Landing!

Landing: important part of flying? Or most important part?

Last week I did an hour of touch-and-goes at Santa Monica. A "touch and go" happens when you land the plane and, without slowing down, put in full power and take off again. You "touch" the runway, then "go" again. It's a great way to get a lot of practice landing and taking off. I did eight landings in one hour and felt like I was really getting the hang of it!

That was Thursday. Fast-forward to Saturday, in which mother nature decided it was time for me to learn the crosswind landing. Due to some unfortunately-located clouds, we couldn't do any practice at Santa Monica. So we flew to Van Nuys, where the sky was clear, but a moderately strong wind was blowing across the runway (to be exact, it was 10 knots, 20° east of runway heading).

I felt like I handled the crosswind well; I was able to keep the plane headed straight down the runway center line, despite the wind trying to push me away. The problem was that the added stress of dealing with the crosswind caused me to forget everything else I had learned about landings, and they were all terrible.

Looking at the bright side, I know exactly what I was doing wrong most of the time (flaring too early and too much), and I am feeling good that by my next flight (or possibly the one after that), I'll have it down.