95%

Flight 20, N14008, 1.8 hours (30.5 total), landing practice

Today was all about landing practice. We first talked about areas to improve in my landing: getting my speed consistent on downwind, extend sight down the runway when getting close to ground, flare more and keep it longer, and keep the nose gear in the air longer after the main gears touch. Lots of things to improve on :P

We left busy PAO and went to LVK. Again runway 13 was in use when I took off. We did a Leslie Salt departure (what a left crosswind departure from runway 13 is called at PAO), then headed towards the Sunol Golf Course. I called in to LVK tower over the golf course, and was told to make left traffic for runway 25L, and report one mile out at 45 (when I'd be entering the downwind at 45 degrees). The last part was unfamiliar to me and Mark had to remind me of it. The tower also cautioned us that another plane was heading toward us at 12 o'clock. I didn't see that plane until we almost flew over it. It's probably 500 feet below us which was a safe separation, but it looked quite close :P.

I made a slight left turn after flying over the ridges, to better align for my 45 degree entry to the pattern. For the first landing Mark didn't want me to land at all. He wanted me to get into slow flight and fly over the runway, at a couple feet over the ground, to get used to the proper pitch, and the feeling of holding the plane from touching down a bit longer.

I started my descent abeam the runway numbers as normal, turned base, and was getting ready to turn to final when Mark asked me to turn to final with quite some urgency. Huh? I wonder what the rush was. I'd need to make a pretty shallow turn to line up with the runway if I turned then... Half way through the turn I realized why: I was aiming for the wrong runway. LVK has two runways. 25L, which I was supposed to land on, is half the length and half the width of 25R, which I was aiming for :P

I quickly lined up with 25L, and notice something else about it: there's no slope indicator for this runway. That's a first for me. All runways I'd landed before had some sort of slope indicator. Of course, if Byron was to believe, then slope indicators do more harm than good. He attributed my constant power adjustment partly to it. Byron might be right, but I'd still rather have the indicator telling me I'm on the right glide path. Not having the indicator turned out not to be a big deal, though. I must have got the glide path about right because Mark didn't say anything about it as I got closer and closer to the ground. Then I tried to pitch for slow flight, and the plane balooned. The next few seconds became a struggle to get the power settings just right, and I ended up flying over the runway at about 10 feet.

Mark asked me to try it again. This time on downwind, I realized James and Amy's house should be pretty close to my right, but I was too busy and didn't really know where to look for their house. (I later checked gmap and their house is about to the right of midpoint downwind. Next time I fly to LVK I should look for it.). This time I lined up with 25L without a hitch (:P what a low standard). I also controlled my height better during the slow flight over the runway. Now it's time to try to land for real. The next 5 landings I did was OK. Not my best work but quite passable. I still don't do a very good job lining up with the center line, though.

After my last landing we taxied off the runway and back. There's a bit of a wait. I requested to take off and stay in left close traffic. Marked started talking about LVK controllers and how they tended to be less friendly. I don't know if he got a bit pissed off by them somehow, but he called in and changed our request to a left crosswind departure. After watching a biplane landing on 25R we took off and headed back to PAO.

There's a bit of a crosswind at PAO: 210 at 7 kts, which is over my solo crosswind limit, and made for good practice. I had problem lining up even in a headwind, and in the crosswind I was a bit all over the place, but not dangerously so :P I was a bit too eager turning off the runway, though, and the plane started shaking a bit. I should have slowed down more and turn off at the next taxiway.

Overall my landings today were a big improvement over those I did in the check ride (then again, anything short of crashing would be). The biggest improvement was getting used to the pitch required for a good landing. I always tend to land too flat, I hope today has helped to turn that back.

Flight 19, N824LB, 1.7 hours (28.7 total), presolo phase check 1

Well, it wasn't supposed to be presolo phase check one, it was supposed to be presolo phase check, period. It wasn't a test and there's no pass or fail. But I managed to do the impossible: I failed a non-test and I'll have to do another phase check.

It started well enough. I did well in the ground part, missed a couple questions but generally got the answers right. Starting the engine and taxiing out was OK, too. (I primed the engine a bit too long, but it still started without a problem.) The weather was beautiful, they even had runway 31 in use, which was supposedly the easier runway (and I haven't had the luck to use for quite a while because of the weather we'd been having). Departure was uneventful, and so was the climb and enroute to practice area.

The maneuvers started with clearing turns and slow flight, then power off stall, which I did pretty well. My power on stall was OK, too. Byron thought I was pulling too much on the power on stall so he showed me and asked me to do it again. Basically when you slow the plane down to 55kts you're already pulling the nose high enough, so just adding power and keep that pitch and it'll stall. I tried that and it went pretty well. Next was steep turns which I'd always have problem keeping altitude, and I lost 200 feet during the left turn, and 100 during the right turn. Byron remarked that I was paying too much attention to my instruments, and not looking outside enough. That's fine, I wasn't required to do steep turns to private pilot standards yet.

In retrospect, the next move was what threw my off initially and it was just downhill from there. With no warning Byron pulled power to idle and asked "the engine just died. what do you do?". I pitched for 68kts, then picked a flat field to my left about a mile out and turned towards it (mistakes: I had plenty of altitude, should circle around first, run through the engine failure check list, and see if there's a better field to land). While gliding towards my chose field it was obvious I was too high. I did a forward slip to lose altitude (huge mistake. slipping with the engine out is like blowing out air when you are trapped under water. altitude is your most precious asset when engine is out. i should have circled to lose altitude). In my poorly executed slip I didn't lose enough altitude and gained a lot of speed. At this point Byron asked me to circle around, which I did with my speed all over the place, from 68kts to well above 80. Finally he asked me to add power and go around, ending my pathetic emergency landing attempt.

Next he turned off my GPS and asked me to fly back to PAO. I first turned to get a better look at the coastline and determine where I was, then estimated a course of 80 back to PAO, which was probably going to work. After a minute he asked me to fly to a diversion airport. I chose to go to SQL but I got my location off by probably 6 miles. When I came over the ridge line I was a bit confused and couldn't find the airport. I started my descent (mistake: don't descend unless you know where the airport is. staying high makes it easier to see.) towards the San Mateo Bridge, thinking SQL should be in that general direction (it wasn't, and why I didn't check with the chart at this point was beyond me. I think I was already in a semi-panic state.). Byron kept quite but shortly after I passed 280 he took over the controls and made a steep turn back. I was getting dangerously close to SFO's class B airspace and if I had entered without authorization (which of course I didn't ask for, I didn't even know I was going to enter it. I thought I was somewhere down south.), could bring some FAA agents waiting for me at PAO after I land.

I stayed to the other side of 280, finally found SQL and called in. Runway 12 was in use. I overflew midfield and entered left pattern. Just as I was turning final my stall warning horn went on. I peeked at my airspeed and found myself flying at 55kts, 10 kts slower than I was supposed to be! Byron almost interfered but I increase my speed in time. The landing was down right ugly, though. I landed too flat and bounced quite a bit. Byron asked me to taxi off and back and asked me how I would rate that landing out of 10. I sheepishly said "4?". Nah, not even. He'd only give me a 2 for it. Landing on the nose gear is extremely bad form. I guess I didn't get a 1 because we were still able to taxi :P

We departed SQL for PAO. As I was climbing I tried to tune in for PAO's ATIS, but in my confused state turned of SQL tower by mistake, before they told me I could change my frequency. Oh well, that's nothing compared to all the mistakes I had made/would make today.

First landing at PAO I came in too high and decided to go around, and it didn't get much better from there. The traffic was a bit busy so I got extended downwind every time, and that threw me off a bit, too. For my no flaps landing I started fine but ended too fast and had to go around, too. I had to go around during another normal landing because I flared too early and as I was floating down the runway I got blown off by a bit crosswind and didn't correct it in time. All in all we tried 7 landings at PAO, and I didn't do a single good one. Byron asked me to taxi off, open the window and get some air, and told me not to freak myself out. Oh well, none of that worked. We finally ran out of time and had to terminate, and Byron thought I should practice landing some more and ride with him again when I'm ready. So, although this was not meant to be a test, I still failed it and have to re-take it sometime.

Some take away points from today's landings:

* get my approach steady. I was adjusting my power settings all the time and my pitch/speed weren't stable at all.

* be conscious about crosswind correction. I pretty much forgot about it and I was never centered on the runway.

* before starting the flare, look down the runway. I was looking too close down and wasn't judging my altitude correctly.

* flare more. I was too eager to let the nose drop.

So today was definitely an off day for me. But a pilot should be measured by his worst performance, and I guess this just means I'm not quite there yet.

Flight 18, N14008, 1.2 hours (27 total). practice for presolo phase check

I wasn't able to get the phase check done as originally planned and now it's scheduled for the coming Monday, 2 weeks after I last flew. So today again we were practicing for the check ride. We'll have a short flight then some ground time going over charts and stuff.

It was overcast, but visibility was OK and ceiling was high, plus there's almost no wind at all, so still a pretty good day for flying. We made a left 270 departure towards the practice area. The other side of the Santa Cruz Mountains was completely covered by clouds as hight as the ridges themselves, so the practice area was just a white blanket. I made quick work of slow flight and power off/power on stalls. I was pretty happy with my performance today. Good pitch adjustments entering slow flight, and therefore kept altitude pretty well. Mark was pleasantly surprised, too. I didn't do well last time, and after 10 days of no flying he had expected me to be even rustier.

Mark then asked me to fly to SQL without the help of GPS. It's kind of tricky today since I couldn't see the ground and therefore didn't know exactly where I was. I pulled out the chart and put the plane into a shallow turn while I try to guestimated where I was. I could see some coastline so I knew I was somewhere south of HAF. Turned out the course I guessed wasn't off by much. It's kind of cool to see the entire bay area covered by clouds, with peaks like Mount Diablo sticking out. My course was about right towards Mount Diablo. I should remember this for the check ride on Monday.

Lucky for me SQL was clear of clouds. I started descend after crossing the ridge line. At times I had to descend pretty fast (over 1000 fpm) to get down to 1200 before crossing 101. I overflew midfield at 1200 then turned downwind and descend to pattern altitude of 800. At non-towered airports descending into pattern is an absolute no-no, but it's OK at controlled airports. Although I still don't feel comfortable about it and kept trying to look down for any traffic. The first landing was a normal one and I have to say I did quite well. Not my best one but I'd be happy if I could land like this consistently. I remembered to keep the nose higher than I used to when flaring and it worked out beautifully. Mark was again expecting me being rusty and was quite happy with how I performed. The second landing would be a no-flaps landing. We extended downwind a bit for spacing (note to self, tell the tower you want to extend your downwind. Although I thought the tower would have asked me to given the plane I was following wasn't too far ahead.). 101 played a little trick on me there: the runway runs about parallel to 101, but 101 turns slightly so as I extended my downwind I actually flew over 101 on my base, which confused me quite a bit. Other than that the no-flaps landing was pretty good, too. It's just faster than a normal landing, in a more nose-high attitude.

After a touch-and-go we departed downwind towards PAO. PAO tower was the busiest I'd ever seen (or heard, rather). I couldn't get my request in for a while, then when I finally find a break and stated my request, it went unanswered. The same lady who's at the tower during my first solo was on duty again, but this time she sounded like she's practicing tongue twisters. There's just not enough time for me to put in my request. We were almost entering PAO's air space and we still hadn't got anything fro tower, so Mark asked me to turn toward Stanford. He tried again a couple times just saying "14008", and finally tower asked us to state our request. She must be happy to hear that we were coming in for full stop (sounded like at least 2-3 others were doing pattern work). Downwind got extended just as always when the airport was busy. The landing again was a good one.

After I taxied back and turned off the engine, Mark asked me to push the plane back all by myself. Turned out this might be the hardest part of flying solo, and he had to help me with it in the end :P

Flight 17, N14008, 1.5 hours (25.8 total), practice for pre-solo phase check

This flight was to prepare for my pre-solo check ride. Although Mark has already endorsed me for solo flying, so I'm legal to solo, it's club policy that I still need to have a check ride with the club's chief pilot. It's not a test, so I can't fail and lose my solo endorsement. It's just to have someone else looking at my flying skills and point out places to improve.

The day started bright and sunny, quite a surprise after weeks of almost non-stop raining. I came to the airport for my first surprise. When I was parking I thought something was not quite right but couldn't put my fingers to it. It wasn't until after I got the key and stepped out that I realized what wasn't right: where N14008 was supposed to be was empty, the plane wasn't there. The front desk told me it had been in maintenance the day before and after a short phone call with the shop they told me the plane is ready and they are just cleaning it up. I waited outside for 10 minutes and a guy showed up with my plane. He drove a cart that pushes the plane backwards. Why can't we have one of those at the club so I don't have to hand-push the plane every time?

Marked had showed up by then so my plan of getting pre-flight done before he came to save some time was shot. Today we were going to review all maneuvers I'll be doing in the check ride. As we were taxiing out Mark asked what kind of takeoff I'd like to do. I chose short-field takeoff and he's happy that I didn't choose a normal takeoff, said he'd ask me to choose again if I picked normal takeoff :P. And then came the second surprise of the day. Ground asked me to hold short of the parallel (what they call the taxi way parallel to the runway at PAO). As I was getting there I could see two planes already waiting in front of me. Apparently everyone was trying to get some flying done in this short window of good weather in weeks. The 3 runup spots at the end of the runway were all taken and people had to wait to even get on the parallel. That had never happened to me before: a traffic jam on the taxiway.

Luckily we were the last plane in line, so we could do our runup checks right there without worrying about blowing stuff into planes behind us. This really saved us time when we were finally cleared to continue taxiing, as I didn't need to wait at the runup area again and was able to get in front of a plane that's doing the runup there. Unfortunately by the time I was finally cleared to takeoff (must have been 20 minutes since I started taxiing), I forgot I was doing a short-field takeoff, and instead of holding the plane at the line and going full power before releasing brakes, I just started my takeoff roll as normal. Mark quickly pointed out my error but there's no point stopping then. So I didn't a sort-of short-field takeoff :P Oh well, taking off wasn't the hard part for me anyway. I'm sure I would have done a good job :P

Cloud wasn't that high over the Santa Cruz Mountains so we stayed at this side of the mountain and did our maneuvers there. After clearing turns Mark asked me to do slow flight. It's been a while since we last practiced any of these maneuvers (the focus had been exclusively on landing lately), and it took me a half second to think about what I needed to do to put the plane in slow flight. But I still remembered everything and did it right, though I may not have maintained 100% straight flight. Marked then asked me to pull power to idle and practice emergency landing: trim for best glide speed, then find a landing spot. I did OK with the speed, but the spot I decided on was too close, and I ended up overshooting it by a lot. The area wasn't great to emergency landings: it's all hills. Next were stalls. I had forgotten more about the stalls, though, namely the speeds at which to start the stalls with: power-off stall is to simulate a stall at landing, so the entrance speed should be 65 kts. power-on stall is to simulate a stall at takeoff, so the entrance speed should be 55. Mark had to remind me of that but other than that I did OK. Next we did steep turns. This is where I really should practice more. Again I lost 200 feet during the turns. Marked showed me again how to do it and asked me to focus less on the instruments and more outside, which helped a lot.

Staying on this side of the mountain had a big disadvantage: the wind was coming over the mountain and therefore this side was quite bumpy. I started feeling sick during my own steep turns and it got worse after Mark's demonstration. After doing one more steep turn myself I told Mark I wasn't feeling well and we shouldn't do more steep turns. That was about the last maneuver, though, so not much was lost. Mark asked me to pull out my chart and get us to SQL. I needed to be able to do this in case my GPS failed and PAO was closed. I only had the sectional chart out, though, and its large scales made it hard for me to identify where I was. Me being sick certainly didn't help, either. Finally Mark plotted the course for me on the GPS and called to SQL for me. I was still able to fly the plane but the extra tasks were a bit too much at that point.

SQL was free of traffic as always, and I did 4 landings there, with the last one being a no flaps landing. There was a 15 knts wind down the runway and I wasn't correcting for it on my crosswind and base, so my pattern was blown out of square. Mark said Byron (the chief pilot I'd be flying with for the check ride) would probably make some comments about that. But the landings themselves were OK. Mark later remarked that I alway seemed to land better at SQL than at PAO. I think it was because SQL's runway is longer and wider so I was more comfortable holding the flare longer for a softer touch down. He thought my theory was good, but mocked me for saying SQL's runway was longer. "what is it, 2 feet longer?" Well, it's 200 feet longer, but he's right. On top of 2400 that's probably not a lot :) So I just need to take a mental note to hold the flare longer at PAO. Truth is I always stopped by the middle of the runway so there's a lot of room for me to hold the flare longer.

Leaving SQL we got cleared for a straight in landing at PAO, but was asked to do a 360 for spacing with another plane. On the long final (sth that I always manage to mess up a bit), Marked asked to pull power to idle and try to glide in. It turned out to be impossible with the headwind and I ended up adding power back for a normal landing. I did remember to hold the flare longer so the landing wasn't too rough.

I'm glad we got some flying done because the rain came in that afternoon and had been non-stop since (it was Tuesday and it's Saturday now as I'm writing this). Even on that morning I could see it raining in Daly City from the air.

Flight 16, N14008, 1.6 hours (24.3 total), short field takeoff, soft field takeoff, normal landings

Another week went by without any flying, and this weekend looked like it'd be wet, too. But for this lesson we'd be staying in the pattern so as long as visibility and ceiling are OK we'd be able to fly. The first thing I did after getting up this morning was to check the weather and it's at 20 miles/4000 feet, not bad at all. Flying is on!

It looked quite different from what's on paper, though. The sky was all grey and it was drizzling. I had never taken off in the rain before, although I didn't think it'd be much of a problem. While I was doing my pre-flight Mark brought over another guy to check out the airplane. This guy was a pilot from Germany and was attending a conference here. Poor guy, good luck getting any sight-seeing in this weather. There is a plus side to the rain, though. During my pre-flight I only see one plane taking off.

Before we taxied off Marked talked to me about short-field takeoff. It's fairly simple: you start with 10 degrees of flaps, line up with the runway, then put full power in while holding the brakes (kind of like launching a car in a drag race), then release the brakes and start the takeoff roll, rotate at normal speed then pitch for Vx (62 kts), which gives a much steeper angle of climb than a normal takeoff, then after clearing 50 feet, push down for Vy and climb away as normal, take up the flaps when safe. It sounded quite simple, and I was just a little bit concerned about going full-power right off the line. In my very early lessons I tended to swirl a little on the runway with abrupt full-power. That concern turned out to be a completely non-issue, though. Apparently I'd got better at directional control during takeoff.

There was a pretty strong headwind today. It was 10 kts on the ground, but as soon as we were airborne it was over 20kts. Downwind went by fast with that kind of wind, and I had to use much more power than normal during final. At some point the headwind was at 28kts and it almost felt like I wasn't moving :P. The touchdown was a bit rough, but not too bad. We did a touch-and-go and tried another landing. The 2nd was OK but not great, either. I guess that's the current state of my landing: one or two small bounces. I did have one big bounce today during which Marked asked me to do a go-around. Other than that one I was consistently mediocre :P

We tried another short-field takeoff then Mark demonstrated a soft-field takeoff. Now this was more fun. The idea is that you are taking off from a soft field, like grass, or a field covered with snow or mud. You want to keep your landing gears from getting stuck to the ground and the key is to pull the elevator all the way back during taxiing, to keep weight off the nose gear, and not stop and try not to use brakes. Make a sweeping turn onto the runway and line up, then add full power, holding elevator all the way back the whole time. The nose gear leaves the ground soon so elevator pressure needs to be relieved gradually. The plane would takeoff on ground effect before reaching normal rotate speed, then you need to pitch down to keep the plan from climbing up, and keep building up speed. After the speed is up you can then pitch back and climb away. This is also done with 10 degrees of flap.

After I made the next landing it's my turn to try it. Before I turned off the runway we noticed a goose on the runway and decided to chase it away, so it's not an issue for my takeoff. There's no other planes flying or waiting so it's fine for us to fool around. We chased the goose away and began to turn off at the next taxiway, then it came back to the runway, so we had to chase it away a second time and turn off the runway at the end.

Soft-field takeoff was definitely more involved than the short-field one. But it was easier than I thought. Keeping the nose gear in the air wasn't hard at all and steering with the rudder only was quite effective once speed was up. Taking off in ground effect was fun. It happened at around 48 kts and I just flew down the runway at very low altitude while the speed built up, then pitched up and climbed away. Not bad at all!

While we were taxiing back to the runway to try anotherone, Mark said "Let's try it differently this time", and completely dimmed my display so it's black. I thought he wanted me to fly by the backup instruments, but then he blocked those with my check list, too. "Fly just by visual and let's see how you do". ah'oh... Taking off turned out OK, since the plane took off in ground effect by itself, it's just a matter of holding it close to the ground long enough to gain speed, then climb away. But I was way off judging my altitude. As I was turning crosswind, thinking I was at 500 feet, Mark peeked at the backup altimeter and told me I was at 1000. ouch! The rest of the pattern proved to be equally difficult, too. I wasn't confident in how fast I was flying (if I could misjudge my altitude by 100%, I could do so for speed, too), and wasn't sure when I should lower flaps as a result. The landing turned out to be OK, though. That was certainly an interesting experience.

I tried a couple more soft-field takeoff then did a couple normal ones just to practice my landing. The rain stopped briefly but then during the last one it came back harder so we decided to call it a day. The main problem with my landing is not flaring enough, which is evident in my first solo video, too. I did make some adjustment for my last landing and it was a lot nicer. I did a total of 11 landings today, most I'd done in any lesson :)

Flight 15, N14008, 1.3 hours (22.7 total), landings, first solo

Depending on how the weather was, today could be the day of my first solo. The first thing I did after getting up was checking the weather. PAO had few clouds at 12,000 feet, visibility of 20 miles, and wind variable at 3. Certainly looked like a great day for flying. My only concern was with the wind direction. Nearby HWD showed wind direction at 130, which meant PAO would probably be using runway 13 instead the more familiar 31. But that's OK. I'd made plenty of landings at runway 13. The plus side is that I'd be making left pattern. Left turns always seem a bit easier than right turns.

I came to the airport and indeed runway 13 was in use. Mark came just as I finished pre-flight. He filled in the endorsement section in my logbook for soloing, leaving the signature part out. So if he thought I was good to go after a couple of landings we wouldn't waste any time in the plane. He just needed to sign it in the plane and I'd be good to go. Of course it'd still depend on how well I perform today, we'd know soon.

We quickly taxied out. It was the earliest ever, since there's not much to talk about in today's plan. In my first landing I came in too high, and Mark asked me to do a go-around. Not that the landing couldn't be saved, but he'd like me to do a go-around before soloing, just in case I needed to do it when soloing. The second landing was fine. Marked made some comments about using the rudders more to line up better before touching down. There was a bit of crosswind going. There was a helicopter in the pattern. The pilot was apparently a student, too, and was quite slow in his work. During a couple of landings I was behind him and had to extend my downwind a bit to make room for him. And in one landing behind him the tower called me to go-around because he didn't move out of the way fast enough. Anyway, one student pilot can certainly forgive another for being slow :) My pattern work wasn't as good as I would like today. I was probably nervous/excited about the coming solo. I wasn't maintaining altitude very well on downwind, and once turned to downwind at 900 feet: 100 feet higher than I should be. That'd be enough to fail my check ride if this was it :P My turns were also a bit too steep: usually at 30 degrees than the more comfortable 20. None of those was a security hazard, though :P In my last couple landing Marked focused on me using the rudder to line up with the runway before touching down, as there's a slight crosswind from the left. Then after the 5th landing he asked me to taxi to the end of the runway and said "I'm ready to cut you loose.". Yay!

I dropped Mark off at taxiway J. He just took his handheld radio and video camera, and left his headset in the plane "as a vote of confidence" :D. Ha, I could feel the lady at the control tower becoming nicer instantly :) She was speaking slowly to me, and cleared me to take off before another plane that was in the run up area. The takeoff roll was smooth and uneventful. I had a huge grin on my face as I accelerated down the runway. As I pulled on the yoke to rotate I peeked at the clock: 10:14:15. I was airborne! Flying as pilot in command for the first time! I have to say I was quite calm :) I was even looking out of the window and thinking if my engine quit then, which patch of the bog I'd have to land in :) I flew a better pattern than any of the practice rounds and soon came to final, and found myself a bit high. Well, it's always better to be higher than lower :P Soon I passed the runway threshold and still a tad high, but I was confident I could land it. Flare came a bit late and the plane bounced. go-around? No, I was pretty sure I could save it. I pulled back a little bit, the plane bounced a second time then touched down. All right, I was safe on the ground. My first landing as pilot in command :). I told tower I'm taxing back to do it again. As I passed Mark who was standing by the taxi way, he made some hand gestures to me, which I just couldn't get. He finally got on the radio (the shared frequency that the tower and all pilots use), and said "Jianing, flaps up". Oops, I forgot to put the flaps up after landing, guess I was too excited to have made it down safely :P "Thanks Mark".

For my second takeoff I think I made a mistake. The plane before me aborted his takeoff because of birds. There was a goose on the runway as I took it and I just accelerated past it. It would probably have been better judgement if I aborted the takeoff just as the previous guy did. But the goose didn't cause any real trouble. My second landing was better than the first one. There was still one slight bounce but I think the timing was improving. This time I did remember to raise the flaps after landing :)

Before my 3rd takeoff tower asked me to wait while they sent a truck going up and down the runway to drive away the birds. My 3rd landing was the best of the day. Flaring was just at the right time and the plane floated over the runway for a bit then gently touched down, no bouncing at all :)

I told tower I was terminating, then contacted ground and picked up Mark. He said he only got a good shot of my first landing (the worst one!). Oh well, it'd be good learning material I suppose. :)

I taxied off the runway at 10:32, so the total time I spent alone in the plane was probably about 20 minutes. Short flight, but I'm sure there's many many more to come :)

update: Mark sent me this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VArmcN9CWTc. So the first landing was 3 bounces rather than 2 :P the 2nd one doesn't look too bad actually. It sure felt worse in the plane than it looks from the ground. Too bad the 3rd one isn't in there, it must be a beauty to watch :P. Another interesting thing: I wasn't even listening to the lady at tower for the wind information while flying (and even if I was, I wouldn't have the presence of mind to do the math anyway), but from the video, the wind was from 60 at 8 kts. For runway 13 that's a cross wind of slightly stronger than 5 kts, which is higher than the cross wind limit I was endorsed for :P Well, the overage was only after the decimal point so it didn't count I guess :)