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My 17th Lesson: Why Can't Jerry Land?Friday's lesson never happened: when I got to PAO, the wind was over ten knots, gusting to 20. We agreed that, considering where I was at in learning to land, flying might be counterproductive in this wind. So we went for a flight instead. He flew, I watched. Free of charge, although I had offered to pay for the plane. Now, you might ask, what exciting places did we visit? Nowhere much. He stayed in the pattern, did touch and goes right there at PAO. Short ones, long ones, slow ones, fast ones, slips. He told me to tell him when I got bored, I answered no, this was fascinating :-). And it was, too. There was one point where we had to make space - we went really, REALLY slow - I looked down and could swear our shadow was moving about 10mph. And there was one where we came in way high and he slipped it down. Well, that was Friday. Today (Sunday) was another story, a real lesson. It had been six days since I last placed Hand on Yoke. And yes, I'd definitely forgotten stuff :-(. I'd completely lost the high-speed taxi trick, and the plane weaved wildly across the runway. I almost stalled it once on takeoff, and he had to tell me to coordinate my turns three times! Also, I seem to have this irresistable impulse to hold excessive left aileron during the flare.... On the plus side, I seem to know how big the pattern is, and I fly it pretty straight. I know to start the turn to final when his feet reflexively move towards the rudder pedals :-). He tried various things to lower the mental load. First he did the power, then he did the approach down to the flare, then we did a few of those "fly down the runway at a couple feet AGL without landing" things. We got back, I asked "Am I extra stupid, or just average?". He answered, "Nah, you're just average". "We have to just keep plugging away at those landings, and one day, it'll just happen, like a light went on." We got out of the plane, his partner was there. "Yeah, I learned in this plane too. For the longest time, it seemed like I wasn't ever going to learn to land" ( Well, he must have learned well enough; now he flies for United ). "And then, one day, it all just clicked. Don't forget, this is one of the hardest planes around to land." So I guess I have to grin and bear it. Surely there's something I can do to hurry the process along? I'm thinking of maybe taking a day off for some concentrated instruction. Maybe some more high-speed taxi practice, an hour or so of flying around at 70MPH compensating for wind drift "One wing low", then some pattern work....? - Jerry "23.1 hours" Kaidor p.s. I maybe I should stop putting the hours in - it's embarrassing, when other people land their planes at 2.5 hours and solo at 7.... :-) |