Great Landing

Today's lesson was scheduled for 8-10am. The long-range weather forecast said yesterday and today were going to be bright&sunny. Yesterday was. But the overnight temperature met the dew point, there was overnight fog, and today dawned cloudy with a base of 3100'

We started with the paperwork, with a photocopy of my birth certificate and my radio operator (restricted) permit, which I had received as the result of successfully passing the test during gliding ground school. I suspect not many students show up at lesson#1 with that permit in hand!!

I did the weight&balance calculations. Note to self: Lose 30 pounds. With a full tank we were 36 pounds under maximum weight.

We reviewed exercises #5 and #6, and headed to the aircraft.

I did the pre-flight inspection under the instructor's watchful eye, pushed the ship out of the hangar and to the apron, climbed aboard and started the checklists.

The checklists are getting easier. In some cases they are not very specific. For example, the checklist will say "Avionics", and I have to remember that what we are checking is that after landing the transponder has switched itself from ALT (transmit altitude) to STBY (standby).

Rather than watch a flurry of button-pushing, I set up the GPS unit. Apparently the Garmin website has a simulator that you can download, which I will do this afternoon.

As for the flying: the instructor demonstrated a few things (aerliron yaw), and up some odd attitudes from which I had to recover, but of the 1.2 Hobbs hours it was my hand on the stick for at least 1.1.

I did the takeoff (needed a reminder on when to rotate, I need to scan the AI during the roll, until I develop the speed sense).

I made all of the radio calls (mistake on one, where there was some ambiguity).

And I did the landing!!! I was a bit lower and slower in the final than I should have been so I had to add a bit of power. I started my rotation a bit early (quite normal, I am told), and the instructor corrected. And we ended up on the runway so I didn't have a chance to fly along at a foot or two and bleed off airspeed. No bounce, though it was a bit hard.

Humour: The definition of a good landing is one you can walk away from. The definition of a great landing is one where the airplane can be used again.

All in all, a pretty good day at school. Now it time for homework and review.