PPL training - Landings 1

Less than ideal weather conditions made it difficult to continue on the lesson plan. The next on the plan was a stage check, which we had to fly down to Sola to do. Since we couldn’t do that, we skipped ahead a bit and continued with my first pattern work lesson.

Since the previous lesson I also spent a considerable amount of time working on the theory.

And theory was exactly what this lesson started with. We were two students today, and we had to learn about the correct way to fly the pattern before we went out to do it. Much easier for the instructor to explain this on the ground than in the air.

After the theory lesson, I got to climb into the backseat for the first time. It is way more spacious than it looks! The plan was for both of us to sit in the back while the other flew, giving us a perfect opportunity to observe and learn.

And what a great idea that was! The view is much better from back there, and you get to focus all your energy on observing. It’s a lot easier to take lots of pictures as well, which I love doing.

You also get to spend more time in the air, which is always a plus!

After about an hour, we switched places and then it was my turn.

I had 10 mostly unassisted landings, and had to both hold and extend downwind a couple times (due to other traffic). I got distracted a bit by the other traffic.

Pattern work is exhaustive, everything happens so fast! Especially when there’s no traffic. But the feeling of actually landing the airplane, and the beautiful sunset that accompanied us around the pattern, made this into an amazing experience!

We did the usual debriefing, and afterwards the other student sent me this tracklog (ignore the obvious signal loss):

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• PPL
• Flight training