Lesson 21 - Sunday April 18th

Another six landings

A similar day to yesterday, except not quite so windy.   Nice and clear.  Tanya say we are pretty much going to keep doing the pattern until I can do it by myself, which I guess means solo.

Before we take off I tell Tanya that I really don't feel like I've been using the rudder at all. Either on takeoff or on landing.  She says this might be because this plane (8148H) has the rudder trimmed to the right.  So, she tries to remove all the rudder trim, and we talk a bit more about how to use the rudder when landing.  Unfortunately I can't remember exactly how it goes now. 

So the first takeoff, I have to hold down the right rudder hard to keep us coordinated, and I now have to keep trying to use the rudder more often through the flight.  The fight controls feel stiff when actually in flight now.

We do six landings, and I can't remember exactly what order they come in, but a couple of times Tower asks me move out of the way of other planes, as it's busy.  First we have to do a really long final to come in behind a jet (there are lots of jets landing all weekend, much more than on weekdays).

WE do a right 360 degree turn at one points, and then we actually had to do a go-around, at about 600 feet tower had us climb up to the left and back up into left downwind.  He thank me for my help after we got on the ground, but I'm just obeying orders.  It's not like you can refuse to do what they ask.  It's nice and polite of him to thank us though.

The landings themselves were variable, none were really perfect, and again I did nor really feel like I knew what I was doing.

I made definite progress on the "power for altitude" part of things, and my speed was not too bad.  The main failing point was the roundout and the flare.    I just fluffed it all the time and had to correct, we landed fairly hard each time, but no real bounces, and no go-arounds.

So not too bad.  The landings were a bit poor, but that seems about right for where I am in the process.  I'm definitely improving, albeit slowly.  I feel like I keep making little mental breakthroughs where I'll realize how something works. 

I'm also gradually getting better at doing multiple things at one time without loosing track of something.   Like when turning downwind, you've got to turn, coordinate rudder and aileron, level out the plane at 1350, reduce power to 2000 rpm, keep the altitude, roll out parallel to the runway and possibly talk on the radio.

Looking forward to another six landings tomorrow (Monday).