Last week I did two flying lessons in the same week. The hope was that this would allow me to retain more of my know-how without sliding backward into regression. Well, it sort of worked.
On the 5th lesson I really blew the take-off roll and the landing was a mess. Too much rudder, then not enough, then a lot more than was needed: that was the take-off until the instructor stepped in and fixed things. On the landing I put the nose right in the middle of the runway, in a crosswind, and found myself on the far left side of the field just before time to land. Again the CFI (certified flight instructor) wrestled the plane back into position in time for me to land a bit hard, then nearly steer off the runway.
At lesson 6 I was still pretty heavy on the rudders on take-off, but not as bad as before. Most of the lesson was spent learning to stall the plane, something that really isn’t good to do, but important to know lest I do so accidentally during a landing. When it came time to land I remembered the last mess, and corrected by keeping the nose to the right of the runway. This allowed me to be centered up, but too high until just before the edge of the strip. CFI stepped in again to crab the plane down to a manageable height and I helped put it down on the tarmac.
The instructor says I’m getting better, but I still feel pretty terrible at the end of each lesson. We’ll see if I really get better as I get closer to 20 lessons.