Cross-wind landings and a dash of success

I flew again today after my lesson earlier this week was cancelled due to fog (at 3 p.m. even). It was a nice day, with a moderate breeze when I arrived at Twin Oaks. The winds were coming from 300 degrees (northwest), which meant dealing with a slight crosswind from the right on takeoff and from the left when landing (we take off from Runway 20, to the south and a little west (a compass heading of 200 degrees), and land in the opposite direction on the same strip, Runway 02 (or 020 degrees heading).

The winds were probably blowing at about three or four knots when we started, which was pretty cool since it required a little wind correction, but not so much as to make it a lot of work or scary. Certainly not like the last lesson. By the time we finished our 1.2 hours of flying today, the winds had kicked up to around 10 knots and were quite variable in their direction. During any given circuit around the traffic pattern the winds would sometime shift a few times. Some smoke from a couple piles of brush burning near the departure and landing end of the runway would be blowing away from the runway one minute, parallel to then runway a minute later, and across it the next. So, I got to exercise my brain a little bit when it came to judging surface winds. The smoke made it easier, that's for sure.

The winds aloft were a little stronger than the surface winds, and considerably stronger by the time we finished. On my second to last takeoff a good gust shoved up under the right wing of the plane and tipped it to the left pretty quickly (from which I recovered quite well, thank you very much). Those little Cessna 150's are light and it doesn't take a lot of wind to push them around in the sky, but they also fly great.

For our last departure and landing we decided to take off on Runway 20 since the winds favored it slightly by that time, and since it's a rare occasion to be able to take off that way. The runway runs slightly uphill in that direction, and there are some tall trees in the departure path, so that's not the standard departure direction for sure, unless the winds truly favor that heading.

My previous lesson was pretty discouraging for me in terms of believing that I could do what was needed to land the plane in the wind. The day after that lesson I was honestly pretty discouraged and questioning my abilities in the overall sense. But after discussing it with my instructor and my friend Dave, I got my attitude back where it needed to be, took a few days off, and came back ready for today. And I'm glad I did.

We did eight landings today, and it took a couple of rough ones before I got some confidence back, but after that things shaped up quite a bit. My instructor, Kelly, helped out a little on the first landing and then flew one for me to observe at my request, and after that it was pretty much me. I'm still a beginner, but even with crosswinds and having to crab into the wind in the pattern and compensate on approach for the windy conditions, I did pretty okay overall. Even though my landings were far from stellar, they were getting better as I went, which boosted my confidence quite a bit. At one point, Kelly mentioned I looked like I was getting a bit frustrated, and not to worry as I was doing just fine. I said I was really more flustered than anything and that I just needed to clear my head and refocus. So much information to process at once, and as Kelly pointed out you have to do a lot of flying to get 15 seconds of landing practice.

From that point things continued to improve a little bit at a time. I've found that if I recite the steps involved in the my procedures out loud and talk about what's happening with the airplane as I go, I fly better and tend to get the various configuration tasks done more accurately and reliably. So I tried to stick with that method today.

A side note: My good friend Dave is flying this evening with his instructor over at Hillsboro airport, and tomorrow morning he will be meeting his FAA examiner, who will be running him through his oral and practical exams for his private pilot rating starting at 9am. Assuming he passes (hah, and I am quite sure he'll do just great) he'll be a private pilot by tomorrow afternoon. He's a natural. I'm really excited for him and very proud of him, too. He's worked quite hard to get to this point, and it's his dream. He plans to become a professional pilot, and I'm confident he'll do just that. For my part, I just want to fly for fun and recreation - That's my motivation. After Dave gets his private pilot ticket, we're hoping to do a quick afternoon flight to celebrate. I can't wait. Pray for us, heh.

I also met with my instructor and discussed the possibility of taking a mid-course flight with another instructor, and whether he thought that was a good idea at this point or not. He said he thought it was a good idea and that it would allow someone who has not been watching me to provide fresh feedback. Between that and getting a second perspective on how to do things, I think it would be good. I'll probably try to fly once with Dave's instructor, Justin. Sometime after that, I think Kelly will also want me to fly with one of the other Twin Oaks instructors for a progress check. I should say right here that flying with Kelly is great, and my request to fly with another instructor isn't a reflection on his teaching at all - In fact, I look forward to flying with Kelly every day, and I recommend him wholeheartedly. The fact that he's supportive of the idea of me flying with someone else for a flight shows once again that he's a good teacher. He and I agreed mixing it up for a flight would be a good thing right about now.

My next lesson is on Monday, and we'll be getting into what Kelly says is the really fun part of flying: going places and planning it out. Cool, sounds great to me!