I managed to sneak in a couple of hours of flying this weekend, between downpours and crazy work scheduling. The net-net of these flights were that I’ve now picked up a bad habit or two: flying the pattern too fast and loose at times, and under-rotating at touchdown. Needless to say both are bad and I am working to correct both.
What was really rough, however, was flying in 14+ knot winds with low clouds and crummy visibility. My instructor loved it as it pushed me about as far out of my comfort zone as I could be at the home airport. Having to work all the controls to keep the plane level, getting rained on inside the plane, and losing total sight of the traffic around me were just the start of these two lesson sessions.
I’m sure that later I’ll look back and be thankful for this training. But right now all I see is more tough work ahead to be able to fly right. 3 miles of visibility in rain and low clouds is just not a fun way to fly.
And to top everything off, I’m signed up for a pre-solo check ride in the near future. Assuming I can find the time to be in town (a tough task right now with weekly flights somewhere each of the next 3 weeks) I’ll be handed off to an inspector to see if I’m ready to fly the pattern on my own. Yikes!