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Old 24th Sep 2002, 11:29
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FlyingForFun

Why do it if it's not fun?
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Your instructor is right - don't worry about it. With only a couple of hours of solo time, you can't expect your landings to be consistent yet. In fact, I'm not sure I know of any pilot who would claim their landings are consistent. One of my instructors once told me that he could always predict whether his landings would be good or not - if he said to a student "watch, I'll show you how it should be done" he could guarantee a bad landing!

The most important thing to remember is it's never too late to go around. Even after the wheels have touched. I also screwed up a cross-wind landing like that - but I did it on my skills test. Realised it was going wrong just as the wheels were about to touch. Added power, the mains touched down, lowered the nose enough that she didn't leap into the air without enough airspeed, and went around. The examiner commented that with a bit more experience, I'd have been able to recover, but that since I wasn't confident I could recover, going around was exactly the right thing to do. And he passed me, too!

A change of wind velocity very close to the ground isn't uncommon, although if this is the field you regularly fly from, it's strange that you hadn't noticed it before. Maybe the wind was from a different angle to usual? Ask an instructor who's been flying from that airfield for a while if it's common. But sometimes a gust hits you, things start to go pear-shaped, and there's nothing you can do to anticipate it. The more you fly, the more times this will happen, and the better you'll become at recognising and fixing it.

Apart from that, the fact that you seem to have been aware of what was happening the whole time is a very good sign. When I had about 30 hours, my landings consisted of flaring a bit and seeing how bumpy the landing was - I wasn't sufficiently aware at that stage to really understand what was happening. And I didn't really gain that awareness until I started flying tail-draggers. So it sounds like you're doing fine - keep it up!

FFF
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