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Flying Lesson 23
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Another requirement of the private pilot certificate is three solo full stop landings at a tower controlled airport. This actually is more challenging for me personally than I expected it would be. Our nearest tower controlled airport is Wilkes-Barre / Scranton International. A small tower controlled facility when compared to some other airports I have been through over the years (as a paying passenger of course). I feel the need to get shy on the microphone when I need to speak up. I don't know why I fell intimidated but I do. This was not my first time at AVP so I guess I can say I have progressed with my communication skills but not yet to a point where I could have made this trip alone. I did handle almost all radio communication but I was prompted by the instructor on a few calls. When I hear the standard calls, I can recognize and respond accordingly. It's when I hear something I've never heard before; that's when I become radio silent.
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View near Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport |
The usual calls were made to initate contact, who we are, where we are, what we want, and the ATIS letter. On this flight I totally forgot to listen to ATIS before we launched so I was fiddling with the radio as we climbed to altitude. I will be sure to listen to the ATIS before launching next time because the flight is only about ten miles, there's not much time to listen while in flight. This minor detail was instantly a setback because I felt rushed to make the radio call. On top of the radio calls, it just so happened to be a gusty day with some serious cross wind conditions. I must admit, there are good flying lessons and bad flying lessons, and this one was starting off bad because I felt frazzled from the start.
We discussed landing in cross wind prior to arrival at AVP because according to the ATIS broadcast we were going to have a substantial cross wind from the right.
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Cross wind landings are a whole different ball game, and today was looking like a good day to get some practice. We were cleared to land on runway 22 and the approach went perfectly. I wish I could say the same for the landings themselves. The cross winds were so intense I needed a little assistance each time. This is a tricky maneuver and it seems easy to mess up the landing altogether. The cross wind component was so bad it took presidence over the real purpose of today's lesson which was communication practice. As a matter of fact, the wind definitely caused me to feel like I didn't accomplish much in terms of communicating with the tower. The return back to our home airport was even worse in terms of landing. It was a very intense cross wind experience to say the least. We will return to AVP and resume communication practice on the next lesson. Hopefully I can accomplish my solo communication and landings to complete the requirements.
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