My goals for the day:
- Better manage my airspeed throughout the circuit, especially on short final and the flare,
- Smooth final,
- Nice flare and landing.
Taxi, radio, checklists, and take-off (including tracking the centre line during the take-off ) were all good.
But I didn't feel sharp. Altitude tracking wasn't precise at the start, then I decided to start putting in the extra effort and nailing the numbers and by the latter part of the lesson I was doing much better.
One thing I did much better was throttle management... I noticed I was just parking it at a certain RPM and driving the aircraft with the controls. Aircraft move in four dimensions (airspeed being the fourth), and today I was much much better with gently nudging the throttle. I've never adjusted the throttle as much as I did today.
But I had to be active on the throttle.... the usual updrafts and downdrafts at the end of 28 were out in full force today. During one approach I was on short final maybe 100' AGL and the aircraft just started sinking. I added about 800rpm and flattened out the slope, then throttled down and settled onto the runway.
Another linkage: If doing a forced landing, aim for the threshold and make sure you make it. Don't be afraid of erring on the the high side. With all the surprise sink I saw today, if I didn't have an engine I could not have glided to the runway.
Landings were generally OK. No high-altitude drops, one small bounce, a few normal-ish landings and two that were quite acceptable. And two rejected landings.
On one of the first landings I first encountered the really aggressive sink off the end of the runway, added throttle and continued the landing. I kept accelerating down so I kept adding throttle and nudging the nose up. Time to get out of Dodge - I ended up flaring, punching up full power, touching down the mains surprisingly gently, and then climbing out on full flaps. I leveled and accelerated in level flight, then nose up and positive rate of climb, went to take-off flaps and then climbed out.
After three landings I had the instructor do the landing, and I just watched the perspective so I could judge altitude. I was starting the flare way too high. My subsequent landings were much better.
Time: 1.6
Landings: 9
What I did well:
- Sharpened up. Perhaps due to the layoff I wasn't crisp. I recognized it, and put in the extra effort to fly with precision. It got better,
- Maintain 1000' AAE right to the corner of turning base. Sometimes I've dropped 50-100' just before the turn. I think this comes from the confidence that I can shed the altitude (throttle, flaps, and - if need be - a slip), and so I'm not jumping the gun on getting it down,
- Overshoots and rejected landings. If you're going to reject the landing, don't be afraid to make the decision - and once you decide then don't change your mind,
- Side-slips and forward-slips. Using these routinely now,
- Throttle management. I have never been as active on the throttle as I was today. And I wasn't just punching in a lot of RPM and then create a speed-shedding problem - there were lots of small increments,
- Final approach is getting smoother. Smaller adjustments, no pendulums, but not yet slick.
- No yaw on landing,
- Smother final,
- Don't flare so high (although I got better after I asked the instructor to demonstrate).
Debrief with instructor: I'm not doing anything which is unsafe, my situational awareness is excellent, speed management is excellent, and I've pretty much assembled all the tools I need to fly solo. What I need to do now is continue to work on putting it all together.
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