May 8, 2011 - Mother's Day!
Oops! Forgot to update this!! May 11 now, but I DID fly on Mother's Day... nice calm winds and the most gorgeous morning -- sunwise -- that I have flown in for ages!!!
Despite ideal weather, my landings were less than ideal. Attempting short field landings (i.e. precision touch down point) proved to be a bit of a challenge!! My landings were lousy, largely because my approaches were less than stellar. I really struggled with finding the appropriate altitude. I seemed too high, so I reduced power to drop drastically on base, then kept realising on final that "oops, I'm too low", so I added power, but all this playing around caused problems for short final... not enough focus on rudder and so on, and I ended up with some pretty bumpy landings.
There was one landing that was actually pretty smooth -- and it was the one where I consciously used rudder to keep it down the runway!! Imagine that! One thing is certain: Knowing something in theory, and "knowing" it in practise, i.e. physically, are two entirely different animals! :-P
Another increasingly important truth: What they teach you during the Human Factors session in Ground School is worth heeding. Sleep deprivation does not bode well for the student pilot attempting to learn new things and consolidate knowledge and skill!!! I HAVE to get more sleep!
Despite ideal weather, my landings were less than ideal. Attempting short field landings (i.e. precision touch down point) proved to be a bit of a challenge!! My landings were lousy, largely because my approaches were less than stellar. I really struggled with finding the appropriate altitude. I seemed too high, so I reduced power to drop drastically on base, then kept realising on final that "oops, I'm too low", so I added power, but all this playing around caused problems for short final... not enough focus on rudder and so on, and I ended up with some pretty bumpy landings.
There was one landing that was actually pretty smooth -- and it was the one where I consciously used rudder to keep it down the runway!! Imagine that! One thing is certain: Knowing something in theory, and "knowing" it in practise, i.e. physically, are two entirely different animals! :-P
Another increasingly important truth: What they teach you during the Human Factors session in Ground School is worth heeding. Sleep deprivation does not bode well for the student pilot attempting to learn new things and consolidate knowledge and skill!!! I HAVE to get more sleep!