Lesson 16, Aircraft Carrier Landings
I was intending to sit the Aviation Law exam this morning but following revision last night I did not feel entirely confident that I had revised enough. I didn't want to take the exam knowing that I had reservations about my understanding of the subject, I want to sit it when I know I fully understand. It would be foolish to needlessly fail an exam.
I went to Blackbushe early anyhow to let them know I wasn't going to take it today which was fine and Antonio asked if I wanted to fly instead, flying sounded good so up we went.
This morning was so hazy due to the overnight dew rising into the atmosphere, although not a cloud was in sight it was barely VMC even though the METAR was giving 9999 vis. My first circuit was routine, approach was good, speed good, landing .. poop, a big steaming pile of poop. Up till now I have never had a truly bad landing, but this beat my previous failures. Basically I was concentrating on lining up exactly with the centre line and touching down on the numbers, I miss-judged my speed and flared much to late. Touched down fairly hard just before the threshold, bounced a bit into the air before touching down a second time. Antonio commented "excellent aircraft carrier landing!". Although I was appalled by my landing, Antonio mentioned he regularly experiences far far worse at the hands of students. In hindsight I am glad I landed badly, it has taught me to not to become over-confident!
We carried on and did a mixture of approaches, with full flap, no flap and glide, along with two Engine Out simulations. My subsequent approaches and landings were thankfully good. Once landed I took the aircraft over to the fuel pumps and after refueling Antonio told me to taxi the aircraft back to the parking area and put her in the second bay, my first solo taxi. All went well although was a little strange being alone. I parked and returned to the office to complete the log book.
I will now sit the Law exam over the weekend, giving me a little more time to prepare and then fly and hopefully solo on Monday morning.
I went to Blackbushe early anyhow to let them know I wasn't going to take it today which was fine and Antonio asked if I wanted to fly instead, flying sounded good so up we went.
This morning was so hazy due to the overnight dew rising into the atmosphere, although not a cloud was in sight it was barely VMC even though the METAR was giving 9999 vis. My first circuit was routine, approach was good, speed good, landing .. poop, a big steaming pile of poop. Up till now I have never had a truly bad landing, but this beat my previous failures. Basically I was concentrating on lining up exactly with the centre line and touching down on the numbers, I miss-judged my speed and flared much to late. Touched down fairly hard just before the threshold, bounced a bit into the air before touching down a second time. Antonio commented "excellent aircraft carrier landing!". Although I was appalled by my landing, Antonio mentioned he regularly experiences far far worse at the hands of students. In hindsight I am glad I landed badly, it has taught me to not to become over-confident!
We carried on and did a mixture of approaches, with full flap, no flap and glide, along with two Engine Out simulations. My subsequent approaches and landings were thankfully good. Once landed I took the aircraft over to the fuel pumps and after refueling Antonio told me to taxi the aircraft back to the parking area and put her in the second bay, my first solo taxi. All went well although was a little strange being alone. I parked and returned to the office to complete the log book.
I will now sit the Law exam over the weekend, giving me a little more time to prepare and then fly and hopefully solo on Monday morning.
posted by Chris @ Thursday, July 14, 2005
3 Comments:
At Thursday, July 14, 2005 9:35:00 pm,
Anonymous said…
Chris,
You'll find you are the hardest critic of your own flying. I think you have an absolute gem of an instructor who made light of a situation that was probably OK (despite the landing being a bit bouncy). If he had told you off your confidence would have been shot to hell, and confidence is a very important part of learning to fly (especially for pre-solo students). My instructors keep telling me when I apologise for a not so good landing that any landing that you walk away from is a good one, and I've dropped it onto the deck hard more than once :)
At Friday, July 15, 2005 11:15:00 am,
Chris said…
Thank Euan for the encouragement, yes I guess I am my own worst critic, I want to be able to do it 'right' everytime. The more experience and practice I get the more consistent I hope to become with my general flying and also landings.
At Sunday, July 17, 2005 3:39:00 am,
Anonymous said…
Thats the ideal attitude to have Chris. And I can tell you from my experience that the consistency will come along eventually although every now and then you'll have a landing that you won't be totally happy with. :)
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