Two steps forward and once step back-lesson 13. 2.27.12

"One's best success comes after his greatest disappointments."  Henry Ward Beecher


I'm fast learning that I'm harder on my self than Shane could ever be.  Flying for me is extremely  frustrating but extremely rewarding.  After Saturday's lesson I felt like all the elements were coming together, and I was making significant gains.   Monday we worked on ascending, descending, and maintaining altitude as well as flying slow speed.  Shane told me to climb and maintain 2,500 hundred feet.  I increased my power, trimmed it out with his help, and when the instrument read 2,450 ft I reduced the power and pushed the control wheel forward.   Instead of the airplane stabilizing like I expected the airplane descended and we continued losing altitude.  Shane commented on the losing our altitude and I wanted to scream at him "I'm keenly aware of that and I did what I thought I was suppose to but it didn't work!"  Instead I listened to what he had to say but I didn't process.  I don't remember what we did to fix the problem.  Sadly, my dwelling on the issue got in the way of me learning the solution.   I guess that's one more area for me to work on.  We resolved the issue and then worked on more climbs as well as slow flight.  Eventually we descended to 1,700 ft and prepared to enter the pattern.

We got in the pattern for a landing on three four.  Once I was in the pattern I knew what I needed to do and we prepared for our landing.  The landing went fine and once again we were greeted by some wild creatures.  The welcoming crew was comprised of a couple of turkeys.  They flew off before we got close to them.  After the runway was cleared we kept rolling and did a touch and go.  Once we were in the air again we returned to the pattern, and prepared to do another landing.  I'm getting quite used to the landing procedure and was even able to anticipate some of the items on the landing checklist (SCORE!!).

We were able to talk about why what I wasn't able to fix the problem later that evening, and I was able to express my frustration to Shane.  Shane thinks part of the problem is that the I'm placing to much emphasis on flying the instruments and not enough emphasis on looking out and around me.  He has some exercises that we're going to try to help me work through this.  I probably overreacted slightly, but my pursuit for perfection can be my worst enemy.  I like to think that chasing perfection will make me a better and safer pilot, but for now I guess I need to cut myself some slack.