now I was back in the swing of it and mightily relieved to find my landing mojo had returned.
I am also aware that everything is now happening at a speed I can cope with, rather than all being too fast. There was a few seconds in one circuit when I was getting behind the a/c but I just knew I could quickly get on top of it. During a spell of constant radio chatter from landing and departing a/c I had enough SA to fly S&L, speed nailed, do checks, see where they all were, and keep one ear open for a gap for a late downwind call. A small thing but significant for me.
I was actually almost relaxed about landing as soon as I made my first approach. Despite concentrating on the effects of the crosswind I had the flare height and the landing attitude nailed down all lesson. Phew! In fact double phew!!
(Yes, @TopCat , stall warner an' all
)
The lesson went over the hour because I was really enjoying it so I asked for one more circuit
Can't wait for the next lesson