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Flight 23 at SpanaFlight (Total: 26.4 Dual, 1.3 Sim IFR, .2 Night, 96 Landings)

12/19/99 

Funny thing, that weather, It likes to play games with you.  I received a call from my instructor an hour before my flight asking if I wanted to go up early, but unfortunately, I couldn't because I had to wait for a babysitter for my kids.  And when my babysitter finally arrives, my instructor calls to cancel due to the fog rolling in.  I was determined, however, and drove to the airport anyway, if for nothing else than to hear a hangar story or two.  Matt was there, and we decided to do some ground school for stage 2 a little early.

We headed back to his office and started doing weight and balance computations.  We also started to look over the performance charts for 4705G.  Just about a half an hour into the lesson, I looked outside, and the fog was gone again.  I smiled and pointed out the window.  Matt looked out, and said "Lets Go!".  I then went right out and pre-flighted.

Matt arrived shortly, and we decided to just continue on takeoffs and landings, but due to the time we spent inside waiting for the weather to clear, we only had about 45 minutes to fly until I had to get back and relieve my babysitter.  We went right out and took off on runway 16.  One other plane was sharing the pattern with us, and we were behind him by a leg.  

I decided that I was going to really concentrate on making my patterns good, without making my usual too steep turns.  The first time around, I did fine on my pattern work, and even turned final right on the glide slope.  That was the first time in a while I had done that, as I seem to always be high.  I landed smoothly, perhaps flaring a little too late, but the touchdown was fairly smooth.

The next 2 times around the pattern were pretty decent.   No critical pattern errors, and although I did turn too steeply twice, I caught it before my instructor did, and had already started correcting for it when he mentioned the errors.  I was high on final for those, but the touchdowns were ok.  Nothing spectacular, but I didn't jar anything loose at least.

The last time around, Matt says "I'm playing your mother this time.  I won't say a thing".  I got a kick out of this, and during the whole pattern, Matt was saying things like "Gee, look at those flowers" and "Isn't the weather nice" and such.  Well, my pattern work proved to be decent, but I was really high on final.  Matt didn't say anything about it, but I started slowing the plane and put the flaps in early so I could get down.  I put the plane down with a slight bounce, and then told my "Mom" that that was a normal landing for one of these planes and not to worry too much about it.  Matt and I guffawed some and we pulled off the runway chuckling.

We pulled off the runway and taxied back to the parking area.  I told matt what I did wrong on that last one, and he agreed.  He said that I should have put in flaps earlier and that I should have pulled back power more than I did so that I could get down.  But although we bounced some at then end, I have done far worse landings than that one.  Matt let me park the plane, and he said that he didn't touch the controls once the entire flight.  I felt pretty good about myself, and we walked back to the office to debrief.

Matt wants to try and get me flying on Monday, and if another student cancels, he will have me out there to fly some more.  I also have Wednesday scheduled for this week, so I might be able to get some more flying in before Christmas.  The weather looks promising this week for flying as long as the expected fog burns off in the mornings.  

I'll keep you posted...To Journal Page 30