Hi Cricket23,
Without repeating any of hfd's excellent comments, if you find your PFL's are a little hit and miss, try considering these points:
- While trimming for best glide, and after the usual immediate actions like carb heat on, envisage a circle around the aircraft that represents maximum glide range in nil wind.
- Adjust this circle for wind - move it downwind in other words.
- Find a field within the circle, and turn towards it.
- Plan aim point, low key, high key, blah blah - you know this!
- Now plan how you are going to get to high key - cross over the field, or fly straight to it, or orbit (if very high), or forget high key and go straight to low key.
Of these, the last point is often forgotten, and leads to the rest of it being messed up. If you don't know how to do the last point, ask your instructor - it is critical, unless you are going to spend your life starting PFL's from abeam your field pointing into wind!
HTH,
O8