Pilot's Log : Hours 15.6 - 18.6

Obviously I haven't gotten in much flying lately.  Between my CFI's vacation, my lack of planning to get on his schedule and some weather cancellations, I've only had 2 flights since my solo.

These last 2 flights have been exactly the same as my solo: my CFI and I go up and I do a couple of landings to show him that I still know what I'm doing.  Then I drop him off at the terminal and do 3 takeoffs and landings on my own.

My last flight was a bit of a mixed bag.  On my first solo landing, another student was flying in from another airport.  As soon as I took off, I heard him announce that he was 10 miles out.

By the time I got ready to turn towards the runway (just before my final approach), I heard him announce that he was 3 miles out.  My brain was so locked into circling the airport that, for some damn reason, I thought that I could just sneak in before him.

I announced my attentions and immediately my CFI got on the radio and told me to "extend downwind" instead.  I pulled a hard 45 degree to get out of his way.

There's no way I can explain it other to say than I f'ed-up.  I should have known better and just extended anyway, but I didn't.  I could have caused a safety issue.

It didn't seem to bother the CFI, but it really bugged me.

On the other hand, once I got back on the ground, he kept complimenting me on how great my landings were.  And these were with a fairly strong headwind tossing me around the last 50 feet or so.

My next flight will be a big one for me.  For the first time, I'll be going up without any supervision from my CFI.  He wants me to head out to our practice area (about 10 miles away from the airport) and work on some basic maneuvers.  It's going to be awesome to do everything from start to finish without needing anyone around.

After that flight, I start on my cross-country training.  That's where I learn everything else.  It's like in driving school--so far I've only been cruising around the parking lot.  Starting now I'm leaving the parking lot and learning how to properly interact with traffic, highways, etc...  It's going to be sweet, but hard.