Foiled Again

Yet again, the winds were not in my favor, at least as far as soloing goes. Even though we just stayed in the pattern again, I posted the tracks, just because they are so variable (and it makes a pretty picture, don't you think?)

The wind was all over the place, but predominantly 10-15 knots with gusts up to 20. And anywhere from 45 degrees off the runway, to almost 90. So, despite the poor soloing conditions, it made for some really good crosswind practice. The first three patterns were actually on runway 12, and then track #4 involved the switcheroo to 30. On top of all this, it was a fairly busy afternoon, and you can see three circles that we were directed to make to allow time for other traffic to get in or out.

The day actually started out pretty nice, with cool temperatures and some scattered clouds. But as lesson time came around, the wind started to pick up a bit, and steadily increased until the end. In all, though, I'm pretty proud of my patterns and my 360's, since they are prone to be a bit wobbly in the wind. My ground tracks worked out pretty well, and only one of the turns was really egg-shaped. You can even pick out the wind direction by looking at where my turns went a bit wide (#3, in two places, and #9). The really wide pattern #7 was due to spacing for a jet arriving.

Landings (my main focus at this point) are coming along well, too. I'm flaring better, and I have a better handle on the power, but today's gusts made it all the more challenging. The first few landings could be made with full flaps, but the remainder were with takeoff flaps. This is due to this plane's tendency to balloon in the gusts (it's very light and smooth so it picks up easily). This means that the speed coming in is higher, and it takes longer to slow down enough to touch down. So it's a bit of a trade-off. The longer you're in the air, the more time the wind has to push you around. But the slower you go (with full flaps), the more likely the extra lift is to cause you to rise up unexpectedly.

So we shall hope for better winds tomorrow.