Commitment issues…again.

I’ve solved my commitment issues with regard to landings now.  I still do the occasional overshoot but in general my landings are much better. Even my “bad” landings are much more acceptable. Today I landed in an 8 knot crosswind without really breaking a sweat. The cross wind part of it was great but I lost my focus on the end of the runway and kinda ended up in slow flight and mushed it down onto the runway. Not my greatest effort but no major problem at the end of the day.

My commitment issues at the moment are related to slow flight. For some reason I really loathe this exercise. It’s not difficult at all. You pull the power back to about 1500rpm, bring the nose up until the stall horn starts to bleat (about 5 knots above stall speed), flaps are optional. When you are established at the desired speed, you add a bit of power to arrest the descent. Easy.

Except I detest it. You are on the ragged edge of a stall. And the stall horn lets you know it. I just can’t commit to it. I end up in kinda medium flight, maybe 5 knots faster than I should be and then rather than retrim for the correct speed, I just bottle out.

I’m apprehensive (I won’t say scared because I’m not any more) about stalling while in slow flight but bizarrely enough I’m totally fine with actually doing the stalls. It seems that I can fly the plane fine, I can stall it ok, full on. But ask me to mush it around in between and once again, I have commitment issues.