90% Done, 50% to go...

[Bunkie]

The thought for the day relates to Zeno's Paradox.

Why bring that up? Well...

It was going quite well. The DPE was about 2 hours late, so I spent that munching on donuts and trying to compose myself. We got started completing the paperwork and then I did a thorough pre-flight. The first takeoff (normal) was almost perfect. We started directly into the cross-country, so I made the crosswind and downwind turns (this was to avoid KAVP airspace). I then turned to course for KBMG but something in my brain conflated 330 with my actual TC of 360. After about a minute, I realized my mistake, did some quick work with the chart, got re-oriented and flew to my first checkpoint and then came back on course. The examiner was satisfied with this saying "you made a mistake, but you recognized it quickly and corrected using good procedure". She then asked me to divert to a nearby airport which I had no trouble finding by calculating the MC and distance from the chart. We then did ground reference maneuvers which went pretty well, not a well as I would have liked (and have done in the past), but enough to meet the standard. We then did stalls which went perfectly. Hood work and unusual attitudes also went well.

And now we come to the issue. Wyoming Valley airport is, as the name suggests, in a valley. There's a high ridge to the north of the field. We were doing pattern work landing on 07 with the wind at 330, 7-8 knots. My mistake was that I wasn't compensating enough for the drift and, as a result, the base and final didn't have enough distance or time. Worse, I let my "I'll fix this" voice have control. The result was a poor landing. It was safe, but not good at all. I had too much altitude, and the track looked like a J rather than a nice square-cornered pattern. We then tried again and even after a picture-perfect soft-field takeoff (the DPE complimented me on executing it perfectly), I made the same mistakes.

So, I have to re-test on x-wind landings. I know what I'm doing wrong: I don't give myself enough lateral distance on downwind. This compresses the approach which makes it almost impossible to get stabilized. I also need to really use ground references to make sure I'm consistently at the correct distance laterally, and to automatically correct for drift. The DPE was very supportive, encouraging me to work on the landings and saying that she saw a lot of good flying.

The flight back to my home airport was difficult. The flight itself went very, very well. I was processing what I had learned but the feeling wasn't all that good. My approach and landing at N53 (a somewhat difficult field with a displaced threshold and a width of only 50 feet) was almost perfect. I kept my distance on downwind, flew a nice, square base and final and put the airplane down right past the numbers.

Not much sleep last night, I was going over and over it in my mind. So, I'm 90% there. Again.

I *will* get this right. I console myself with having done well on the other parts of the test and knowing how to fix my issues. I'll get the required training, lock in the good habits and get past this.

Zeno's Paradox:

1 +1/2 + 1/4 +1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 and on and on... will never get to 2.