I have the power…

…or not, as was the case last lesson. I really don’t know what happened. It was by no means a great lesson. Nothing dangerous or majorly wrong. If I’m being honest, it was just sloppy. There was a reasonable crosswind (significant enough that we knew my first solo was out of the question) and variable enough that they switched from runway 26 to 08 on me, mid circuit.

My approaches were consistently high, which means my power management was all wrong. Looking back I don’t think I was powering back soon enough on my base turn. Usually I power back as I turn, for some reason I was delaying slightly, concentrating too much on getting the speed right by not letting the nose drop. To compound it all as well, I seemed to be afraid of the tarmac. I attempted to bottle out of what were actually reasonable landings. As soon as I felt the plane sink I’d panic, over-flare, feel the nose come up too much and then overcorrect.

I’d love to offer an explanation (something to blame it on!) but I honestly don’t have one. Bob commented after one of my landings “I know you can do better than that.”

And he’s right. I can. Now I just have to