Back in the Saddle

It has been over a month since I have been able to fly. I can't tell you how much I have been looking forward to doing some flying. It seems like I am spending more time landing than flying these days. I finally had a day with very calm wind. Only 4 knots from the south (actually 140 degrees) and it felt good. I am getting my approaches down and staying centered during the landings. This was the most relaxed I have ever been. I remember the first time I did a bunch of touch and gos, I was exhausted after I got finished. My left arm was tired and sore, my legs felt like I had run a marathon and I must have sweated a gallon. Now I am trimming the airplane better and I'm not having to muscle it so much. When you hear the phrase back pressure, I never dreamed that I would have to pull so hard during a landing. Trimming the plane during the approach helps out more than you can ever realize.

Things were going well until Richard decided to have me do slips instead of using flaps. The idea is to use a lot of right rudder and then use left aileron to offset the rudder. It causes a lot of drag and will get the plane down pretty quick without increasing airspeed, much like the flaps do. I personally think that using flaps is a much smoother way of landing because you aren't constantly fighting the opposing forces, then trying to transition into a "normal" approach for landing. Maybe after I "master" the slips and get a lot more comfortable landing in higher crosswinds, I may change my feelings.

We got a late start so I didn't get to do much flying. Plus, after we were air born, we had to go help one of the other club planes that had a radio problem. We were only on the ground about 10 minutes but we had to preflight all over, do our runup, talk to the tower, yada yada yada... The good part of this is that I am going up again on Friday morning. Richard said something to the effect of flying to Lake Texoma for lunch one day so I am going to suggest it to him. I love the flying but the scenery is getting old at McKinney, (In my best Rodney Dangerfield voice) no offense.

Total flying this time - 1.0 hours.
Total Hours - 5.9