Post solo stuff...

[WannFly]

My CFI did not impose this restriction, but I would not have minded if he did.

I recall near the end of my training I went on a solo XC and ran into degrading weather conditions. I knew it was sketchy when I took off but also knew that it was all clear and would remain clear over the area of departure. My intended destination was just on the other side of come class D airspace, and because the ceiling was lower than forecasted, I had to get on tower frequency to get through the class D as opposed to flying over it. I should have turned around at that point, but didn't. Before contacting tower, I tuned into the AWOS for my destination and remember hearing something like broken 3500 feet. It seemed ok. Well by the time I cleared the class D and tuned back to the AWOS I was already heading into mist and then heard overcast at 700 feet. I had to do the 180 turn in less than VFR conditions (maybe not IMC - as I could always see the ground, but probably not VFR either...). It alarmed me enough that when I contacted the tower to go back through the class D, I requested to land. I figured it was my best bet because I could clearly see the ground and runways but not too much in front of me. I had lost confidence that the weather was clear where I came from. The controller started issuing instructions and asked if I was in trouble due to weather. By the time I responded, I had broken out of the mist and had near unlimited visibility again. I let him know what was going on and requested to continue my current heading through the class D so I could go back to my home airport. The rest of the flight was uneventful.

On one hand, it was a valuable lesson about weather and it was a confidence builder on how I can react to degrading weather. I also learned how to monitor the second radio in his 172 after that...

On the other hand, I just needed to make that landing to check the box and move on to prepping for the check ride. So while I would not call that flight a waste of money, I certainly did not accomplish my goal. Had I talked to my CFI, he may have advised me to go in a different direction, cancel all together - or who knows, he may have cleared me for my original plan!

The point is, I think it is ok for a CFI to impose that restriction for a number of reasons!

Thanks for sharing. I have dropped the idea of pressing my CFI on this issue. Think I wised up. He did say he has enough confidence on me for supervised solo. I did go up yesterday with another CFI and the plan was to do VOR, ATIS said 9 kt rt down the runway, the moment I got up, it turned into 16G24. We ended up doing xw land8ngs with about 10kt direct xw and all the landings were mine...but at one point I was thinking, man it would suck to go up alone and come back with this wind unless I am fluent at xw landings. Good lesson!!

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[Salty]

Thanks for sharing. I have dropped the idea of pressing my CFI on this issue. Think I wised up. He did say he has enough confidence on me for supervised solo. I did go up yesterday with another CFI and the plan was to do VOR, ATIS said 9 kt rt down the runway, the moment I got up, it turned into 16G24. We ended up doing xw land8ngs with about 10kt direct xw and all the landings were mine...but at one point I was thinking, man it would suck to go up alone and come back with this wind unless I am fluent at xw landings. Good lesson!!

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

The trick to flying is to plan as if you have poor skills, and realize you have the skill when you're actually flying. In other words, don't go up intentionally in 16G24 crosswinds, but don't let it get in your head if you end up there. Just fly the plane.

 

[WannFly]

The trick to flying is to plan as if you have poor skills, and realize you have the skill when you're actually flying. In other words, don't go up intentionally in 16G24 crosswinds, but don't let it get in your head if you end up there. Just fly the plane.

i already have poor skills ... ha ha ha

but yeah i realized that the xw landing are lot better than what i thought even with that much wind from 40*. all my landings were pretty much same or better than the day i solo-ed in calm wind. so getting excited

 

[iamtheari]

Remember that 18G24 is only 6 knots of gusts. If it's straight down the runway, it's the same as 0G6 but with a steeper descent. If it's a crosswind, how much of it is the crosswind component? Let's say it's 45 degrees off the runway. That means it's a headwind of 13G17 and a crosswind of 13G17. Only 4 knots of gust factor in each direction to deal with, although you may be near the demonstrated crosswind of the plane and it is possible you will run out of rudder.

But the overall skills that apply to a light crosswind work the same in a strong one and in a gusty one, it's just a matter of keeping your approach stabilized by reacting correctly and promptly to the gusts and to deviations in the winds. Remember that ASOS/AWOS/ATIS just report surface winds. The winds even at 50ft AGL might be different. Gusts also result in small changes in wind direction. The air has a lot going on in it beyond what the surface observations provide. So you will have to work to get and remain stabilized from the time you turn final until the time you park the airplane and tie it down, but every time you fly whether it's 3G6 or 25G40 you will build on those skills. And never under any circumstances other than the engine being dead or the airplane being on fire should you be afraid to go around if your approach destabilizes. Go-arounds are free. Bent airplanes are not.

By the way, on the topic of crosswinds, always keep your crosswind corrections going on the ground, whether taxiing from the fuel pump to the hangar or rolling out from a difficult landing or any other situation. A common bad habit, borne out of laziness especially after you pass the checkride and nobody is judging you on it anymore, is to stop making crosswind control inputs after touchdown. If you have the yoke turned 45 degrees to the right when you touch down on the runway, you should be turning that yoke farther to the right as the plane slows down and the ailerons become less effective, not turning it left and centering it because you're not flying anymore. If you learn how to fly in a taildragger, the concept of flying it all the way to the tie-down becomes second nature, but most people transition to taildraggers rather than from them, so you have to learn that concept a little less directly. (Taildraggers are very good at communicating with the pilot about his mistakes.)

 

[WannFly]

it was from 320, I was on rny 36 so ..40 degree xw. I also learnt a new method the other day. I was taught the crab method and then use rudder to line up and put the wing down into the wind as you flare. this time around, the CFI I was flying with had me do slip method where you hold the centerline right as you are in short final (same wing into the wind and enough rudder to hold the centerline) and maintain that till touch down. I think I like this better, less stuff to work on when you flare. will practice more and see which one resonates better with me. luckily for me, everyday is a cross wind day here. my flight school recently re-started their tail wheel training again. thinking of getting a couple of flights on that too jus to feel the rudder.

thanks all for chiming in, your inputs are much appreciated. as a student I learn a boatload from all ya'll

 

[Joseph Banning]

it was from 320, I was on rny 36 so ..40 degree xw. I also learnt a new method the other day. I was taught the crab method and then use rudder to line up and put the wing down into the wind as you flare. this time around, the CFI I was flying with had me do slip method where you hold the centerline right as you are in short final (same wing into the wind and enough rudder to hold the centerline) and maintain that till touch down. I think I like this better, less stuff to work on when you flare. will practice more and see which one resonates better with me. luckily for me, everyday is a cross wind day here. my flight school recently re-started their tail wheel training again. thinking of getting a couple of flights on that too jus to feel the rudder.

thanks all for chiming in, your inputs are much appreciated. as a student I learn a boatload from all ya'll

Now that you mention it, when I first started doing xw landings - the slip on final was the technique I used. The whole approach feels more stabilized when you are not trying to straighten out a crab angle at the last minute on top of everything else. I eventually became comfortable enough with the crab method but I continued doing the slip method for several months after my checkride. There is only really one downside of that method that I can think of and it is not that big of a deal. The slip method can make passengers a bit uneasy because the plane is banked and in uncoordinated flight. So they are leaning to the side and feeling it. My fiancee never mentioned feeling uneasy with it when she started riding with me after my checkride. If that makes your landings easier, then by all means go for it IMO! I also remember watching a video of a guy practicing landing with trim control only in a Cessna. One thing that really caught my attention is how well the plane transitioned from a stabilized approach to kind of floating in ground effect with such little control input. I remember that being a big Ah hah! moment for me during training. I went from flaring too early and typically having to add power to keep from plopping down onto the runway - to holding off until I was in ground effect and just letting the plane settle into the runway.

One thing I noticed is that as confidence built, I found that I would be thinking less and less about things that previously required a lot of thought. If you use the slip method and it starts to become second nature, transitioning back to the crab method will be a lot less daunting when the time comes because you will not be thinking much about runway sight picture, when to flare and what not. At least that is how my experience went...