November 4th, 2007
in which I fly badly…
I keep telling myself that I’m new - that I’ve only got 3.7 hours logged. It’s okay. It’ll come.
About the only thing I did right today was the pre-flight and takeoff. Everything else fundamentally sucked.
I couldn’t get attitude of the plane adjusted right, I couldn’t get an airspeed nailed down. And today was the first time we flew during the day with crosswinds. And turbulence.
Christ, I was so far behind today, trying to fly the pattern and I never did catch up.
My CFI is very patient, but he had to save both of the landings I attempted today. I felt pretty dumb.
I know I only have 3.7 hours, but on the drive home, I found myself wishing for another shot at it.
(sigh)
November 11th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Billill - you have 3.7 hours, you’ll be just fine. In my training I’ve found that as soon as I feel comfortable with something, if one thing changes, what was easy may become a challenge. I was in your same boat. Early in my training (I’m a little over 100+ hrs, PMEL) I had the pattern down and was training at 5am in nice smooth air, then one day we flew in the afternoon (AZ summer) and turbulence came calling. It was just enough to yank me out of the comfort zone - I was behind all day. After a few days I started to feel more comfortable in the bumps and all was well.
You’ll find this will probably continue throughout your training. I’m currently working on my instrument rating - same thing still happens. I feel comfortable with something when suddenly my instructor ‘fails’ an instrument on me and what was once easy is now not so easy.
You’ll be fine - the more you fly, the bigger your comfort zone is and the more it’ll take to get you out of it.
See you up there!