Short shorts

I know the picture at the top of this post is a bit confusing, but bear with me. I'm trying to give you an idea of what I was looking at today.

Had another lesson. I brought Rob up to speed on what Josh and I had done last time. No need to go to Manatee again. We briefly went over short field takeoff and landing procedures before taking off for some pattern work.

Short field landings are similar to to normal landings. You're just moving slower, and on final approach, you are descending much more rapidly. It was not hard once I had done it a few times. The only problem is that things look different. The angles are different. Here is were the photo at the top comes in. At Whitted, Tampa Bay is just off of both ends of runway 18/36. Landing on 36, there is a seawall, a few feet of grass, and the runway. When landing at a steep angle, like on a short field approach, it sure looks like you're gonna hit that seawall. It took a few laps around the pattern to convince me that I could clear it.

I did 5 or 6 short field landings and takeoffs, and practiced the soft field technique a few times. All in all, my landings were good. The only one I was unhappy with was my first soft field approach. I don't think my brain had shifted gears between the short field technique and the soft field technique. I ended up bouncing through some goofy hybrid landing and was crooked in the crosswind to boot. Rob told me not to be too hard on myself. He thought all my landings were up to practical test standards. OK, I feel better.

Soon, the fun begins. We get to start our cross country work. I've scheduled a 3 hour ground school session for my next lesson, and I have a pile of reading to do. I'm really looking forward to cross country. I like going other places.

lesson 12

You'll need google earth to open and view the lesson 12 file.

Statistics

Dual Instruction Time: 13 Hours

Solo/PIC Time: 2.8 Hours

Landings: 68