After taking a week off post-solo due to scheduling issues, I was looking forward to getting back in the cockpit. The last lesson was a ground lesson during which we covered cross-country planning and discussed how my first cross-country flight would go. The plan for the following lesson (today) was to plan the cross-country. I took all of my stuff, which is a little easier with the Jeppesen pilot bag. That thing will hold a ton of stuff…or so it feels. I walked into the flight school and found that Josh was not there. I thought he might be out with another student so I started talking to Nathan. As it turned out, I would be flying today. I didn’t mind this change one bit. Josh’s exact instructions were to get in some solo time and plan a cross-country for the next lesson.
Without further ado, I got the plane and went down to start preflight. I didn’t feel as nervous today about flying all alone, but I probably should have. I couldn’t decide where to go or what to do. It ocurred to me that there were any number of things I could do in the next two and a half hours. I considered the practice area for some maneuvers. In the end, a quick glance at the time I decided that traffic pattern work at McGhee Tyson was the best use of the time. It was really weird doing all the preflight stuff without anyone else coming. I used it as an opportunity to snap some pictures. I thought it was fitting that none of the frequencies set on the radios were even close to where they needed to be. I reset the frequencies on both radios in accordance with my own radio strategy, a la Jason Miller’s The Finer Points (Com 2 is for you). I called clearance delivery, they cleared me and I taxied to a nearby area free and clear of planes for a run-up. The usual area wasn’t going to work out because it was full of planes. I elected to do it in a wide area right before the entrance to the taxiway. No one was coming and it was the easiest and safest place to do it while staying out of the way.
After a complete and successful run-up, I radioed tower and let them know I was ready for taxi. I find it strange that they always say “tower for taxi” when I fly. They cleared me to taxi via alpha, as usual and I made my way to the runway. I like doing the run-up on the ramp because it means less time sitting on the taxiway. If I do it on the ramp, I’m usually off the runway within 5 minutes. Today was no different. I reached the hold short line and radioed that I was ready for takeoff. They cleared me and I was in the air in short order. They put me on right traffic for 23 right. This was fine for me. Its a win-win situation in that I’m not rushed and they don’t have to sequence me unless traffic comes in for the guard base.
I did 3 trips. My landings were better, but still average. Of the three I would say that the middle one was the best. It seems that landing is like when I make pancakes, the first one isn’t so good but the rest are edible. My own assessment is that I am failing to grasp the intensity of control inputs required. In other words, I am letting my desire to be smooth override the need for slowing the decent quicker, thus I bounce. This currently permeates all phases of flight. It’s not that I’m unsafe, it’s that I’m inexperienced. The hardest thing for me to accept is that I’m not going to fly perfectly right away. Practice makes perfect as they say.
For the next solo lesson I plan to head out to the practice area and put in some time with maneuvers. It is hard to say whether that will come before or after the cross country. I’ll be doing both either way.