A couple of nights after work this week, six or eight touch and gos each night, and no landing has been better than about fair, with a couple being poor. Last night I realized I was running out of fuel and was going to need to buy it at KSRQ for $6.00 a gallon if I didn't take a quick run to one of the more reasonable airports. So it was off to KPGD for $3.72 fuel. The landing at KPGD was grade A. The landing back at KSRQ was grade A, and it was a substantial crosswind since Runway 04/22 was closed and winds were 22015KT. You can see from the crosswind chart below, landing on Runway 14, the cross wind component is almost the whole 15 knots, at 14.8 knots:
There are two ways to handle a crosswind landing. My preference:
Aileron to keep the plane on the runway centerline. Opposite rudder to make sure the nose, and wheels, are pointed the direction the plane is going.
It will take more practice so all landings are as good as the last two, but there is progress getting to know Alexandra and in being able to put her smoothly on runway centerline at the end of every flight.
WOW, there is so much to learn and there are so many variables and vectors to deal with. It all looks difficult, but also a real challenge. Congrats on all the practice. Alexandra is a handful.
ReplyDeleteHayden in the BVis...
Bravo Craig!!! way to stick 'em!
ReplyDeleteit seems like it should be so easy - for goodness sakes - you can look down to your left and see the darn runway relative to your wheel!!! but no ...