7-20-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

        Following my successful first solo yesterday, we went to practice more landings today. The difference was we did them at Monticello instead of Sullivan County. Much smaller runway, and there's a fence on one end that gives me the willies. The other difference today was that Long kept drilling me on emergency landings. I'd take off or just get established on downwind, and then Long would cut the engine power. Now that I have the procedure down (establish best glide attitude, etc.) it becomes a matter of judgment and finesse. Have to judge whether you can make it back the runway or not. Or maybe a different runway. Or maybe the field near the runway. Once committed to a landing site, then you have to finesse it in. May have to get creative with flaps and slips to put it down in time, or stretch the glide to the max to make it to your target.

    I'm still having problems with the flare. My timing stinks, and I'm just not getting it. And you can't make a lot of mistakes landing at Monticello. Short and thin runway, with trees and roads right nearby. You had better put it down, or else. Well, I'll get it eventually. I think I'm at a temporary plateau, and I've seen those enough times when learning other skills not to worry too much about it. I'll get it in the end.

7-21-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

        My parents were visiting today, so I asked Long to accompany me on a sight-seeing flight with my mother. This was good experience actually, because I've not had much experience flying with weight in the back of the plane. Took a little longer to reach rotation speed, and a little slower to climb. It was a nice day, however, and we were able to fly over Woodridge and see our house and cars parked outside.

    On return to Monticello I blew our first approach. I was a little close to the runway on downwind, and there was a slight crosswind coming from the right. So we got blown off course as I made the base turn. We went around and set it up properly, and I made a fairly good landing. Better flare, but not sure why. Maybe because I wasn't dwelling on it. I was concentrating on stopping the plane before we reached the end of the runway. A back seat passenger makes a difference!

7-22-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

    Practiced more landings at Monticello today in preparation for my second solo. In addition to the normal challenge of landing on the small runway, there was a gusting crosswind today. I felt my landings were so-so. One pretty good, one pretty bad. The rest somewhere in between. Got a little frustrated, but Long reminded me that all the landings were unassisted, and weren't that bad. That made me feel better, and I know I'll get them. If it were a bit calmer today I think I would have been much more comfortable. But it's good to learn under tough conditions. Sort of like playing basketball against someone much better than you. As long as you can keep from getting too frustrated, it will only make you better.

7-23-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

    What a difference a day makes! The wind was calm today, and it allowed me to really work on the landings and get comfortable on the small Monticello runway. We did about six landings, and then Long got out and I soloed for the second time.

    My first Monticello solo felt really good. I did three landings, and they were the best I did all day. I touched down on the second one just as the stall horn sounded off, and it was light as a feather! I feel more proud today than I did on my first solo at Sullivan. You can make some mistakes there and still have lots of runway left, whereas at Monticello you pretty much have to get it right. So I walked away very pleased with myself, but with a reminder not to get cocky. Going to be away for a couple of days, so this was a nice way to leave off.

8-4-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

    After two weeks off because of a vacation and then bad weather, I was finally back in the air today to begin doing cross country training and navigation. We went over ADF's and VOR's in the classroom yesterday, and today I navigated us to Orange County Airport using them. This was my first time seeing what the workload is really like for a pilot. There's a lot to do, and a lot of small details one could miss.

    My first mistakes were in the planning process. I left out a whole bunch of information, such as the pattern altitude for the airport we were going to, and runway length information. Then I had to re-check my VOR navigation plan. It gets confusing to track TO such-and-such a radial, and then FROM a different one.

    Once in the air I departed the pattern to the wrong side, and had to swing a wide turn to line up with the VOR radial I wanted. Then there was fumbling with the nav and com radios, and oh yeah - watch for other airplanes! I definitely spent too much time today with my head down on the instruments.

    Once at Orange County things went OK, except my landings were a little sloppy. I'd like to blame that on two weeks off, but... So we did some touch and goes, and then went back to Monticello. Had less trouble getting back, and did a decent enough landing. I dropped Long off and then did some solo landings, which I have to say weren't that good. I really need to learn to use the rudder to straighten out better on touchdown.