Sorry 43H and Mr.Caddeyshack Gopher...

Blame it on the wind!

I got to do short/soft field take-off/landing practice today.  Quite fun, but crosswinds, once again, made it really difficult

(By the way, 43H is the plane's call number.  When I communicate with the tower/ground control, I say "Cessna 4-8-4-3-Hotel" but once you declare your plane type/full code, it goes by 4-3-Hotel.  So, 43H is le plane)

Short field take off:  FUN!  You line up on the very end of the runway (in the stripes, for those who fly often), apply breaks, throttle to full power, giggle in awe of the power shaking the frame, and then let the breaks go and take off at a lower speed and higher climb.  Tom would always say "Let her rip", and boy, she did.  Easily one of the most fun lessons I've had.

Short field landing: imagine a short runway.  Now imagine a 50 foot tree at the beginning and ending.  I have to know how to land in that situation.  It's actually pretty easy and I was pretty good at them.  You come in high (which I'm excellent at apparently from last night) and then cut power to just "float" down.  Speed is pretty slow too, and since most of my early landings I was slow, I mastered it pretty quickly.  To sum it up, you do all the stuff you're not really supposed to do for landings but I'm a pro at because my early landings were, well, interesting.  Score.  However, you have to slam on the breaks quickly to get stopped in the short period.  Here's where the first part of the title comes from: I skidded the wheels once, and one wheel sustained some visible damage.  Nothing requiring immediate care, but I took a few weeks off its poor life.  Sorry tire, sorry 43H

Soft field take-off: due to the runway being "soft", holes and rocks and other stuff that is common on grass fields need to be avoided.  The nose wheel has to be kept up the entire time and I ended up leaving the runway earlier than normal and much slower than normal.  At this point, I was literally "floating" across the runway, about 10-15 feet off of it, to which we refer to that as "air-hockey-pucking".  Once proper ground speed is obtained, the climb out begins.

Soft field landings: "think soft".  Gee, thanks Tom.  He also reminds me about the holes that may be on the field and to not, do not, let my nose gear down hard.  "Think of the Caddeyshack gopher in his hole, don't hit his hole, don't hit him hard on the head with your nose gear!".  Ok, gopher, I'll see what I can do for you.  Generally, my landings are pretty soft these days.  Occasionally I have a baby-slam but nothing terrible.  However, crosswinds are still tricky to me.  Add in learning a new field approach, and it's tough.  But, "soft" was my goal.  The first landing was actually very soft, smooth, and I kept the nose gear up until the point where I slowed down enough that if I did hit a field obstacle, I wouldn't flip the plane.  Success!  The second one..well.  Crosswind changed directions suddenly on me and I hit pretty darn hard.  Sorry Mr. Caddeyshack gopher, my nose wheel probably crushed your underground mansion and you probably have a concussion.  My bad..


Tomorrow is next BIG milestone: first cross-country!  Woo!  Tom flies with me on this one, so there's no feasible way of me getting totally lost, but we'll see.
Sunday is some time on my own, probably a trip out to a local, smaller airplane.  Wuh-oh, venturing off the leash...
Beautiful weekend to fly too =D  And, my capstone project circuit board won't be in until next week, my thesis is in a stall-moment waiting for my prospectus to come back on Tuesday, and this upcoming week is pretty easy in school.  Phew, I need an easy week!