Aiming for the Grass

I went flying last night for the first time in 2 weeks. It was a good lesson. The winds were pretty light (at least compared to what I’ve had to deal with a lot), and the air was almost completely smooth. We started off by doing softfield takeoffs and landings again. I did better this time than the last time. I pulled the nose up higher on my softfield takeoffs, so we actually got in the air at a low airspeed. After pulling the airplane off the runway at as low an airspeed as possible, you level out and fly in ground effect until you’ve sped up to normal flying speed. I had a bit of trouble with staying low enough as I flew down the runway, but

Then we did shortfield takeoffs and landings. Shortfield landings are kind of nervous-making because you feel like you’re going to land short of the runway. You have to aim for the grass in front of the runway so that you hit right on the end. I never managed to hit right on the end, because I’d freak out at the last minute and pull the nose up early or add power, causing the plane to float further than desired. I did get the plane stopped in about 600 feet both times, though, so I wasn’t a complete failure.

I’ve got another lesson scheduled for Sunday. The idea for that one is to go do what Jose did Tuesday. My instructor is going to be out of town all week next week, and then I’m going to be out of town the week following. It would be good if I could get to the point where I can take the plane out by myself soon, because I probably don’t have a lot of time left before the baby break. The belly still isn’t getting in the way, but it sure is getting hard to reach stuff that’s not right in front of me in the cockpit. Like the air vents, or the handle to adjust the seat. And it takes me so long to climb out that my instructor can get out, go into the hanger to retrieve the tow bar, come back out and hook it on and still have to wait for me to finish climbing out.