Lesson 67 – More Crosswind Practice

We finally had a beautiful looking day yesterday but, the winds were blowing too hard for a solo flight. Instead, Sandy and I flew to East Troy for some more crosswind practice. The 12 plus knot winds were blowing straight across runway 26 so, that is the one we chose to use. There were other aircraft in the pattern with a couple others using 26 but most using the turf strip 36. I addition to the crosswinds, I got some good experience co-ordinating with other traffic while using crossing runways at an uncontrolled field. The frequency was busy with everyone updating the other traffic on where they were and what they were doing. Thanks to good communication and a cooperative group of pilots, traffic flowed very smoothly.

I had some trouble finding the airport (I thought I was over that) but, I stayed well above the pattern altitude until I positively identified it so, got major points for good judgment from Sandy. Once I did locate the field, I made a proper pattern entry and set up for the first landing. I had to use almost full left rudder to stay aligned with the runway and ended up touching down a little left of the centerline.

We taxied back and took off for landing number two. This one was closer to center but a little flat. Better than the first one though. Another pilot in the pattern got on the radio to compliment me on a nice touchdown. That made me feel good.

We had to hold at the runway for a few minutes while a group of skydivers dropped onto the airport. Then I took off and got us onto downwind before handing the controls over to Sandy so that she could demo a landing. This one ended in a go around when the nose swung left at the last second. She had me do one more, which was OK but not great, before we flew back to Waukegan.

This was another good lesson in tough conditions. Next up will be a short solo cross country followed by the long one. We don’t have anymore dual planned for now so, the timing is all up to the weather.