inav8r
Line Up and Wait
Saturday I got to the airport at about 8:30 and flew out to the west to do some ground reference manuvers (i.e. circle over) near my house. The kids love to come out and stand in the driveway and wave to me, they really get a kick out of it. I then flew back to the east over to New Castle and did some landing practice there. The winds were from 80 at about 8. I did OK, but not spectacular. It's not fun landing on RY 9 at UWL because it has a barn just off the end of the RY.
After leaving UWL I flew direct to Marion (MZZ) via their VOR. I did really well holding altitude and tracking the VOR until I got close (and had the airport in sight) then I forgot about following the VOR, LOL. I did about 4 landings on RY 4 (with the winds from 80 at 8). The first time I landed I had the plane going straight down the RY but as soon as I got the wheels on the ground I veered left for just a second. I did 2 more landings which were better than the first then taxied to the ramp and took a break for about 20 mins (RR break, got some water, BS'd with some of the other guys there).
I then flew back to Anderson (to the EAST of Alexandria cuz they had sailplanes up - boy are those awesome!) and did some practice T&G's there. By the time I got back to AID the winds were calm so most of my landings were pretty good. All in all I got 1.7 on the tach and 2.0 in the log book.
When I got up Sunday the winds were just as nice as they were on Saturday, so I decided to take the opportunity to get some more practice in. I again flew down towards my house (this time bringing the camera and taking a couple of pictures which didn't turn out so well) then flew back to Anderson and did practice landings (with a Guard UH60 also in the pattern). The winds were from 160 at 6, so I decided to use RY 12 to get more XWND practice. My landings were ok, not as good as Saturday and my last landing was a bit hard (my first hard landing in a while). The thermals were really starting to get active and it was bumpy most of the way around the pattern so I only did about 5 approaches (4 landings 1 go around). I had .5 on the tach and .8 in the log book.
After leaving UWL I flew direct to Marion (MZZ) via their VOR. I did really well holding altitude and tracking the VOR until I got close (and had the airport in sight) then I forgot about following the VOR, LOL. I did about 4 landings on RY 4 (with the winds from 80 at 8). The first time I landed I had the plane going straight down the RY but as soon as I got the wheels on the ground I veered left for just a second. I did 2 more landings which were better than the first then taxied to the ramp and took a break for about 20 mins (RR break, got some water, BS'd with some of the other guys there).
I then flew back to Anderson (to the EAST of Alexandria cuz they had sailplanes up - boy are those awesome!) and did some practice T&G's there. By the time I got back to AID the winds were calm so most of my landings were pretty good. All in all I got 1.7 on the tach and 2.0 in the log book.
When I got up Sunday the winds were just as nice as they were on Saturday, so I decided to take the opportunity to get some more practice in. I again flew down towards my house (this time bringing the camera and taking a couple of pictures which didn't turn out so well) then flew back to Anderson and did practice landings (with a Guard UH60 also in the pattern). The winds were from 160 at 6, so I decided to use RY 12 to get more XWND practice. My landings were ok, not as good as Saturday and my last landing was a bit hard (my first hard landing in a while). The thermals were really starting to get active and it was bumpy most of the way around the pattern so I only did about 5 approaches (4 landings 1 go around). I had .5 on the tach and .8 in the log book.
