CombatACE: Post # 4 (30+ hrs... Ground Hog's Day) - CombatACE

Well, it’s been a while. Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole of good news to report. I’m over 30 hours now, and still haven’t reached that magical moment that is the first solo. There was a point about 2-3 weeks ago when I thought I was ready. I had 2 days in a row of really consistent landings. Since then, things have become frustrating.

Those 2 days of good landings were followed by some windy conditions and/or short lessons, so no solo. Then, I (for some unknown reason) lost the feel and sight picture for the hold off and touch down. As a result there were a couple lessons that consisted of me either touching down way to early with the nose nearly level or me ballooning up and slamming back down on the mains. On top of that, some windy conditions one day resulted in some of those landings being with 20 degree flaps and 70KIAS, and that further threw off my fell and sight picture for the hold off and touch down. Last weekend’s lesson ended well, though.

I’m flying twice this weekend, so I thought I’d squeeze in an hour today at lunch. I got three landings in; 1^st didn’t hold off long enough, but wasn’t too bad; 2^nd one was really good, 3^rd one was possibly the worst landing I’ve done so far…

I was right of centerline crossing the threshold, and I should have just gone around. I managed to get it back to centerline and I thought that things were looking good. Unfortunately I bounced… twice… That was the second time on this one approach that I should have gone around, but didn’t. Anyway, the instructor was on the controls before I even realized that we’d bounced, and it took a lot of effort from him (at least it looked that way to me) to get things squared away.

I won’t lie… I’m getting frustrated. Every lesson starts with “We’re working on consistency on that hold off and touch down. Everything else is looking pretty good…”. And every lesson I think it’s going to be the day that consistency shows up. And every lesson ends with “we just need to focus on the hold off and touch down; everything else is looking really consistent”. Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I feel like I’m in Ground Hog Day. While I’m mainly frustrated with myself and not the instructor, today the thought did cross my mind that if I continue to struggle, I might want to just try a flight with a different instructor to see if there’s another way the technique can be presented to me that will help me get it. We’ll see how this weekend goes…