Starting to settle into the vagueness of flying lessons now as a hobby. Had 3 weeks between lessons, then now had 2 in 5 days
. Great for the smile, bad for the bank balance...
After last weeks crosswinds, things were a lot more sedate today. 3-4kts and only just off the runway so very sedate in comparison.
As is becoming a habit now, it took a couple of circuits and a nudge from the instructor to get height and RT calls correct but then all pretty straightforward... apart from still struggling to line up correctly with the runway. I'm still consistently over to the left but it looks like it should be OK in my head. Then it becomes clear that it's not OK and the instructor is encouraging me to go right but it looks wrong to me. So, I duly go right a bit, but because it looks wrong, I correct to bring it left by dropping the wing, then have to snake right at the last minute and we end up generally landing on a bit of an angle. The last 200ft is just a bit of a dogs dinner. On a positive, I'm consistent and dropped the left wing a bit on every one of the first 6 landings - just got to get consistently better.
But on the 7th, I seemed to get it better and then just replicated the picture on the 8th which was apparently, the best I have ever done. Bang on centreline, mains first, nosewheel down gently and all as smooth as a baby's backside. So, now all I have to do is repeat 3 in a row and we'll be good to go solo apparently (for the benefit of clarification of the written word, I am well aware that this is no mean feat). Mildly annoying that I left it to the last one but at least I got one in and finished on a high.
Was planning on giving air law and ops proc a go after the lesson too but my CAA registration has not completed yet so I couldn't do it. Partially my bad - I've already registed on the portal for my medical and got that all sorted. I hadn't realised that I have to register for exams until last Friday. I did that, then last night it allowed me to pick the flying school but I found out this morning that the next step can take up to 10 days. Don't really understand why, but I thought I'd pop it on here in case other students don't realise too.
So, that's 12 lessons, 13.5 hours and trucking along nicely as far as I'm concerned.
Next lesson booked for Thursday next week. Bit more circuit bashing and maybe a quick flight over to Kemble as the primary diversion airfield for Gloucester just in case there was an issue with Gloucester when I do hopefully go solo. I should at least be a bit familiar with how to get to and land at Kemble on my own should the need arise.