Working on the flare - August 4

Two more hours in the circuit. Things are coming along nicely.

Final approach is getting better - much more stable, smaller movements on the stick, good coordination with rudder and - importantly - the throttle. Asta la bye-bye to the pendulum.

Today's crosswinds were from the north (right) so I anticipated that there would mechanical turbulence in the lee of a cluster of trees to the northeast of 28's threshold, and it was right there on very short final. No issue, just be aware that throttle might be required. It was.

At the end of last lesson I figured out that I was double-flaring: As the ground got bigger in the windscreen I would feel the usual apprehension about all that black asphalt filling the windscreen, raised the nose to slow the rate of descent, descended, and then did the "real" flare into cruise and touchdown. All this activity usually meant that I ran short on airspeed in the second flare, which meant a harder touchdown. Today's objective: One flare only.

I was also flaring too high. Last lesson I had the instructor demonstrate the landing and I kept eyes-out to see the perspective. Today's objective: Trust the perspective, don't be afraid of the ground, flare at the right altitude.

The circuit was much busier today - we usually had 3 aircraft in various positions, including arrivals from all directions. Learned to make sure I knew where announced aircraft were, and to be very clear in stating my position. And learned what to do in the case of circuit conflicts - twice aircraft did a quick 360 to add to spacing (as it worked out, neither rotation was done by me). And once I flew the downwind at 115kt rather than 80-90kt, both to increase the spacing from another aircraft following me in the circuit, and also to get some practice in shedding all that airspeed before turning base and final.

I remember back to my first lessons, where I couldn't make a radio call without losing 30 degrees of heading and 250 feet in altitude. Now I can track the course, make the radio call, keep a picture of traffic, and work the checklist. It's like driving a car, where - after the initial learning curve - you don't have to think about keeping it in the middle of the lane.

The wind was varying today. We did a runway change while in the circuit, which involves flying downwind for 28, crossing over at midfield, then downwind for 10, then base then touchdown. By the time we got on the ground we looked at the windsock and it has switched back to favour 28. After that we ignored the windsock variations, as it always came back to favour 28 anyway.

I greased 3 of the landings. One had a very minor bounce. Nothing scary.

Today's mistakes:

• When traffic was arriving I got rather concerned that we couldn't spot the incoming traffic. I should have levelled off at 1400' ASL, but got up to 1600' ASL instead due to inattention. The wrong altitude had the effect of not placing us in the expected position when they were scanning for us - a critical part of circuit management, and safety in general, is doing what is expected of you.
• When doing touch&go, the only configuration difference between landing and take-off are the flap settings - this makes it real easy to switch from landing mode to takeoff should you have to reject the landing. After landing on 10 and seeing that the wind had shifted back to 28, I pulled onto taxiway Bravo (near the threshold of 28, but at the far downwind end of 10) so the aircraft following had the option to land on 10. They decided to go around and go downwind for 28, so I pulled back onto 28, backtracked to threshold, positioned and took off. Take-off was very sluggish, but RPM was fine. I nearly rejected the takeoff before I realized that I had not lowered my heels to the floor, so I was probably slightly on the brakes. During the climb-out the aircraft was still sluggish, and that's when I realized that the flaps were still in the landing position. When I was on the taxi-way I should have run the pre-takeoff checklist from the list itself. I did run it from memory - but forgot the flaps setting.

For the last few landings I set a goal of getting my touchdowns onto the centre line - I am chronically off on the left side of the runway. Part of this is maintaining a sideslip right through the landing and landing on one wheel (the upwind wheel) so the wind doesn't push me across the runway. Another factor is to anticipate the left yaw when removing power from the engine. And part of it is probably the fact that I am in the left seat, and the cowling curves down to the left.

Time: 1.4 hours (and another page in the logbook is full)
Landings: 7

Things I did well:

• Taking off from the centre line
• Airspeed management
• Multi-tasking (with all the traffic in the circuit)
• Final - getting better
• Flare - closer to the ground, but not yet consistent
• Runway change

Areas to improve:

• Land on the centre line
• One flare
• Consistently flare at low altitude
• Minimize the yaw at touchdown

Next lesson is Wed/6. We'll do a preflight briefing to cover a number of pre-solo requisites (e.g. emergency procedures), then continue to fly the circuit. If we're grounded by the weather then we'll do the briefings anyway, and I'll book a lesson for Friday.