Lesson 9

More pattern work...

Winds were calm at the surface, a little choppy at pattern altitude. I couldn't see the horizon to the south because of bad weather off in the distance, but the weather was fine at the airport. I think I'm doing things mostly right, but I'm having trouble now with knowing when to turn on final, and I consistently came in too high. We got several landings in, and the last few seconds floating along in the flare seem to be giving me fits. The wind blows the plane around and I have a hard time keeping the nose aligned with the runway.

On the ground, I had a tendency to have too heavy a touch on the rudder pedals. With any real speed, the plane really reacts to the lightest pressure and I found I was oversteering, with the plane making uncomfortable veers left and right as I tried to steer.

Another thing - the instructor kept telling me to keep the ball centered. I found it really weird to be holding right rudder while turning left on the crosswind leg. It felt like the rudder was keeping the plane from turning.

So things that I really have to work on is just smoothing things out on landings, looking down the runway (because I'm looking too close in), trim adjustments in the pattern, and a lighter touch on the rudder pedals while there's still a lot of speed on.

I guess I'm making progress, but it sure doesn't feel like i.