Look familiar?

I think I'm finally getting a good feel for the landing flare. As you can see on the picture to the left, we went around and around the traffic pattern again today. I won't bore you with the details of every trip, but today's lesson went very well and I was pleased with my performance. I did not solo today. I've been a little apprehensive about that, mostly due to my poor landings, but today I feel very confident and ready to solo.

The wind was blowing at 15 knots down the runway. This was the biggest factor that kept Rob from letting me solo. I'm flying again Friday, and Rob says he will endorse my log book for solo flight, with a few restrictions. I really hope to solo Friday.

Changing wind conditions are good in a way. The first trip around the pattern, I landed with 30 degrees of flaps. With a 15 knot headwind, we seemed to be barely moving. Next trip, Rob had me land with 10 degrees of flaps. My airspeed was higher and the runway looked different because we were not pitched down as much, but all was well and a smooth landing resulted. Rob recorded 10 landings in my log book, but he lost count. If you check the GPS track, we went around 14 times.



I forgot to mention last lesson, but Rob had me practice a power off landing. Basically, he set the engine power to idle on the downwind leg of the pattern and had me land the plane. It was the best landing of my sad attempts last week. He did the same thing today, mostly to show me that I was extending my downwind too far. He cut the engine power to idle and told me to land. With today's strong wind, I could not make it back to the airport. Power on, and back to Whitted to land. After that lesson, I stayed closer to the field.

On one trip, the controller has us make a short approach. Another plane was inbound to land and we needed to get out of the way. Even that did not bother me. I'm getting a good handle on the airspeed/altitude/pitch and power that I need in the pattern. And, my landing flares were much better today. I know I can do this by myself.

I do have a couple of things to work on. I need to be just a little more aggressive with the elevator in the flare and during rotation. Rob says that I need to keep the nose gear off the runway more. I need to pay attention to airspeed during takeoff a little better and make sure I rotate at the correct speed. As for the flare, what bothers me is that as I flare, the nose of the airplane rises and the dash of the airplane rises above my view of the end of the runway. I guess I have been unwilling to loose sight of the end of the runway and have not pulled back enough on the elevator as a result. However, on our last trip around, I looked more toward the left side of the runway as this happened, and I think that helped. I could also try raising the seat.

Hopefully, in the next few weeks I'll be able to do some sightseeing as I fly. I have not bothered to take a camera with me, other than my cell phone, because I just don't have the time to use one. Between Rob talking to me, air traffic control in my ear, and the plane to manage, I've been busy while in the air. I'm looking forward to taking some pics of where I've been and sharing them with you.

I enjoy reading the few comments that have been left on my blog. If you have a comment, suggestion, question or criticism, please leave a comment. I have a thick skin and can take it.

lesson 7 file

You will need to have google earth installed on your computer to open and view the lesson 7 file.
Statistics:

Dual Instruction Time: 9.2 Hours

Landings: 36