The ugly...

After such a great day yesterday, I was very disappointed today :(

Was grey when I got up... the wind picked up a little during the morning and by the time I headed out to NZAR (around 11.30am) it had turned decidedly ugly.

Dan had not actually got back from a cross country flight with another student, so I just pre-flighted the plane so we would not be delayed when he got back... but while waiting, the wind got stronger and the rain came and went.

When he finally made it back, I asked about the weather and he said, oh its not too bad... a little bumpy but nothing too horrible.

So we jumped into JFY and headed up to go and do some wing drop stalls and forced landings. He was right about it being a little bumpy, and the plane was rocking and rolling... good fun, although I was beginning to regret my large brunch ;) Unfortunately, halfway up the Hunua Valley, we were greeted by a wall of cloud and rain showers... so we cut over the hills to Drury to find some 'clear' air. Put in some steep turn practice and then some basic and power+flap stalls and then headed back for some circuits. Went for flapless landings and with the high winds (and rather large crosswind), it was definitely good practice. The first landing was actually pretty dreadful... the result of carrying too much speed (80kts coming over the fence).

The second (and final due to the weather closing in) was much much nicer. Had good speed control and the landing, while not feather-lite was definitely one of my better ones. Dan even commented that my control was good and that I did well considering the conditions.

I am hoping that we can get to the wing drop stalls (and forced landing practice) next week, so I can finally get sign-off for solo flights to the training area. I am slowly edging closer to my PPL and weather permitting, I will hopefully have it some time around Sept/Oct... what a birthday present that would be!

This flight: 0.8 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 52.9 (47.0 Dual, 5.9 Solo, 1.9 IFR)