Lesson 39 - A Few More Like That

Today was a good day. Today, I walked away with a bit of a spring in my step that I've not had in a while. Today, my landings were consistent. Not perfect by any measure, but I felt comfortable--even confident--with each of them. For the first time, I felt in control of the entire process. For me, it was another small, but personally significant milestone.

My previous two lessons had been with a secondary instructor who framed landings in a slightly different way than I had flown previously. We tweaked some techniques and integrated some new skills. While there was still considerable room for improvement, his fresh perspective on my technique allowed me to become much more comfortable with the process, with a better feeling for how to control the various aspects of the landing process. My lesson today was actually with a third instructor. I was supposed to fly with my primary instructor, but he and this instructor swapped students for the day so that a stage check could be performed for the other student. (Instructors cannot stage-check their own students.) 

Unlike my secondary instructor who was brought on partly to actively ferret out weaknesses in my technique and correct them, this instructor seemed to take a bit more of a passive approach. From the get-go, it seemed he was comfortable letting me do my own thing, fly the plane my way. He met me at the plane, we taxied, and after a circuitous tour of the taxiways because ATC decided to change runway directions causing us to have to taxi to the opposite end of a 2-mile-long runway, we were up in the air and heading northwest to Rocky Mountain Metro airport for touch-and-goes. We could have stayed at Centennial, but I was in the mood for a change of scenery.

The 15-minute flight out was smooth and uneventful. I set radios, got weather information, contacted the tower, all the stuff pilots need to do. It felt natural and un-rushed. Metro ATC vectored me in for our first landing. Flaps 10 degrees, pitch for 85 knots, set trim accordingly. Base turn, add flaps, airspeed drops to 75 knots. Turn to final, add full flaps, and if all is right, airspeed will slow to 65 knots while I use power to control my descent to landing. Hold centerline. Okay, I'm drifting. Slip. Drop left wing, add right rudder to keep nose aligned. Too much. Back a little bit. Back on centerline. Good. Pull power to idle, level the wings, and (wait! I'm moving sideways, crap! More left aileron, right rudder.) Hold it, hold it, set down. Not bad. We did another, and another. By my third one, I felt a sense of consistency to these landings I hadn't experienced before. My instructor offered assistance and guidance, but it was more in the form of reminders to do what I know to do, not to try anything different. It began to build my confidence, prompting a few "that was good. let's do another like that" comments from him. As a student who's struggled mightily with landings over the past 6 months, hearing "that was good" as opposed to "what happened??!!" is a welcome change of pace. 

With the exception of seemingly always being blown a bit sideways at the last minute when I rounded out to touch down, I felt like I could control the plane and make it do what I needed it to do. Too high? Drop power and trust that it will drop. Too low, add just a bit of power. Not too much. In past lessons, I'd be troubleshooting each approach asking myself "what did I forget to do?" which caused the landing to not be so good. This lesson, it seemed it was more a matter of tweaking things a bit here and there but no major problems with technique. My patterns were not as tight as I would have liked, but I'll blame that on a lack of familiarity with the airport. At Centennial and Space Port, I have recognizable things on the ground which I use to set my downwind leg. At Metro, I didn't have that. Next time I'm out that way I'll look for something on the ground as a reference and they'll tighten up. I was also following other planes which may or may not have been as consistent in their downwind leg spacing either. (I know, excuses...) 

I'll be brutally honest, I didn't really make the connection that I was fighting a crosswind until after we landed at the end of the lesson. The weather report had winds at 5 knots at 50 degrees. 5 knots isn't that heavy of a wind, so in my mind I think I subconsciously discounted its effects. We were landing on runway 12, which is 120 degrees, meaning the wind was coming at about 70 degrees relative to our direction of travel. That makes it pretty much a full-on crosswind. It was probably blowing a bit harder than that from time to time. Regardless, I was working to hold centerline on my approach (with varying degrees of success and accuracy) but in my mind, that was just me keeping the plane on centerline, not fighting a crosswind. When it came time to touch down, I'd level the wings and straighten the nose, which meant I'd get blown sideways. Where'd that come from??? 

Takeaway? When you write down the weather info (including winds) take the time to make a mental note of wind direction relative to runway direction. They tell you that kind of stuff for a reason. Make it part of your weather briefing as you're setting up for your arrival. Get it in your head. Compensating for a light crosswind when landing is not necessarily difficult--simple enough apparently that I was doing it without really knowing I was doing it. I think had I made that connection that I was fighting a crosswind in addition to everything else, I would have been more successful. 

After 8 touch-and-goes, we headed back to Centennial. Again, smooth flight, I got radio and weather information, set us up for landing with a sense of confidence, and landed. I got a little sideways when braking for the runway exit, but that's inexperience with the braking on the Grumman as this is only the 4th time flying it. 

Only 5 days until my next lesson (weather permitting), so we'll see if this confidence carries over to my next outing. I sincerely hope so.