I pretty much had a free day at home with a laundry list of items to take care of, but it was such a lovely day I could not pass up scheduling a one-hour flight to practice some takeoffs and landings.My plan was to arrive at the airport one hour before my flight but for some reason that could never happen as planned. I arrived 20 minutes before my scheduled flight, and my flight instructor, Marc, was fiddling around on the computer so I pretty much did not get my chance to put my feet up and relax before my preflight.
Keeping in mind the problems that I had with my checklist routine, I pay extra attention to what I was doing step by step. Pretty much now that I have that routine down I find it is easier to use my checklist for every phase and do not be concerned about not going from memory.
The preflight, start up, taxi, and takeoff were pretty routine. As we departed the pattern I decided that I wanted to fly over to Medina airport, and then fly back for landing practice. But Marc suggested that we land at Medina and that sounded like a good idea. My landing was not up to my standards, and I found myself dancing with the rudders along with flaring out to high over correcting with my power adjustment which resulted in a slight climb, but I recovered okay.
After that we flew back Wadsworth Skypark for some landings, and most of them were right on target even though I felt uneasy about one of them. One thing I did learn today was how to land in cross winds which involves cross controlling the ailerons and rudders. Once I learned how to do this the proper way I was hoping for the cross winds to increase so that I could get more practice. For some reason I know that I will eat these words.
Overall, due to the landing at Medina I will have to grade myself a fair plus grade.
Just remember ... you can not forget this day, ever!
