After having a break to study for the knowledge test and to celebrate passing the knowledge test, I decided to go flying. I scheduled some plane time and planned to do some touch and goes. It had been a little winy over the last few days, but upon arriving at the flight school, I was greeted by pretty decent weather. There was some wind, but it was pretty much straight down the runway so I elected to go forward with the lesson. It was a little overcast also, but it was a good solid VFR day.
I checked the plane out and went out to do preflight. Everything seemed to be in order with the plane and I loaded up, locked the doors, buckled the seat belt, and noticed that I had left the chocks under the left main tire. So I had to undo all the stuff and climb out and remove them. I did everything for a second time and proceeded to start the engine and moved out to call clearance delivery. They gave me all the pertinent information, I wrote it down and read it back. Everything looked good so I decided to maneuver into a position where I could do the run-up. It was at this point that I looked over at the transponder with the intent of dialing in my given code and it appeared to be off. Then I looked at the knob and saw that it was in the standby position. I switched it off and on again a number of times and each time all I saw was a little tiny light reading “fail.” It was at this point that I came to realize that I didn’t know what to do now. It was obvious that I shouldn’t just take off and I knew that ATC had me in their queue so I just let logic prevail and called clearance back and canceled my clearance. I taxied back over to the front of the flight school and shut down, chocked the plane, and ran back up to let Nathan know what was happening. It was at this point that he let me know that everything was copacetic, but that the transponder has a little sensor and that sometimes when the light outside is just right it turns off the display back light. Apparently, the fix is to shine a light at it. He grabbed a light and came out and showed me.
I still had plenty of time, but I was mad that I had wasted my time and I couldn’t figure out what the point behind the sensor is. Nathan went back upstairs, I started the engine, and realized the chocks were still under the nose wheel. So I shut down, removed the chocks and started again. This was not a good start to the lesson. I called clearance let them know I had worked everything out and they let me know that my previous clearance was still good. This was great because it meant that I had the right code in the transponder. I did the run up and radioed for taxi. They cleared me to taxi to 23L via alpha, which I did, received a clearance for takeoff, and I was in the air.
I got up pretty quickly, which wasn’t hugely surprising given the wind. I turned a right crosswind and that’s when it hit me just how swift the wind was. I fought the wind and flew for what felt like forever and I could actually see the plane drifting. Finally it was time to turn downwind, I forced it around and it clicked onto downwind. I was conscious of the fact that I was really moving. The turn to base was another struggle and I turned well past 90 degrees to avoid drifting way out from the runway. The turn to final was a little alarming in that it was a little difficult to get the plane to line up with the runway. There was nothing wrong with the plane, but the wind was fighting me on the crosswind and base legs. The landing itself was pretty decent and I was headed around again.
Somewhere about midway through the downwind, the controller cleared me for the option and alerted me to the fact that the wind had increased. It was still straight down the runway and well within my personal safety minimums and this time I knew what to expect. I made a really good pattern this time. Another decent landing and I was off again.
This time however, when I was cleared for the option, there was a fair amount of turbulence. The plane was really rocking. Then, right at the tail end of the downwind leg, a gigantic gust of wind hit the plane and I immediately noticed a significant drop in altitude (maybe a hundred feet). To make a long story short, I hit my head twice on the ceiling. Just after the second gust, the controller called to let me know that the wind was now gusting at 27 knots and I responded the only way I knew how, “Roger that..I’d like to make this one a full stop.” They gave me a runway change and I put it down and taxied to the tie down.
Overall once I got up it was a good lesson. The very last little incident really got my heart beating and I was glad to be on the ground, but it was good practice for dealing with wind.