Second Solo!

9/25/2005

Today's lesson was a good one - a good lesson that I really needed to have under my belt. I had not soloed since 3 lessons ago, and I knew I needed to get back on the horse so to speak. We performed a couple of touch n goes, then Bruce told me to taxi to the ramp so he could get out. I did 3 touch n goes, the first 2 went real well.

The last landing was not so good...when I was on short final, the radio crackled: "Good morning Bruce how are you" I heard (Bruce's 531CP is well known around these parts). I should have blocked it out, but in the middle of turning left wheel to compensate for a slight crosswind, I had to (for some silly reason) quickly reply it's only me doing a solo. This slightly threw me off my focus, especially when he then replied "oh congratulations! First one?". I couldn't believe he now wanted to get into a conversation on the radio, while he KNEW I was about to flare! I ended up slightly side loading the left wheel, but nothing dramatic. In hindsight, I know I should have ignored the radio call. Why didn't I? God only knows.

After the lesson, I got talking to a guy who owned an RV6a which he had built himself. I ended up going on a 50 mile cross country with him to Brenham! We bought a couple of milkshakes then headed back to Taylor. It is a very nice plane that RV...