Lesson 30- 5.16.12 Conquering One Six

"Fences are made for those who cannot fly."

- Elbert Hubbard

Shane and I couldn't resist flying tonight. The beautiful blue skies, perfect temperature, and the absence of wind seemed to set the tone for the evening.  I headed out to the airport about 6:30, and by the time I got out there Shane had the airplane preflighted.  We got into the 3NK and did a quick debrief on our days before I started on the checklist.  Soon enough we made our way towards the runway, and Shane told me the plan was to use one six.  Rats, I wasn't real excited about using one six.  Once we made sure the area was clear I made my radio call.  Yep, to Shane's delight, I've got the radio communication component done pat.  I still don't like making the calls but I'm doing it.  We headed down to my less preferred runway, turned in, and I finished the run up.  It amazes me how quickly I get through the run ups these days.  It use to take what seemed like an hour to get through the checklists, and now I could probably recite the checklists by heart.  Once I was finished with the run up we prepared to take-off.

I got myself all lined up and took a minute to mentally prep myself, and soon we were rolling down the runway.  My goal was to gently ease the airplane off the runway and as Shane says "Let it fly itself," and I did.  I kept myself from pulling to hard and avoided the jerky take-off.   This was a good boost for my confidence.  Once we were in the air, Shane and I talked through some of my frustrations with the pattern flying of one six.  He gave me some tips to try and they were very helpful.  The first time around we worked through some of my pattern issues, and I had a decent landing.  Things only got better from there, and by my third go around I was feeling pretty good.  I had an awesome third landing.  There aren't words to describe greasing a landing, and its probably one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I've ever had.   Being a creature of habit I normally quit on a good third landing, but with some coaxing from Shane I decided to go around again.  My last landing wasn't a greaser but it was ok.  This lesson also helped us to figure out that I do better when I come in high upon landing on one six.  Learning that was a game changer for me,  a lightbulb went on in my head and one six suddenly made more sense to me.

After some previous lessons were I fought one six, and ended up very frustrated, it was good to feel  success on it again.  I have a lot of things to look forward to in the near future as well as some apprehensions.  More on that very soon, but for now I'm going to enjoy my conquer of one six!