etsisk
En-Route
(x-post with red board)
I guess every now and then it's all about learning that learning ain't linear!
It's windy in NC these days. Something to do with Spring, I'm told, whoever she is. Went out to the airport yesterday for the first time in two weeks, making it the SECOND time in three weeks I'd flown. Wind blowing up a storm. Whitecaps on the lake you could surf on. Gusts up to a zillion, give or take a hundred, but it was all right down the runway-ish, and I had a CFI sitting right there, so I thought, "why not?" and away we went. Busy as a bee and discovered my dancing feet, but all went pretty well. Surprisingly well, as a matter of fact. Although it's sort of interesting when, 15 feet above the ground, the plane makes a quick 30 degree bank to the right, but maybe that's just me.
Today, it was a different story. The wind was there a bit, but I certainly wasn't. Walking into the FBO I looked at the flag and sock and they were both favoring 32. Didn't think to look again, though - took off on 32 and went around the pattern. Turned final and thought, "man, feels like we're getting pushed." Was having trouble losing altitude (a bad thing for landing). Went around. Tried it again, got pretty close to the ground and the CFI says "go around" so I did. He suggested I actually take a look at the windsock (what a concept!), so I did. Funny thing, tailwinds...
Ok, so now I'm landing on 14. I'm not going to bore you with a litany of all the things I did wrong, but some of 'em were doozies. Flaps - you remember flaps? Well, I didn't. Let my speed get up. Sometimes I let my speed drop. I was a second behind the plane all the damn time. Once I got within, oh, 15 feet of the ground, I could set that baby right on down there. But boy howdy, getting to that point was interesting! CFI was starting to preface remarks with, "At least you <did this thing>..."
Really it was the day I should have had yesterday, but was too busy trying to save my bacon in all that wind yesterday to have it. Sheesh. Never had an hour long brain fart before. Did I say "sheesh", yet? Sheesh.
I guess every now and then it's all about learning that learning ain't linear!
It's windy in NC these days. Something to do with Spring, I'm told, whoever she is. Went out to the airport yesterday for the first time in two weeks, making it the SECOND time in three weeks I'd flown. Wind blowing up a storm. Whitecaps on the lake you could surf on. Gusts up to a zillion, give or take a hundred, but it was all right down the runway-ish, and I had a CFI sitting right there, so I thought, "why not?" and away we went. Busy as a bee and discovered my dancing feet, but all went pretty well. Surprisingly well, as a matter of fact. Although it's sort of interesting when, 15 feet above the ground, the plane makes a quick 30 degree bank to the right, but maybe that's just me.
Today, it was a different story. The wind was there a bit, but I certainly wasn't. Walking into the FBO I looked at the flag and sock and they were both favoring 32. Didn't think to look again, though - took off on 32 and went around the pattern. Turned final and thought, "man, feels like we're getting pushed." Was having trouble losing altitude (a bad thing for landing). Went around. Tried it again, got pretty close to the ground and the CFI says "go around" so I did. He suggested I actually take a look at the windsock (what a concept!), so I did. Funny thing, tailwinds...
Ok, so now I'm landing on 14. I'm not going to bore you with a litany of all the things I did wrong, but some of 'em were doozies. Flaps - you remember flaps? Well, I didn't. Let my speed get up. Sometimes I let my speed drop. I was a second behind the plane all the damn time. Once I got within, oh, 15 feet of the ground, I could set that baby right on down there. But boy howdy, getting to that point was interesting! CFI was starting to preface remarks with, "At least you <did this thing>..."
Really it was the day I should have had yesterday, but was too busy trying to save my bacon in all that wind yesterday to have it. Sheesh. Never had an hour long brain fart before. Did I say "sheesh", yet? Sheesh.