Dude, that's some sweet grass

I had two "first" today. I made my first landing away from good old Albert Whitted, and I made my first landing on grass, all with a different instructor. In the process, I had more fun than I've had in a long time. Other pilots have told me they prefer grass fields. Now I can see why. Grass is a bit more forgiving than asphalt. It requires you to do more of the "pilot" stuff, but it's a lot of fun.

I got a call from Bay Air yesterday. I knew that Rob was buying a house. He finally closed and was trying to get moved. So, I could cancel today's lesson, fly another solo trip, or schedule another instructor. Quickly thinking to myself, I thought one day I would have someone other than Rob in the plane, certainly the FAA inspector for my medical flight test and the examiner for my checkride. So might as well try someone new. Today it was CFI Josh. We talked for a couple minutes about where I was in my training and what Rob had planned next. We went to the "classroom" and went over radio procedures for uncontrolled fields and technique for soft field landing. I was up to speed with the radio, but the soft field procedures seemed daunting.

I've gotten ahead of myself. When I got to Bay Air, Josh was still up with another student. A group of guys were taking discovery flights. They were excited that they got to fly the airplane and such. Sound sort of familiar? Anyhow, they were asking about lessons, costs, scheduling all things that they needed to know. I'm minding my business, just standing around waiting for Josh, until they find out that I'm a student pilot. Guess who got to be the aviation expert for a few minutes? It was fun talking to someone who sounded just like me a few months ago. Josh showed up and put a quick end to my celebrity status.

The soft field technique is a lot of fun. You try to do a wheelie down the runway in a effort to keep the nose wheel off the ground. Once airborne, you level off quickly, remaining in ground effect until you gain airspeed, then you can begin a normal climb. It may sound like a lot, but it makes sense once you do it and is easier than it sounds. Landing is similar, you try to keep the nose wheel off the ground as much as possible. We made four landings at Airport Manatee (48X, photo at top) before heading back to Whitted. The last landing was a touch and go. Josh never demonstrated anything. He explained and expected me to do it. I prefer that. I learn faster if I do it myself.

To pilots this may sound strange, but I was happy to have a decent crosswind at Airport Manatee and have a chance to practice my crosswind landings. So far, I've not had much trouble with crosswinds. I understand the technique, but I don't think about it. I just fly the plane and it works out. Not thinking about it makes me think that I didn't do anything, but today we had a 10 knot wind 50 degrees off the runway. My books shows that as a 7 knot crosswind. That's the limit Rob signed off on for me, and good enough for now.

We were going to work on short field technique back at Whitted, but the place was so busy that we did one touch and go and called it a day. At one point we were number 5 to land. Josh laughed and said that never happens at Whitted. All in all, a great day.

lesson 11 file

Remember, you'll need google earth on your computer to open the flight file.

Statistics

Dual Instruction Time: 12 hours

Solo/PIC Time: 2.8 hours

Landings: 60