- Practice landing.
- Practice being alone! Eeeeeee!
Flight: This was kinda fun because we took a long lunch so I could do a few practice patterns and take advantage of the calm conditions. There was just a hint of a breeze so 13 was favored; almost all of my training sessions used 13, but not once since the day of the solo (including the solo) has 13 been favored. So it was something new for me.
My first landing was pretty good. Not really any complaints here. I tracked the centerline well, rounded out well, landed well, a teensy bit right of centerline, but it was probably the best landing I've done by myself so far. No bounce, no big deviations during rollout... Nice and normal.
On my second approach, I wasn't losing altitude as quickly as I should have been by the time I turned base and ended up really high on final; I had been trying to do a tighter pattern than my usual lazy wide pattern but went too tight for my capabilities. I only had 20 degrees of flaps down and could have put down 20 more, but I really didn't like how very high I was, so I called a go-around and went around, wider this time.
That was good... I had a nice second landing, too! :) I had some squealy braking after touching down, which Husband (who came to watch :) ) says is because I braked too hard and locked them up, but that'll get better.
The third landing was not so nice. On base, I glanced down at my altimeter and was only at ~400', which is low for that base leg. Well, it's low for any of my base legs (field elevation is 49'). So I put some power back in to belay the sinking. I turned base and final and was still high, but not as high as the second approach when I did go around, so I decided to try using all 40 degrees of the flaps. I came down faster, but still not fast enough for my liking. I wrestled with whether to do another go-around as I neared the threshold, as I crossed the threshold... I still had altitude to drop, but I had never done a go-around from a full-flaps configuration and from what I learned later, it's good that I decided against going around. I floated past the mid-field turnoff and started to get a little anxious. I could see the end of the runway, which frankly I had never even really noticed on landing before!!!!
I did finally touch down, and bounced. My brain instantly screamed "NEUTRALIZE!" and I thought I had but I bounced again. I tried again and started easing on the brakes -- I could see the swamp monster's horns getting bigger! And that got it. I came down for the last time and braked as quickly as I could, again with some squealing. I made the turnoff that's about 30' short of the end of the runway.
Wooo! Three landings, no grass and a quickly corrected PIO!
Discussion:
- Appropriately shaped patterns: I wasn't trying to overshoot my capabilities by doing a tight pattern; I just wanted to not have a 45-minute base leg! Ha ha ha, they're obviously not that bad, but my patterns have been very wide and I'd like for them to be tighter. I misjudged how tight I made that second pattern, and thus had to go around.
When I'm abeam the numbers, I aim for a 500'/min descent rate. Since my base leg was much shorter, I didn't have as much time to spend at that descent rate and so didn't descend as much and of course was too high. I'd like to not be so attached to that descent rate, or to hitting certain altitudes at my pattern corners. But for now those are the numbers that I know, and I know that if I've hit them it will be obvious to me what I need to do to fix the situational differences. - Go arounds: The go around that I executed was fine. I was still at at least 200' when I decided and started on it, so putting in the carb heat and throttle while milking up the flaps felt fine. On the third landing, I knew I was in a different situation with 40 degrees of flaps down and only 30' off the ground.
I found out from Husband that initiating a go around from 40 degrees of flaps starts with going immediately to 20 degrees of flaps. I didn't know that, and would have started just like the one I did do -- power first, then gradual withdrawal of the flaps. With 40 degrees of flaps and full power, there's not nearly enough lift to climb, so that would have been a bad decision. However, I had the opportunity enough times before putting out those extra flaps to go around, and that would have been the right thing to do. - Being in a hurry to land: On my third landing, I was anxious to get down when I saw the mid-field turnoff go by and I had decided not to go around. Instead of patiently settling down onto the runway, I plopped in and reaped the consequences: a bounce. As I bounced up and saw the end of the runway coming toward me, I actually said out loud "I don't have room for this." "This" being a string of bounces. I can't say which was worse in this case of diminishing runway length -- my shorter, bouncy landing or a longer, more patient landing. What I can say is that I'm impressed and glad to see just how quickly 388 can stop! I don't think being in a hurry contributed to my decision to not abort the landing, but thereagain, had I gone around....
- A chain of errors: That last landing was a chain of errors. Back on downwind, I must have started descending too early or too quickly. That led to me being low on base. That led to me putting in more power. That led to me having too much power on final. That led to me not dropping enough on final. I didn't make the correct decision somewhere around that time in the chain to go around. All of that led to rounding out farther down the runway than usual and then rounding out badly which led to too much float, which led to me getting ancy, which led to the bounce. Luckily it all turned out ok, but the lesson here is that it could have been prevented by better choices earlier.
- Shaking and braking: I wasn't frightened or tense or anything like that today (until the third touchdown) but I was feeling an extreme amount of muscle fatigue in my quads. (I am a beefcake! ha ha ha) After my second takeoff, my legs were shaking as I applied rudder. Husband says that early in his training and sometimes still during run-ups he'll find his legs shaking and it's just a reminder that it really doesn't take much pressure to apply the brakes. Given the squealing tires on the second landing -- and it wasn't long and drawn out, more like a few little chirps -- I would bet big dollars that I'm working too hard on them. That third landing shows that the brakes are quite effective, so I just gotta learn the feel of them.
- To regret or not to regret? I made the wrong decision on the third landing; I should have gone around. It worked out ok, but again, the luck bucket draineth. It should have been aborted.
I will make the go-around decision correctly in the future and avoid that risky situation. That said, no, I don't regret it. I learned a lot from that landing. About how things look, about what I did wrong, about consequences for a variety of choices, about braking, ... I think I got more experience droplets from it than the amount of luck droplets that were used. - Being alone: I'm nervous going up alone! It's not an overt nervousness, but during the third landing it would have been nice to have someone experienced in the right seat giving suggestions on correcting the situation. There's some latent feeling, some mild discomfort, knowing that when I'm up alone that I'm up alone and that it's all up to me. With practice and experience I expect that will go away.
Self-Assessment: Showing improvement.
- Preflight: Good.
- Taxiing: Good.
- Take-off: Good.
- Maintaining airspeed: Good.
- Stalls: Power-off stall, good. Power-on stall, good. Landing stall, improved, needs more practice.
- Slow flight (VR and IR): Good.
- Maintain attitude, altitude, heading by instruments: Good.
- Change attitude, altitude, heading by instruments: Good.
- Recover attitude, altitude, heading by instruments: Acceptable.
- Forced landing: Good, still need to commit the entire set of emergency procedures to memory.
- Pattern: Overall, good, but needs more practice.
- Landing: Improved, more practice.
- Radio calls: Decent.
Next: Tomorrow morning I am scheduled to go up with another instructor, Dan, for a phase check. If there are any winds, maybe we'll also get in a little wind-management practice. I'm also supposed to be going up every 3-4 days now, by myself if that's how the timing works out. I am to start small (today was small -- not leaving the airport vicinity is as small as it gets, right?) and add maneuvers incrementally so that I get to practice everything by myself.
- More of the above!
- Forward slips to landing
- Crosswind takeoffs and landings (come on, weather! Give us useful winds!)
- Cross-country preparations
Hours logged total: 15.6
Instrument hours logged this flight: 0.0
Hours logged total: 0.8
Take-offs and landings this flight: 3
Take-offs and landings total: 45
PIC hours: 1.6
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