10th Lesson

I had my 10th lesson this afternoon, and it went a lot better than the last two. Jim wanted to go back over to the Anoka airport again to "beat that devil" and practice takeoffs and landings, but he said he would talk on the radio this time so I could concentrate on flying the plane. The takeoff at Forest Lake went well, and we headed straight over to Anoka. I learned SO much more listening to Jim talk to the tower, and listening to the other traffic in the area. With a reduced mental load, I flew the plane better, I got a real good sense of how the traffic is directed at a towered airport and the various situations that can unfold, and I really got to concentrate on improving my landings. I flew a mix of right-hand and left-hand patterns at the tower's request, and several times we had to fly extended base legs to accommodate other traffic. This was good though, because I got to see how to deal with various conflict scenarios. We were landing on runway 27 with variable wind direction out of 240 to 290 at 7 to 15 kt. The winds were a bit different on every landing and takeoff. Some were straight in, and others I had some crosswinds. My landings definitely improved during this lesson, and I started to get the hang of the low-wing slip crosswind landing technique by the end. I'm still working on the flare, but a few of the landings were nice and smooth on the center. My takeoffs were looking really good. I was able to stay properly centered on the runway, and crab into the wind as necessary to follow the runway centerline. In total, we flew the pattern and did 12 takeoffs and landings at Anoka before returning to Forest Lake. There was a lot of other traffic we were being sequenced with, including a couple of business jets, and I really got a good feel for how the communications at the towered airport work. I think I will be much better prepared to handle the radio at Anoka next time we go down there. Jim had me fly back to Forest Lake, finding my own way back, which isn't too difficult. Then, he had me land at Forest Lake and make the decisions myself to land the plane. My first try, I came in too long, and had to do a go-around. Then, on my second try, I had a good stabilized approach, and successfully landed the plane with a modest crosswind on runway 31. I feel like I made some real progress tonight, so I'm happy about that. My next lesson is on Friday, but the weather is looking iffy at this point.