Lesson 22

Long layoff from flying, nearly a month, and I was rusty. A couple of weeks ago I was scheduled to go to Salisbury for my first cross country. We got out to the airport on a beautiful day, only to find that the airport was fogged in.

So two weeks later, we got the flight in. Boy did the weather change. It was gusting for the whole flight, except for the time above 2000. And the crosswind from the north was making it hard for me to fly my course. The weather at Salisbury was significantly worse, with a lower ceiling, gusting wind, and even some rain.

I was navigating OK until we reached the Eastern Shore, where I got confused because of the combination of rivers, wind blowing me off course, and the directional gyro drift that I didn't notice. I was following a VOR so I was steadily heading toward the destination, but there were some S turns in there.

Eventually we approached the airport, I contacted the tower, and we received clearance to land, left base for runway 05. I totally misjudged the placement of the base leg and found myself and another aircraft both ready to turn final 3 miles out. SO I did a 360 to let the other plane get in front and then I followed it in. There was a displaced threshold that was very odd - sandbags on 1000 feet of runway that made it hard to pick the threshold up until we were close.

We did a series of touch and goes and departed for an uneventful return flight. Uneventful save for constantly fighting to stay on course.

I was pleased with the landings that I did, all four in gusting wind. I was disappointed that I had such a hard time staying on course, but I guess it was to be expected to some extent because it was my first time.