Solo Practice 9: Just some pattern work

Plane: Cessna 150
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Broken clouds, 56 degrees, wind 050 degrees at 5 knots

After work, I headed right to the airport in hopes of finding a plane to take up before my scheduled night lesson. I was really hoping the Champ would be available so I could take a relaxing flight like I did last Friday. Alas, it was scheduled for a lesson so I took 60338 up for some takeoff and landing practice - probably the best decision anyway.

I made normal and short field takeoffs and all went quite well. It is a little different to do a short field using Runway 8 at Stewart since it slopes downhill. When you lift off and need to stay in ground effect (flying low over the runway while building up airspeed) the ground drops out from beneath you and it changes things around slightly. That aside, takeoffs have been a strength of mine for a while and I feel confident and in control all the time.

Let's just say I know I need more landing practice. For whatever reason, the issues are still happening mainly when I land on pavement. So going around the pattern this evening I made some regular landings along with one short field landing. They felt better than other recent flights, although the slope up at the beginning of Runway 8 has an effect on things as it does during takeoff. When landing, the ground is coming up to meet you and it results in landings that feel flatter than I want even though the nose is up and the plane is in a good stall when the wheels touch. Overall it was good practice and I even went around on my next-to-last landing because it just didn't feel stabilized at all. Still more work to do though...

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 0.8 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 18.4 hours
Total Time: 55.7 hours