Lesson 12 & 13A busy weekend!
First lesson we're back doing stalls, I thought the cloud cover was way lower than was ok for stalls but my instructor was fine with it, we just had to dodge clouds. It was my first time really in the middle of them and while it was a beautiful sight it's quite stressful!
Stalls are fine in principle, but I do find I fluster when there's so many things to do at once in such a short time. I think it just takes practice and muscle memory. But overall I'm fairly happy.
The landing first day was my best one yet! A bit of crosswind even but I straighten it out at the end and manage to hold off just enough for it to smoothly touch the tarmac, was very happy! Now just to keep doing that consistently
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The second day is probably my favourite flying day so far. The weather was
perfect. We're consolidating stalls training so we've got a bit to fly to our training area and the way there feels like we're not even in the air. So smooth flying, not a single gust and the a/c needs barely touching and it just goes where you want it to.
Would've stayed in the air for hours, but we're on the clock so we do some recap on stalls. I try them all again and find that just having slept on it has improved them. The recovery is a little quicker and little more instinctive. My FI is happy enough with stalls that we go back to the airfield to spend the rest of the hour doing a couple of circuits.
The first landing is a little rough, but ok. I do come down slightly on one of the main wheels first and don't hold off quite enough, also the approach felt a little rushed, I overshot the runway and had less time to get a good glide down.
The rest of the circuit goes well, but I can tell it's going to take a lot of practice for sure, and I need to get better at the downwind checks, still struggle to memorize every step.
The lesson ends with a better landing than the last, well, more importantly a better approach, probably the best one yet! The weather was insanely forgiving today so I wont give myself too much credit, but it does feel like small improvements every time. And more importantly I haven't let the rough one from last week weigh me down
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I've not got a lot of lessons booked for the rest of September but it's a good opportunity to really get studying and knock out Air Law. I've got plenty of lessons to go before going solo but might as well get ready for it.