Flying Lesson 14 ==> Solo Landing Practice

Warm air, a little on the muggy side, but still as can be. The weather cooperated in a big way for tonight's lesson. my instructor stayed on board for me to get warmed up I guess. One item of interest during tonight's lesson. We encountered another airplane in the pattern around the airport while we were in the air. He didn't make any radio contact when he entered the pattern. I began to double-check our radio to make sure it was correct but I couldn't find anything wrong. I went ahead with my radio calls and landed on runway 4 as intended. Approximately half-way down the runway as we were rolling along I can see this other airplane on final approach and descending quickly on runway 22. This made me more than a little nervous to see another airplane coming directly for us while we were still on the runway. It just so happened there was a taxiway on our right. We veered off and exited the runway to make our way back to the start of 4 to try another takeoff and landing. My instructor exited the plane so I could go solo at this point, also so he could have a word wioth the other pilot about his lack of radio communication. It turned out to be his fault with an incorrect setting on his radio.

Anyway, this lesson was essentially a batch of solo landings to demonstrate my ability to land consistently. The landings wound up being hit and miss. I had a few that were as good as they get and quite a few that were either too high or too fast. My overspeed at the point of entering the runway was duly noted, I guess iI just didn't react fast enough to get the speed back down. I also had one landing that was way too high. I didn't touch down until about a third of the way down the runway. I knew I was high all the way back when I turned base yet I hadn't backed off on the throttle enough... nor did I remove the throttle fast enough. My instructor, of course witnessed these errors and we discussed them in detail after I tied down the plane for the evening. On a lighter note, I totally aced the park job over at the tie-down area. I couldn't have pulled off a better park job if I tried.