Sometimes I feel like I'm starting to nail this flying thing, and then I have a day like today and get a reality check. It's not that I did anything horrible. I just wasn't on the top of my game and didn't perform like I expected. My navigation was fine. I didn't even cheat with the GPS. The weather was mostly clear and calm, a bit hazy with a few clouds scattered at 3000 feet. But, my landings were awful. I haven't flow in over a week, that's a long time off for me, and I'm hoping it was the cause.It was my second solo cross country flight. Back to Charlotte County (PGD) and Arcadia (X06) then home to Whitted. Rob was not around Bay Air this morning, so CFI Pete looked over and approved my flight plan and endorsed my log book for the flight. No problems on the way to Charlotte County. The haze made finding my landmarks a bit more difficult, but I was tracking the VOR so the landmarks were not as important as if I had been navigating by pilotage. I must have estimated the winds correctly, because my ground speed was almost dead on.
Once at Charlotte County the fun began. About 15 miles out, I tuned their weather advisory channel and got the wind information, numbers in pilot speak. Winds 090 at 5. Cool, sounds like a nice easy landing on runway 9. The problem was that no one was using 9. I heard pilots landing on 4, taking off on 15, landing on 15 and doing something, who knows what on 22. Pilots were practicing instrument approaches from every direction. It's a damned confusing place, pardon my French. The last time Rob and I were there, the situation was almost as bad, and Rob instructed me to use the winds to select my runway, so I announced my intentions to land on 9. Must have been OK with everyone else, nobody said anything to me. Luckily, I seemed to catch a slight break in the activity and entered the left downwind for 9, announced all my turns and got configured to land. Last time we were here, Rob had me do a touch and go, but I'm not supposed to do them by myself. On final, I saw why Rob had me do a touch and go. The "new" runway 9 at Charlotte County is a small resurfaced area in the middle of the "old" runway 9, and the old 9 looks like crap. I didn't want to get off of the resurfaced area, so I announced I was doing a touch and go, and got out of there. My eyes were wide open looking for traffic as I climbed out and set my course for Arcadia. I hope I'm not sent to Charlotte County again.
The flight to Arcadia was as calm and uneventful as the trip to Charlotte County. It was only about a 20 mile flight that went by very quickly. I tuned Arcadia's CTAF and could hear pilots as far away as Clearwater and Okechobee, but no one was announcing anything for Arcadia. After Charlotte County it was a welcomed change. I suspected that the surface winds were about the same, but I overflew the field and got a good look at their wind T, which serves the same function as a wind sock. The winds were pretty much as I had guessed, just a bit stronger judging from the trees and bushes, so I entered the left downwind for runway 5. I flew a nice pattern, announced all my turns and got setup for a slight crosswind. I dipped my right wing into the wind, corrected the nose with left rudder and set her down on the middle of the runway, but.... I bounced... twice. I haven't bounced since I soloed. I was embarrassed, but the good thing was no one was around to see. Maybe I was concentrating on the cross wind and let my speed get too high on final. Who knows. I was not very happy. Taxi back to runway 5, announce my departure and I'm outta there.
I tracked the PIE VOR home on a Victor airway, sort of a highway in the sky. I was alert for traffic as I climbed to 4500 feet, a VFR cruising altitude, but no planes were to be seen. The VOR took me straight to Ruskin where I contacted Whitted tower for the trip home. Control told me to enter right pattern for runway 7 and look for the helicopter departing to the north west. Normal stuff for Whitted. I was feeling comfortable on the downwind and cleared to land, but.. I bounced again. I know my speed was right this time, what is going on? It wasn't a hard bounce, the kind that shakes the plane, just a gentle bounce that put me back in the air by a foot or two. This will have to be fixed.
Tomorrow, Rob is giving me a pre-knowlege test review, after which I'll be able to take the FAA private pilot knowledge test. Most likely, I won't take the test till after the first of the year. Things get kinda crazy around the holidays. I'll also get in a little practice. After today, it's needed.
You'll need google earth to open the lesson 20 flight track.
Statistics
Dual Instruction Time: 17.9 Hours
Solo/PIC Time: 12.0 Hours
Landings: 103
Posts
3 comments:
Sounds to me like your landings weren't really all that bad at all! Although I certainly understand your desire to improve them. Lately I've struggling with crosswind landings and it seems like I've gone backwards a bit in my ability to execute them.
I am hoping to start my own solo cross-country trips soon. I've got a lesson scheduled on Friday morning and I'm going to bring up the topic with my instructor. Having had three dual cross-country flights, I think I'm ready, but of course it will be up to him.
Just remember that landings can always be improved upon! Seriously, we all have off days and I agree a long time between flights can take its toll - especially when you're earlier in training. All that aside, it sounds like a very successful flight. Congrats on finishing up another XC!
When it comes to choosing runways - always choose with the wind. Frankly, if everybody's using 14 and the wind favors 33, take 33. Don't risk the plane to follow the herd, whether or not the herd knows what they're doing.
Instrument approaches, especially practice ones, rarely pay attention to the wind, because they rarely have any actual intention of landing. The ones that do intend to land can get so micro-focused on the paper telling them what to do to land on 6R that they forget to make the judgement call of "Hey, the electronics take us down to 6R, but the wind really favors 24L. Let's set up the approach for circling to 24L."
Keep choosing best for wind, and one day you'll get to announce on CTAF (or tell tower) you're taking 33, and hear people after you switching themselves around on downwind for spacing to turn and follow you. If you smirk when you do, it only proves you're human.
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