8th Lesson

I had my 8th lesson today, and I've got 10.7 hours of flying time under my belt. I got my David Clark H10-60 headset yesterday, so this was my first chance to try it out. It's definitely better than the headset I was using before - more comfortable, better sound dampening, better sound, and better mic. Today was also the first lesson that Jim had me handle the CTAF announcements on the radio. Like "Forest Lake area traffic, this is Skyhawk zero zero hotel, 5 to the east, on approach at two thousand four hundred, Forest Lake".

I must say, today was a bit of a frustrating lesson overall. We didn't do much of anything new, but I felt like I was dancing with two left feet during this flight, so to speak. Today we had some wind - about steady 8kt or so out of the south. So, the takeoff today was on runway 13 with a right quartering headwind. This was my first time taking off with a crosswind component, and we went through the procedure for dealing with this before the flight. I did it, but it wasn't exactly a thing of beauty. Next, we went out and practiced some steep turns. I did alright I guess, but I felt like I did better on the last lesson. My altitude and speed weren't maintained very well, and I was having trouble keeping things steady through the turns. After this, we practiced some more power-off and power-on stalls. Next, we took advantage of the windy day by doing some more ground reference maneuvers. This was a good learning opportunity for me; I could really see the effect of the wind today. We did a rectangular course for a while, then circles around a point, then S turns. I think my preference goes in that order as well. I'm not a fan of S turns, but I like flying a rectangular course, and I'm luke warm about circles around a point. I'd say I got the feel for it today, but it wasn't a performance that would get me through my checkride. My altitude and airspeed fluctuated too much. On the plus side, I don't think I did too badly with compensating for the wind during the maneuvers. After this, we headed back to forest lake, and did a couple crosswind landings. It was really awkward doing a slip in to land, and I'm not comfortable with this maneuver yet. I was actually very nervous coming in for both of these landings, and my control of the airplane was poor.

I told Jim I was a bit frustrated after the lesson, but he still thinks things are going okay. He implied that I'm not really flying any different now than I had been before, but rather that I'm getting to the point where I'm noticing more about what needs to be corrected. Some days are better than others I guess, so I'm hoping that Monday goes better than today did.