Day 6 - No Wind

One of the more challenging aspects of learning to fly is the landing.  In light airplanes, the goal is to bring together the ground, a "stall speed" at which the airplane will no longer fly and zero sink rate at precisely the same time.  If you arrive at the stall speed too early, the airplane "drops in" which means it falls from whatever altitude you occupy at that precise moment.  If the plane is 10 feet off the ground, down it comes with a predictable, bone jarring crash.  Airplanes must survive "drop tests" in the FAA certification process, which are what they sound like, and will take such drops with minimal protest except in the most extreme cases.  If the pilot misjudges on the other side, meaning she finds the ground before arresting the sink rate and hitting the stall speed, the plane bounces like a bouncy ball.  These landings can get very exciting if subsequent control inputs aren't handled correctly.

A  favorite pastime of pilots and airport visitors is to watch pilots perform their landings.  On a nice Saturday at a busy small airport, you often find folks, milling around, watching the landing pattern and critiquing every approach and landing.  If a pilot possesses any vanity and practices landings on these days, the added pressure of an audience can make even the most seasoned veteran lose his mojo.  The nicer the day, the bigger the crowd and the bigger the number of performers.  It can be a circus.

Clear skies, unlimited visibility and no wind are like the Bat Signal for pilots to head to the airport.  Student and novice pilots, in particular, respond strongly to the call.  In part, flying in clear blue skies touches the very nerves that make most of us learn to fly.  As I imagine that dolphins are filled with joy as they swim, so too are pilots as they move effortlessly through the three dimensions. The other part, though, is a bit of fear of the conditions that make flying more challenging, particularly wind as it affects landings.

A funny thing about wind, airplanes and landing.  As students pilots (and too many experienced pilots as well), we fear the wind.  Wind conspires to give us just a few more feet of altitude at the exactly wrong moment or threatens to blow us off the side of the runway and ruin an otherwise perfect landing.  The greater the wind, the bigger the challenge and the bigger the fear.  When there is no wind, pilots think to themselves "ahh, this will be easy."  But in fact, it is quite hard to land an airplane in "zero" wind conditions.  There is nothing to push back against.  We relax in the face of calm and most often the result is a submarginal performance.

Update:
1.  I had several conversations yesterday, including my informational interview and I learned a lot.  I am very thankful to have a wonderful roster of advisers.
2.  I worked on my workspace for about 2 hours.
3.  I did no work on website copy.

Today's Goals
1.  Work on workspace.
2.  Work on website copy.
3.  Work on samples.