Aviation: August 2008 Archives
On my last cross-country, out to Granbury, which I am calling Pancake Run 2008, we had a good time, but I wasn't happy with the three landings I made at the airports we visited (Granbury - KGDJ, KHQZ - Mesquite, and KTKI - McKinney). The landing were solid, but there were things I could have done better. For example, In granbury, I came in hot and high on a 3600' runway. I had 20° of flaps, and decided to perform a forward slip to get the plane down. What would have been preferred is to add full flaps (40°). That would have slowed me down and allowed for a steeper descent, so even if I had to still do a forward slip, I would not have had to hold it for as long. On the landing at Mesquite, I just came in too fast and didn't allow the aircraft to float down the runway as long as it needed to and ended up bouncing once. My last landing at McKinney was okay.
I decided that I needed some practice just landing the plane. Since I received my private certificate I haven't worked performed more than 3 landings in one flight so I felt I my technique was a bit rusty and my decision making could use some work. So, I got in the plane yesterday after getting off work and stayed in the pattern and just did landings. In almost an hour I was able to get in 10 landings. I didn't try to do any special landings (like a soft field or short field). I just wanted to do normal everyday landings. After finishing, I felt like I had made progress and had sharpened the rough edges that had developed from not having nearly as many landings since my check ride.
The other thing working landings helps with is sharpening your maneuvering. Doing touch and goes and working in the pattern allows you to practice the four fundamentals of flying. In flying there are only four things you really need to know how to do. Those four things are climbing, descending, turning, and flying straight and level. When working in the pattern you put all four of those fundamentals into practice. You climb out as you take off from the runway and turn to crosswind. You level of and fly straight and level on downwind, you start descending as you turn from downwind to base and from base to final approach. Being able to control the plane under these four fundamentals is essential to all the other maneuvers you perform.
All in all, it was a good hour and I felt like I made some progress in sharpening the rough spots that had develped over the past couple of months where training has not been my primary purpose in flying.
