JEP FI-9: Solo

[Update: added takeoff video]

The goal for this lesson was simple: supervised solo followed by first unsupervised solo.

It was horrible. Exactly the opposite of what I wanted and had been looking forward to. So bad that I have been questioning whether I'll continue my training.

The problem is that all 12+ hours of my training have been in beautifully calm skies. It had even become kinda frustrating that it was always so calm because theory about crosswind maneuvering only goes so far and I need practical experience.

Well, getting that experience during my solo was not what I had in mind. And it was terrifying. The only reason I landed is because I knew of no alternative.

We started out around 8:30 this morning after reviewing the written pre-solo knowledge test. That test covered basics like the V-speeds, information that I'd have to look up on a sectional or airport diagrams, emergency procedures, some flight basics, etc. The intention was for me to do three takeoffs and landings with Chuck in the plane, then he'd hop out and I'd do three by myself.

Wouldn't you know it that the winds were favoring 31 today? The vast majority of my flight time has been using 13. It shouldn't be a problem and I have to be able to land both ways here and any way at any airport, but the catch is that 31 has a challenge known locally as the swamp monster. Final on 31 comes in over the James River and over some tributaries that wind through marshy land, right up to the end of the runway. The wind and turbulence over that spot is kinda unpredictable, so the common wisdom is to come in about 50' higher and a little hotter than you typically would.

Fine, I knew that would be the case and I wasn't thrilled about it but whatever. I have landed there before, I would land there today, and I will land there more in the future.

The first three (supervised) patterns were crap for different reasons. All were landed safely and we made the mid-field turnoff for all three, but my altitudes on the downwind/base and base/final corners were too low and/or my airspeed got low and/or I had too much airspeed coming over the threshold and/or I was off-centerline and/or a combination of those things. It just wasn't coming together. There was a bit of a crosswind, so I was crabbing on downwind to maintain my rectangular pattern and base was taking forever -- that's one reason I was so low on the threshold end of the pattern, because I'd never really flown in a crosswind and so did nothing to *not* sink at the usual 500'/min rate that all my other patterns had and ended up sinking for a longer period of time before turning final and then had to fly a long final at 200-300'. So we did three more with Chuck in the plane, and they got better and better so he asked if I was ready to do it by myself.

I said, "I can land." I was anxious, but mostly just because the big moment had finally come. I dropped Chuck off in front of the terminal where he said he'd be near a radio if I needed to talk to him, which I would need repeatedly.

I taxiied back down to 31 with a nervous cheer knowing that my last three landings had been better so these next three would be opportunities to continue the improvement. The first takeoff was normal and good. About the time I was turning left downwind I noticed just how turbulent it was around the airport. I had my usual bank and suddenly the left wing kicked down even further and my stomach dropped. It shook me up pretty good, so I levelled as quickly as I could and then tried again with better luck the second time. I was in the pattern behind another plane, and he had what seemed like an absurdly long final, which I didn't want to have since I was at risk of having lower-than-normal altitude on account of the long base leg. But since I was following him, I felt I had to really follow his pattern so I kept the power up through base and didn't put my second notch of flaps out until just before turning final.

Final was tough; it was bumpy, I was crabbing, the wings were bobbling around, I was really sweating it. Surprisingly, I was doing ok and was lined up pretty well and didn't notice the swamp monster (so I must have been high/fast enough). I even had a decent flare. But that crab got me -- when I touched down and the nose wheel came down, I was headed straight for the grass on the right of the runway. And that's where I went. I pushed the left rudder pedal and felt like the plane was going to roll right over so I decided that must not be the right thing to do. Before I could really try anything else, I was in the grass and still headed to the right. Fear of plowing down those runway lights was not helping my grip on the situation. I managed to apply the left pedal in a gradual enough fashion to get back onto the pavement without feeling that topple-over feeling again and amazingly without hitting any of the lights, although I was well past them and had to come through them again on the way back to the pavement. And when I did get back to the pavement, the nosewheel was shimmying and shuddering and I was certan that I had damaged it badly.

That totally sucked. I immediately called UNICOM and asked them to have Chuck meet me in front of the FBO. I didn't know how much he would have been able to see from there. When I stopped and he came over, I told him what happened and asked him to check the gear. Aside from some grass in the nosewheel, everything seemed fine. Husband came running over to see that everything was ok, and he shook my hand happily in congratulations on my first solo landing but didn't know just how unsuccessful it had been. (My standard for success is based on more than survivability!)

I was shaking. I was in full-fear mode. But was that just something I needed to get over and try it again? Should part of the experience be to move past one bad landing and not give up? I decided that it was. I knew what had gone wrong. I knew how to correct it. Other than that swerve at the end, it really was a decent landing, despite the challenging conditions. Here's my second takeoff; doesn't the swamp monster's home look pretty out there, with the trees changing colors and the sun glistening on the water?



The second pattern was much like the first. Turbulent, crabby, with other traffic. On this landing, I was lined up and it was looking good, and I let go of my crab too early and started to drift out over the grass to the left of the runway. I jammed in the right rudder to get back over the pavement and swung way to the right. I felt completely out of control. Husband said that what he saw standing on the edge of the taxiway was the wings dipping violently from one side to the other, not the pendulum-style swinging that I felt. He videotaped some of the solo and there's a pretty scary clip of this timeframe that includes the nose of 388 pitching down right over the runway, and then 388 goes out of the frame because Husband forgot the camera and was just watching me intently. That, I'm sure, is from me trying to compensate for flaring too early. But with a bounce I was down and missed the mid-field turnoff by far so scooted to the end of the runway and pulled off. As I was taxiing back, a 152 came in and at the mid-field turnoff he still had not touched down, and when he did he bounced several times.

I was again shaking and fearful. I just happened to be oscillating over the runway when it was time to touchdown; what if I had been way off to one side or a wing had been dipped? I was lucky. There's nothing else to it. I was not feeling confident at all and debated calling it off. Again, though, I told myself that I had gotten down safely and had dealt with the situation, so I needed to learn what I could and move on. As I taxiied again toward 31, Husband came running out to the taxiway so I stopped, idled and opened the window. He said the winds were picking up a lot and that it might be beyond my skill set. Later he would tell me that he had never been more worried about anything in his life and that he was trying to implore me to not go up again without shaking my confidence. I called Chuck on the UNICOM and expressed my concern over the winds and asked his advice. He said the winds weren't really doing anything and that my problem on the last one was that my airspeed was low (which is true, and even lower than it ought to have been given the swamp-monster-evasion strategy of have more than normal airspeed at the threshold) so I didn't have as much authority as I needed and to keep it up the next time around.

So I went up. I was still tentative, but if my instructor felt ok about the situation then I'd go on that. Other than the first two patterns, I have no frame of reference for assessing my own limitations. The pattern went pretty much the same, and on final I was doing ok. I was left of centerline, but still over the pavement so I just held the crab where it was and came down. I neutralized the rudder and flared badly and dropped in and bounced. I bounced up quite a bit, and didn't know what to do, so I figured I needed to kill off more airspeed and pulled back a little more. And bounced again and was headed for the grass on the left (maybe I had "overneutralized" the rudder). Ok, pulling back didn't work, so I thought maybe I needed to reduce pitch so I pushed forward some. And bounced a third time in the grass. At this point I knew I was not doing the right thing so I decided to give it up and see if I could go around -- I really, really didn't want to do this since (1) I've never done a touch and go, (2) the flaps were down, (3) I was in the grass, and (4) the crosswind was stronger. I started to gradually put in the power and viola! Everything stabilized, I was able to finish that final bounce on the runway and without bouncing again. I pulled the power back out, finished the rollout to the end of the runway and headed back. That bouncing is called pilot-induced oscillation: when the pilot's actions worsen the problem by attempting to correct something in the wrong way or by overcorrecting. There's video of me on the rollout going past a nearly fully extended windsock that's perpendicular to the runway.

I picked Chuck up in front of the terminal and we chatted during the taxi back to the tie-down spot. I told him flatly that there were no words to describe how unhappy I was about my performance and about the situation. I don't even really remember what else we talked about. I was on the verge of tears and couldn't really think about a whole lot other than how insanely lucky I was for all three patterns. It could have ended so very badly at any time.

I had my shirttail cut off anyway, despite what I would say was such an unsuccessful solo that it should not be celebrated in any manner. In that same thought, though, the fact that I dealt with the situations and didn't hurt myself or the plane suggest that maybe it was successful -- but that's where the buckets come in. My "luck" bucket is pretty much empty, and only a little of its contents made it into the experience bucket.

When we got home we checked the METARs for JGG to see what the conditions had been. The JGG METARs claim the winds are unreliable, but they nearly matched what PHF was saying and matched what Husband and I both felt was going on. Basically, the winds started out ~5-6 kts with only a partial crosswind component and during my solo patterns they increased in general and had gusts up to 14 kts, almost all of which was a crosswind.

So my solo was one of the worst experiences in my life to date. I should have recognized earlier, maybe even before the first solo pattern, that I wasn't ready for that, that I needed more training than the first 6 supervised patterns to be able to deal with a crosswind.

We're planning right now to do the same thing Monday afternoon, weather permitting. I have zero confidence right now.