sean’s place

Crosswinds

Another day up nearer to the clouds!

Clocked in another 1.4 hours of time in the log book with Craig. We had a bit of wind aloft (and almost nothing on the ground when we took off), so we used the opportunity to do some turns about a point and S-turns. These are exactly as they sound, you pick a point (e.g; an intersection of two roads) and fly in a circle around it. The same is true for S-turns, you pick a road and then fly hemi-circles on each side.

It sounds easy, and yes, it actually isn’t all that bad if you don’t have to deal with wind! (not saying it’s easy even in that scenario either, but it’s easier). With wind, you have to really feel how the wind is affecting you and bank appropriately. However, that’s not the only challenge: you have to do so smoothly. The challenge is to compensate for the effect of wind by gradually rolling in and out your bank angle in order to stay on your desired flight path. It should be fairly imperceptible (at least in the case of turns about a point, not as much with S-turns). I could definitely use more practice with both of these.

We used the light winds (I think it was up to a whopping 4 knots when we came back to the airport) to practice a few crosswind takeoffs and landings. That’s just, well, weird. Going into a slip to bleed off airspeed and and crabbing into the crosswind on the way down is a strange feeling. I’m honestly not sure what the heck I’m doing with these… oh well!

And to finish off this heavily fragmented post, it occurred to me that I didn’t mention my new LightSPEED 15XLc headset that Santa (thanks Mom and Dad!) brought me for Christmas. I took it up on its inaugural flight this week and used it for every flight thereafter — it’s awesome! The ANR (automatic noise reduction) feature is really amazing; it mellows, but does not eliminate entirely (which is what I wanted), the sound of the engine. The fit and comfort level of it are also deserving of high marks. All in all, it’s made for much more pleasant flight lessons.

With that, it’s bed time for this aspiring aviator. Good night!