Crosswind Training

I booked some time today in N733NB because it was going to be a beautiful looking day. When I booked the time, I knew that it was going to be windy and the wind was going to be a cross wind. I didn't realize that is was going to be so hard. We had a 15 knot direct crosswind. My instructor said that we would do crosswind landings today and a "little baptism by fire." It was quite a busy time for a guy who only had 2 hours of training before this.

To show how windy it really was, here is the METAR data for today:
KTKI 120053Z 33003KT 10SM CLR 17/01 A2981 RMK AO2 SLP098 T01720006
KTKI 112353Z 30013G20KT 10SM CLR 21/M02 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP094 T02061017 10222 20194 51009
KTKI 112253Z 30016G22KT 10SM CLR 21/M02 A2979 RMK AO2 SLP090 T02111017
KTKI 112153Z 29014G26KT 10SM CLR 22/M02 A2978 RMK AO2 PK WND 28026/2150 SLP087 T02171017
KTKI 112053Z 26015G24KT 10SM CLR 22/M01 A2977 RMK AO2 SLP083 T02171006 56012
KTKI 111953Z 30014G19KT 10SM CLR 22/M01 A2978 RMK AO2 SLP084 T02171006
KTKI 111853Z 29013G18KT 10SM CLR 21/01 A2979 RMK AO2 SLP089 T02110006
KTKI 111753Z 31012G19KT 10SM CLR 20/01 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP094 T02000006 10200 20089 50007
KTKI 111653Z 30007KT 10SM CLR 19/04 A2981 RMK AO2 SLP093 T01890039
KTKI 111553Z 29011G15KT 10SM CLR 17/06 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP092 T01720056
KTKI 111453Z 30007KT 10SM CLR 16/07 A2978 RMK AO2 SLP088 T01560072 52025
KTKI 111353Z 31009KT 10SM CLR 13/07 A2976 RMK AO2 SLP079 T01330072

Once we got going, it was a lot of work. The crosswind on taxi was tough. I remembered the quartering tailwind lessons for the DVD's where you dive away from the wind. When we got to the run-up area, I did the usual turn into the wind and run-up to 1700 RPM. When I killed on mag, it was running rough so I leaned the mixture and it seemed to settle down. Of course after leaning the mixture I tried running it rich again and it had settled down. The other mag was fine.

We taxied up to the hold line and asked for permission to take off. As soon as another Skyhawk landed we were able to take off. I got in the pattern and did about 8 crosswind landings. Just when I though we had finished, Richard asked me if I was in a hurry and I said no. So he asked me to turn to 150 and head for Rockwall to do some more touch and goes.

McKinney (KTKI) has a 7000 ft runway that is 100 feet wide. Rockwall is 3373 feet long and 45 feet wide. It has just been repaved and is very easy to spot from the air with its new markings.

We did several more touch and goes into a crosswind and finally needed to head back to KTKI. So we contacted the tower about 10 miles out and were given a direct in approach. So one more crosswind landing to go and I get to rest my weary left arm and legs. We got in, taxied back to the North ramp and did our post flight check list before we shut everything down. I'm still tired.

Before we left, I wanted to have some fun with Richard so I showed him my new gadget I got for flying. Everyone needs one of these. Maybe Cessna will start offering it as an option (see below).


I also found out that my increasingly expensive cheap headset finally works like it is supposed to. I was quite impressed at the noise reduction from a passive noise reduction headset and how good the mic, that I thought would be questionable, sounded.

Total flying this time: 1.4 hours
Total Hours - 3.4