90% Done, 50% to go...

[Bunkie]

Wow, what a beautiful day to fly! My lesson went well and I really like my instructor, he gave me a solid critique of my flying and it was easy to apply what he explained. I did pretty well. We were flying over the south shore of Long Island near the western end of Fire Island. I'm going back on Wednesday for an hour of ground school to cover airport operations and discuss my cross-country flying. Flying the 172 felt completely natural and I appreciated the extra power of the larger engine. I made a fairly decent landing. My approach was solid, but I leveled off a bit high (maybe 2-3 feet high), so I came down just a bit hard. That I definitely have to work on. I did well on slow flight, stalls and steep turns, all of which, I'm told, were good enough to pass. We also executed a simulated engine loss and, believe me, having all that beach as a potential landing site is very reassuring! The plan is to proceed with the dual cross-country before getting to my solo work. I'm really looking forward to flight planning and executing the plan.