Date: 2/6/2007
Time: 14:30 - 15:15 & 15:15 - 15:30 (PUT) & 17:40 - 18:35 (PUT)
Aircraft: Ikarus C42 - G-CCYR
Exercise: Ex 12, 13 & 17b
I can't believe it. Last week everything seemed to have come together. God knows where it's gone today!
I was supposed to have been going up dual, for Steve to check I haven't picked up too many bad habits. Don't know why, but I was sent up solo again and was to go dual later.
I saw Steph, a fellow student, parking her plane up, when I arrived. I went to talk to her and she said that she was giving up for the day, before she had an accident. A little exaggeration perhaps, but she had been having difficulties.
I prep the aircraft, and I'm off on 26 - what's going on - I can't do it. I'm still not too sure what has gone wrong, even now that I've had some time to think about it. Perhaps the bumpy conditions were unsettling me. My final approaches are bad and consequently my landings are horrible.
After about 45 minutes I do my worst ever, where I think I landed on the nosewheel (bad move). I'm ready to call it a day, but Steve has also decided it's too bad and walks out to join me. We go back up and I'm terrible - I don't seem to be able to keep it in balance at all - this screws up my height control, stuffs my approach and ruins the landing.
This also really knocks my confidence. It seems I'm not on my own - some other qualified pilots are also having problems landing and bouncing considerably. It seems that the mild southerly wind causes a significant amount of rotor - where the wind comes over the trees and becomes very disturbed as it twirls over the edge onto the airfield. Despite being disturbed myself, I can't rely on these excuses, because today I'm just not good enough.
The second stint is dual, and Steve tries bravely to get me better. There is some improvement, but I'm still out of balance. It is so frustrating that last week it all seemed to be coming together and somewhat natural. Landings were good and I had time to do all my downwind checks and was very happy. This week, I'm afraid that I'm unhappy.