Finally. A Day With No Wind.

I have been so busy (and broke) that I haven't been flying in a month. Beside the obvious, we have also had some pretty bad weather and the flying club had one of those rare occasions where both of the 172s were due for inspection at once. Even if I was light enough to fly a 150, only 1 was on-line while the other one was having a major engine overhaul done. Out of 5 club airplanes, only 2 were on-line. So naturally I have been dying to go flying.

We finally got the 172s back on-line so I made a reservation for Monday at 10 AM. When I got to the FBO, my instructor was already there waiting and I was ready too. The winds were absolutely calm. We were going to do more pattern work so I prepared myself for another day of getting beat up. I realize now that I need to spend more time working on coordinating my turns but that was an afterthought doing touch and gos. I finally got a lot more comfortable with my landings after a couple of really dumb mistakes. I had to find a way to relax some because I had such a tight grip on the yoke that my fingers were turning numb. I'm learning to trim like crazy now instead of fighting the back pressure all of the time. The high back pressure has been causing me a lot of problems as I try to flare on landings. It gets to a point where I'm having to pull so hard that I actually pull too hard and the next thing I know, I'm rising. This is bad because by the time I get settled down for another decent, I've bled off all of the energy I needed to make a smooth landing. Chalk it up to why you need a lot of flying time to get your license.

Total flying this time: 1.5 hrs
Total Hours - 4.9