Progress

Three lessons since my last post. I'm back with Joel now, and I really feel like (to stretch the analogy) I've completed my climb and am in cruise flight. I know what to expect, I know what's ahead of me, and the pace is nice and steady. A good feeling.

Last Saturday the weather was marginal. Joel was willing to go up and do pattern work, but he let me make the decision. The winds were high (but right down the runway)...and they were gusting, which makes for an unpleasant ride and an extra degree of difficulty. In the end I chose not to go. This gave us a chance to talk about what the FAA creatively calls "Aeronautical Decision Making". It's really about judgment. Joel said I made a good decision. And we got to finish up aerodynamics in ground school.

Monday was a horrible weather day, and frankly I felt a little frustrated with the gaps between flights. I feel like skills slip a bit. Coupled with the fact that I hadn't read enough ahead, the inability to fly led to a quite unproductive session. The topic, ironically, was weather--theory, hazards, basic forecasting, and so on. I do find it interesting, but the going is a bit slower. Just a completely new area of knowledge for me, for which I have little frame of reference.

So why do I title this "progress"? Because tonight's lesson really was a major step forward in the aircraft. I accomplished three landings without Joel's help (plus two that were not as good), and I'm really getting the hang of the traffic pattern. For the first time, it just really felt comfortable. We also did a little slow flight--I don't take fright anymore at the squawk of the stall horn. It is definitely seeming more natural and I feel like I know what I'm doing. After the flight we also knocked off the weather stuff that I couldn't get on Monday when I wasn't prepared.

Joel says maybe another few hours until I solo. Gotta work on those flares and landings...the two that didn't go so well involved ballooning down the runway, and one landing that was a bit more harsh than we like. But things are moving right along!