Sept 30 - Dual/Solo Cross-Wind Circuits
Since the ceilings at Muskoka and Peterpatch precluded doing my solo cross-country today, but not wanting to give up the time I had set aside for flying, I decided to book an hour in the circuit. Plane was GFDH, same as yesterday’s flight.
My landings, especially cross-wind landings, are still not stellar, and I struggle with runway alignment. A light wind but definitely cross-wind made for an excellent practice session today. Finally I understood about rudder and aileron when it comes to cross wind inputs—I know, I know, my instructors must have explained it a thousand times, but somehow today, I GOT it! On final, line up with the runway, use rudder to keep the nose aligned with the centreline, and aileron to stay in the middle of the runway – drifting too far to the right? Not so much right aileron. Nose pointing to the left? Not so much left rudder. For example.
I did three relatively decent landings for my instructor, and then went solo.
First solo landing was crap. I think I actually landed on the downwind wheel! Yikes! Next circuit I was distracted by a call from Tower. Apparently my transponder was not on alt. But it was! I cycled it through again, but apparently the tower was still not picking up the “C” mode. I noticed the light was kind of weakly flickering, then going off for long periods. I flew one more circuit, but made it a full stop. Lineup was not bad on final, and I wasn’t as high as I usually am, but the actual touchdowns were still less than fabulous!
One thing my instructor has been telling me is to use power rather than flaps to descend. I still have a tendency to reach for the flaps, which significantly alters the flight path – power tends to be a gentler way to control things. I have to remember. I’ve also been trying to remember to put the throttle back to 1000 when stopping on the ground during taxiing, which is better for the engine.
Once on the ground, the phone rang. It was Warren, my old chum from Ground School! Apparently he had been at the school in the morning, and had heard I was flying later in the day, so decided to call me. So nice to hear from him!