Lesson 18

He warned me...

Wind 190 at 11 gusting to 14. At least that's what the AWOS reported. I think the gusts were stronger. That was a direct crosswind, far stronger than any crosswind I'd dealt with before. The instructor was afraid I'd get frustrated and lose confidence after all of those adequate landings I did last time. But I wanted to go because I know that I need to learn to handle crosswind landings. Oh, and it was hot; I had sweat dripping onto my sunglasses as we shut the doors and got ready to start up. With that wind, it was even hard to taxi straight when we were on the ground.

So off we went. Of course that heat always means we get a pathetic climb rate with the Cessna 152. The poor climb rate meant we went way farther on upwind than usual. And the crab angle was enormous. I felt like I was looking out the side window instead of the windshield. It was easier to get lined up to land than I expected, but with the lack of a headwind and the extra speed we carried for the gust factor, it seemed like we were screaming down past the arrival end of the runway.

So I definitely had help on these landings. He said I did well, that experienced pilots struggle with that kind of wind. It was pretty challenging. No way I'm ready to land in crosswinds.