That was so fun, I'll do it twice

Come in for landing.. touch down.. uh.. go up..touch down again!

Today I had my third lesson; today’s focus was entirely on landings. We left Sacramento Executive (SAC) and went to Franklin Field (F72) http://skyvector.com/#4-16-2-4039-2723 map, an uncontrolled airport. This is a tiny airport out at the south end of the county, and is used primarilly for training and for ultralights.

This is my first day of landing, and it shows. For someone who’s never done it, it can only be described as “total perspective fuck”. Are you sure we’re gonna make it to the runway like this? Yes. Uh, ok!

So, we practiced touch (and touch) and goes, patterns, landings. Keepin the runway lined up, even with the wind hitting us a fair clip, not so much a problem. What things look like visually on the approach? Okay, I can acquire that with some practice. It looks entirely wrong, but.. practice. The flare at the end? Definately.. a lot of practice.

During the flare, I had a couple of landings I didn’t quite flare really. *bump*!. Wee ha! And, a couple of landings, I over compensated. Almost there, almost there, and hey.. look, we’re climbing again.

I did call one approach off, and initiated a go around - I didn’t like the way things looked. We seemed to be coming up short on our approach, and I didn’t want to try and make up for it with speed. Go arounds, I’m gonna have to practice, until it becomes purely muscle memory. Cram the heat, throttle, climb, watch the nose… *then* ease the flaps. Don’t slam the flaps, much less immediately after hitting the gas. My instructor passed his cardiac test on this flight..

I’m giving the poor guy a break. Until next Saturday..