Solo to Kelso

Last weekend I did my first solo cross-country flight, to Kelso, Washington (KKLS).

It was a beautiful day, but a very bumpy ride due to convection from the sun warming the terrain. It was so turbulent that it was uncomfortable in spots.

I navigated fine by pilotage (i.e., visual reference to points on the ground) to Kelso, which is about 50 miles south of Olympia. Kelso is a bit of a tricky airport to get into. There is terrain to the north, the Columbia River to the west, and terrain to the east. The river of course presents no particular hazard, but the terrain requires a somewhat steep descent.

There wasn't much traffic (surprising for such a nice day). I entered the traffic pattern a little high and a little fast, and for whatever reason I didn't compensate enough by lengthening my downwind to bleed off both. I was still too high and fast on final, and I got rid of much of it with a bit of slipping, but I still flared a little too fast and bounced the landing. That is, Tango Papa touched the runway and, obeying Newton's third law, bounced back into the air. About 15 feet above the runway, she lost her momentum and began a stall, which could have been embarrassing (but not terribly dangerous) if I hadn't reacted by applying some power and pointing the nose down a bit. Things stablized on the second try and I actually set her down pretty easy. I was just pretty annoyed with myself for not stabilizing the approach in the first place!

My plan had been to depart Kelso and do some touch-and-go landings at Toledo (KTDO). As I approached, monitoring the advisory frequency, I heard a jump plane pilot announce that he had just released parachutists north of the airport. Wanting no part of that, I pointed TP for home and did a few pattern circuits for practice at KOLM.

I hope I get more accustomed to turbulent air, because as I'm finding, for one reason or another, there is almost always some turbulence. I'm going to work on relaxing and see if that helps. There will certainly be plenty of chances to practice: I have mostly solo cross-country flights to go.