Short flight

After a series of bad and annoying little things (like setting of the house alarm while getting my flight bag, not being able to find the remote antenna for the garmin, etc) I did finally get to the airport and settled down, but I was in a very bad mood.

My maneuver card was for clearing turns, steep turns, slow flight, power-off stall and power-on stall. I didn't really think I'd do all of that since I was in a bad mood, but wanted to have enough planned in case getting up turned things around.

Preflight, taxi, takeoff -- normal.

One thing that was kinda neat was that as I crossed through 400' and turned out to the southwest I had a very natural feeling, and I became aware of how natural it felt. Looking at the instruments and out at the terrain wasn't so... I don't know how to describe it. Immediate, I guess. It was comfortable. Not that I was relaxed by any means, but my perception of the situation and the changes going on was more... natural is all I can say.

I headed up to the Chickahominy and despite the natural feeling, was still in a bad mood. I decided then that I'd keep it short. A steep turn left, a steep turn right, and I headed back. I feel that I did a lot better managing altitude this time, but would like to verify on the GPS track.

Back at the airport it was a normal 45 entry to right downwind for 13. The pattern was good, final was good, even the roundout and flare were good. I was trying Husband's tactic of trying to keep flying at 2 inches over the runway while bleeding off the last bits of airspeed, letting the plane settle down when it was ready. Muttering to myself "Keep flying, keep flying," I did keep flying for just a bit and had a nice soft touchdown before the windsock. Unfortunately, I totally screwed up again with directional control and careered off the right of the runway into the grass. I was so pissed off at myself for ruining a good landing, but I did have complete control and actively dodged the runway lights. I got back onto the runway and turned off mid-field. There was only a tiny crosswind, so I'm not sure why I had so much rudder in on touchdown. I'll have to try chanting on short final "Keep flying, straighten out, keep flying, straighten out."

I went twice more through the pattern, and the next two were good enough that I was happy. The second was not as soft as the first, and the third was a little bit longer, but they were both soft and steady and straight.

I need to get back into the "lesson" format of posts for these solo excursions. That'll give a better analysis and to-do list for next time...

As I was leaving the airport, I saw a low-wing aircraft do a really pretty landing, something for me to visualize and strive towards. It looked like a low final, but it was probably the way it's supposed to be; I thought he was going to be short! But he rounded out just before the threshold, flew a few yards, and then had a soft, silent and very slow-looking touchdown of his main wheels right past the numbers, and then a few seconds later the nosewheel came down ever so gently. It seemed that when his wheels touched that I could have run faster than he was going. (It was only a 6kt wind, almost down the runway at this time.) He probably made the really early turnoff. It seemed peaceful.