Lesson 21 - Crosswinds

If my last lesson was a measure of how far I've come in my journey, today served as a reminder of how far I still need to go. Building upon my landings from last time, we decided to stay close to home and in the pattern today for more touch-and-goes. While my last time was in no way "expert" or even "textbook" in terms of my landings, they were at least more or less in the ballpark of passable. I felt I had an okay grasp on airspeed and where I needed to be on the various stages of landing. I had spent the past week thinking about what I had done and where I needed to improve. I replayed each landing in my head to try to burn that sight picture into my eyes of what the runway should look like on a proper glide slope. I wasn't expecting miracles this time out, but I figured I had a pretty solid foundation upon which to build. 

The weather was good. Skies were smoky but clear. Winds were low, only 5 knots out of the northwest. Despite the reported wind direction, ATC had us using runway 17, so a slight tailwind, but not much. For a moment, we thought they were going to shift the traffic to 35 before we took off, but they did not. I think they knew something we didn't, and therein lies today's hurdle. 

First, came a reminder from my instructor to be as complete in my readback to ATC as possible (if they say "follow the Columbia, taxi Alpha to 17L," make sure you read back the "follow the Columbia" part as well as taxi and runway info. ATC needs to know you know where you are in line.) Then a bit of crosswind compensation on taxi that was blowing me a bit sideways. Despite the weather report, these winds felt like they were coming out of the east, not the west. With all the hangars to the side of me, I figured it could be mechanical turbulence. Ailerons into the wind. Slow down, stop if you have to in order to get the plane under control. Then continue. None of this rattled me, but in hindsight they were little indicators that today wasn't going to go as smoothly as the last time.

Cleared for take-off, and up we go. Fly runway heading. Planes need rearview mirrors. My instructor had me look over my shoulder to make sure I was still in line with the runway on climb out. I need to learn how to turn over my shoulder without turning the yoke. I do try to remember to set the heading bug and pick a point on the horizon in line with the runway as I'm rolling down, and I make a point to check that as we're climbing, but a quick glance behind you to make sure you're still in line with the runway is a good thing. 

The first few landings went okay--on par with the last time. A little rough, a little stair-steppy on approach, and I need to remember to cut power to idle once I'm over the runway. Just take it all out. That's a mental thing I need to get used to--it's okay to glide without power, especially when you're already over the runway. I think if I remember to do that, then I won't have a tendency to float further down the runway than I did on these landings. Once on the ground, flaps up, throttle full, pull back on the yoke, and get us back in the air. 

I think I have become a bit timid on rotating lately. I don't want to stall, so I pull back just a bit and wait for physics to do its thing. When you've got 10,000' of runway, you have that luxury. I'm not always going to be flying into airfields with 10,000' runways. Pull back a bit harder, get us up off the ground, then adjust pitch for proper climb speed. But get us up off the ground first. That's important on touch-and-goes, because while you have speed coming in, you're still using a fair amount of the runway to land, so you don't have quite as much as you might think when taking off again. 

Next trip in the pattern, I noticed I was having a bit of trouble getting us lined up with the runway on final. I turned too soon, then flew to the runway about 5 - 10 degrees to the side. We touched down and went back up again. ATC had us do an extended downwind, which meant a longer approach. This time I was able to keep us a bit more in line with the runway because I didn't turn so close to it. I had a much longer time to adjust, though still wanting to float just a bit to the right. Bear in mind I'm landing on the right of two parallel runways, so I'm already a bit cautious about overshooting the approach and accidentally flying into the path of the left runway. Bad things can happen, as we saw a few months ago with a mid-air collision caused by exactly that. While I was focusing on keeping us on centerline (easier to do with the extended approach) I was a bit fast on my speed, so my instructor called for a go-around. Throttle to full, flaps reduced, and climb. Again, I was being Mr. Timid on the pull-back today so I didn't climb as fast as I should have. Rather, I skimmed the runway at about 100' for a bit before adding a bit more back pressure then removing the last 10 degrees of flaps. The danger there is that had I removed the last bit of flaps while still only 100' off the ground and not climbing, I could have lost that 100' of elevation pretty quickly with the reduced lift from retracting the flaps. But that's why "go around" training is part of our landing training as well, and why slow flight recovery figured heavily into my early lessons. That needs to be down pat. No excuses, because the ground doesn't forgive mistakes.

The next few times around, I noticed I was having the same trouble getting lined up with the runway. Always to the right of it. Was I that quick in my turn? It was starting to rattle me a bit. I'm so focused on landing and my aiming point that I've got something of tunnel vision going on to what else is around me; things like, oh, I don't know, wind socks? I glanced down at my kneeboard where I had written the weather... 320 degrees at 5 knots. Can't be the wind. According to the report, it's coming from the northwest. It's gotta be something I'm not doing properly. Yeah we were getting a few bumps here and there, but it didn't feel windy like the time a few lessons ago where we were getting bumped around like crazy. I was starting to get a bit frustrated, so my instructor took the controls for the climb-out so I could relax and gather my thoughts. 

We flew around again and on the downwind leg, my instructor asked for a wind check--a quick "at this moment" report of what the winds are doing. 110 degrees at 10 knots. Oh, crap! No wonder I was having trouble lining up with the runway. The winds had basically flipped sides! Instead of coming from the northwest, they were now coming from the east/southeast, and had picked up considerably. I was flying into a pretty much broadside 10 knot crosswind from the east. No wonder I was always to the right of the runway.

I'd love to tell you that armed with this new knowledge of what the winds were doing, I was able to compensate and keep us lined up with the centerline the next time around the pattern. Nope. "Ailerons into the wind, opposite rudder" looks simple enough on paper. I'm gonna need a lot more practice...