Back in the game.

Crosswinds again today, not as bad as a couple of weeks ago but a consistent 8 knots across the runway. Bob (the eternal optimist) described them as perfect conditions; “enough that you’ll feel them but not so much that it’ll be too physically demanding. You’ll feel them but won’t have to fight them”

And that sums up todays lesson nicely. I felt the plane. I felt what it was doing; I felt what I was doing right, what I was doing wrong and how the plane responded. It felt good! The main difference between this time and last was that my landings got better each time rather than being all over the place. They are still a work in progress but so much better than last time.

I can tell that I’m back in the game because my situational awareness is back up to scratch as well. When I don’t have time to take a mental note of the traffic around me and build a picture of the possible scenarios, then I know I’m overloaded.

Today I was on top of everything; I knew straight away that the traffic I was following was slower so I told Bob about my plan to delay my crosswind turn so I wasn’t right up them. At judicious points in the downwind I slowed, dropped some flaps and managed my spacing well. I even found time to mutter a curse under my breath at an incoming Porter who announced he was incoming for a visual approach for 26 but neglected some key information as far as I was concerned. I was about to turn base, couldn’t see him, conferred briefly with Bob to see if he had a visual. When neither of us could I figured he must still be reasonably far out and turned a slightly late base muttering “…and that’s why we include distances in position reports, people!”

Although I didn’t manage any solo time, I’m happy that I’ve broken my “I-can’t-land-the-plane” streak and really that was all I wanted to achieve today.

Job well done.