Pilot Life: Gaining Crosswind Experience

Well, I got an entire week's worth of flying in this week with flights on Tuesday, Thursday, and finally Saturday today! And flying today was a great way to start the month of October. Not only that, but today's flight was full of opportunities to learn certain things because the conditions were just right for the occasion.

Beautiful day! So many dormant Katanas on Saturday...

Flying on Saturdays is less busy so the pace felt much more relaxed, probably because not many students are flying. I did the pre-flight on the aircraft and then went through the usual start-up and pre-taxi procedures. Once we were ready, I picked up our taxi clearance from the ground controller and we taxied over to the runway and did our run-ups. Once were ready, I picked up our takeoff clearance from the control tower and we were off to the south practice area.

Flying towards the rain!

Once we were in the practice area, my instructor took control of the aircraft and took the opportunity to show me what rain looks like while flying. The rain was falling in another practice area and we got the "okay" to fly there. It was light precipitation and visibility was still good (there will always be limits on that though; something to touch on in the future.); my instructor showed me what to do if in these circumstances and showed what downdrafts associated with rainy weather felt like.

View over the left wing towards Spanish Fork.

My instructor taught me that weather is really not a big deal despite the fact that many novice aviators get freaked out or concerned about it. Weather moves at the same speed and direction as the wind and in most circumstances, airplanes are faster and can out-run the weather. There are limits for certain aircraft but the most important thing to make sure that ice build-up won't be a factor; in today's case, it was too warm for any possibility for ice (at least not yet this year!).

My instructor showing me what rain looks like while flying; he considers this light rain so it was totally safe to fly in it. Plus he was in control of the aircraft as pilot-in-command so he was qualified fly in these conditions!

Once we got through this first opportunistic tangent of the flight, my instructor returned control of the aircraft to me and he put me through a simulated engine failure as part of a review from a few flights ago. Out came the emergency checklist and we went through the steps of the procedure followed by a simulated emergency landing before going back up to altitude. We next went through ground reference maneuvers again like last time. I demonstrated turns around a point and S-turn, this time with a little bit of necessary corrections because of the wind. I'm happy to say that these went well because these maneuvers still stand out to me for some reason. My instructor then took the controls again and showed me how to do the rectangular course, which is a training maneuver in which the ground track of the airplane is equidistant from all sides of a selected rectangular area on the ground. This maneuver simulates the conditions encountered in an airport traffic pattern while maintaining a constant altitude and airspeed.

Setting up for some ground reference maneuvers at a lower altitude.

After showing me the rectangular course maneuver, we headed back to Provo and got some landing practice in with three touch-and-goes followed by a full stop landing. Not only that, but we did the touch-and-goes on the much shorter crosswind runway to get some crosswind landing practice! Provo Airport has two intersecting runways; the main runway, which is the longest and shorter crosswind runway. Crosswind landings are conducted when the wind is blowing perpendicular to the runway. It was another opportunity worth taking on this flight because the conditions were just right. My instructor demonstrated to me the first crosswind landing by point the nose towards the wind while keeping the aircraft lined up with the runway in preparation for landing. It's a flying technique called crabbing, where the aircraft is effectively flying somewhat sideways. After getting back up into the air, it was my turn to give crosswind landings a try with a little guidance and prompting from my instructor. I will admit, it was a little nerve-wracking but in the end, it really wasn't a big deal. It's just a matter of knowing and performing the right technique.

After the third touch-and-go landing, we got back up in the air and prepped for a full-stop landing on the main runway. I felt that my landing got much better since that "bounce" I had a few flights ago. My instructor told the tower controller that the crosswind landings were fun. The tower controller went further and asked if the student (that's me!) shared the same feelings. My instructor responded by saying that I might not share that same enthusiasm, at least not yet. Did my instructor and the tower controller just make fun of me??? Oh well... We taxied back to the UVU ramp, called it another flight and filled out the logbook. My instructor was really happy with today's flight because of the opportunities and with today's ground reference maneuvers. And I'm glad I got to experience these opportunities as well. Today was a great flight!