“Child, you have to learn to see things in the right proportions. Learn to see great things great and small things small.”
Corrie Ten Boom
As I type this my boys are on their way to Sully with our Cessna 120. The plan is to drop in and visit Shane's dad. A perfect Father's day for guys who have created a rich aviation family history. The 120 is very special to Shane and I, and now to Shane and Sullivan. The two seats limit family trips, but I'm glad that my boys can create wonderful memories together. Shane was gone to Kansas for jet recurrent training from Sunday to Wednesday of this week. He felt that in his absence I should get some flying in since I'd just switched airplanes. We had hoped to squeeze in some flying last weekend, but it didn't happen. We both had terribly crazy weekends which seems to be the normal for us lately. Tuesday and Wednesday I did some flying with one of his instructors. I'd been in a bit of a funk with my landings and was just starting to overcome the huge mental block I'd created for myself.
We flew in the evening on Tuesday which worked out well since I'd been working at the airport late that afternoon. It started off a bit rough. I worked through the check list at a snail's pace which was frustrating. I'd gotten pretty efficient at it in 3NK and had to retrain myself for 27G. The first couple of landings were far from outstanding, but we worked through them. It was after those landings that the CFI gave me some good visuals I needed to watch for. It was like a light bulb went on, and my landings got a little better each time. I'm such a visual learner so this was huge for me. When I need to learn something on photoshop I hit the YouTube videos first. I was actually so excited about it that I brought my camera the next day. I wanted to capture what a correct landing would look like. Sadly, the next day was a bit bumpy so it was hard to get good pictures. When I replay a landing in my head I can't remember what I saw out the window. It all happens so fast and my brain is too focused on getting the plane safely on the ground. I'm looking forward to a calm day in the near future so we can experiment with the my camera and the InFlight video camera that Shane has. I think a whole new dimension could be added to flight instruction at Classic.
Wednesday was a crazy day for me, but I managed to get out to the airport for another lesson. I was a little concerned when I got to the airport and found out we'd be fighting a crosswind. The last crosswind lesson with Shane left me feeling nauseous and defeated. I knew it was part of learning to fly, but I was still holding out hope that the FAA would issue a fair weather pilot's license (no crosswind training required). We flew at one which was actually the earliest in the day I've ever flown. The bad part was it was HOT! I think I sweated through my shirt repeatedly in that hour. The awesome part was that I wasn't totally exhausted like I normally am in the evening. I found my reaction time was better, and I didn't seem to be as emotionally reactive when I made mistakes. I was able to get through the checklist in a more timely manner which makes me think I'm starting to adjust to 27G (but don't tell my instructors). I think we did six landings and by the end I was shot. Landing in a crosswind is physically exhausting, because you're manhandling the airplane to correct for the wind that's trying to push you off the runway.
I was tired but triumphant after the lesson! I felt like I made some real progress with crosswind landings, and am finally starting to regain some of my confidence back. I missed flying with Shane, but the change in perspective helped me make some serious gains. Plus, I found someone else at Classic that likes iced coffees. Shane doesn't really understand my excitement about a mocha frozito from The Brew since he doesn't like anything coffee related. If you haven't had one you're missing out! All in all it was a great day with a perfect ending, Shane came home. He breezed right through his recurrent training like I knew he would. Needless to say we were both ready for bed that night. Hopefully, I'll continue to move forward with flying and be able to solo soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment