Searching for wind

Another week has passed and I have not been able to solo, although, we had a chance to practice some other maneuvers that are very important. We started out the week by venturing back to Jean to do some more take-offs and landings on Monday. Things were going well and the plan was to solo Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, turbulance picked up and made it difficult to get much out of the training other than dealing with the turbulance. We also needed a good crosswind to practice side slips and correction for drift on landing, but the wind was right down the runways at both Henderson and Jean, so there was not way we could practice it.

I really thought I would get the chance on Wednesday afternoon, but the winds died down and the sun set too fast, so we didn't get a chance to practice crosswind landings. I honestly was very frustrated after that. I really felt like we were searching for something that wouldn't come and we had stalled in training. That was all the training that I had scheduled for this last week, so I was done until next week. That night, I determined in my mind that it wasn't a big deal that I hadn't solo'd yet, and thought that I really needed a day to get out there to practice some more to not dash my hopes. I scheduled Friday morning.

There was some wind on Friday, but it was relatively down the runways again, but we just stayed at Henderson and practiced touch-and-goes. Doing a touch and go is so much different than a full-stop landing, because it requires alot of things to happen all at once to make sure it goes off ok. First, the landing has to come in at the beginning of the runway. If not, on the take off we could run out of runway. Second, if we come in with any flaps, they have to be take off quickly, while paying attention to where we are going down the runway at 50mph. Finally, full power is applied and we have to take right back off. Additionally, we stayed at Henderson to perform these and there was a bit of jet traffic coming in and out at the same time. The controllers switched us between runways a couple of times and we had to avoid a Leer jet on approach. It was a good day of flying and it got me back going and excited again.

Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to the day that I solo, but I am just looking forward more to getting experience and becoming a safe pilot.