After not flying for a few weeks, I finally flew again today with Peter to knock the rust off and get my mind right for the remaining items in my student pilot career.
Sadly, the batteries in my GPS tracker went kaput so again, I don't have a track for you (boo hiss).
We did a review on short field landings and ground reference, and overall flying the plane. We also did a soft field takeoff which, in the past, I've been shakey on, but today I nailed it pretty good. Overall I'm feeling pretty good about finishing up, but what worries me is the weather.
Take today, for instance. We had partly sunny skies with almost no wind, but snow flurries to the west. The weather was moving north to south, so it looked like we'd be fine in the practice area. After our maneuvers, we started heading back to Flying Cloud Airport. Both of us noticed the clouds and snow tightening like a noose around the airport. The snow wasn't heavy, but visibility went from 10+ miles to maybe 3-5. The funny thing was, though, that the airport was this isolated island of clear weather. It was the darnedest thing I've ever seen. We flew a normal pattern and I did what would have been a good short field landing, except I held it off too long and floated unnecessarily. I was trying to make a soft landing again...which is NOT a requirement of the short field. If I would have just let it thump down on the runway, I would have been fine.
So, Wednesday I'm flying solo to Glencoe airport (GYL) to practice short fields at an unfamiliar airport so that I can concentrate on doing it right. And yes, I'll put new batteries in my GPS tracker.
2 comments:
Woohoo, you've finally aviated again!
Hoping to go up and practice everything like it's a checkride this Saturday, myself.
That's a good idea and something I intend to do once I get my cert. I went up solo today and everything felt really good.
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