Well, this was my second flight of the day and my last with this CFI. It really sucks to see him go. I really liked how he taught me and he was a very friendly, easy-going guy.
My earlier flight went well, so you can guess how this one went... It was still a beautiful day, but the winds picked-up a bit and tossed me around quite a lot. It kept me from properly concentrating on what I needed to.
The plan for this flight was to fly down to Sugarland Regional Airport and do a full-stop landing with my CFI. If all went well, I'd fly back, drop him off and do it myself. It would be my first solo landing at another airport. If I did well, I would have gotten another endorsement--allowing me to fly to and land at any airport.
Needless to say, things didn't go as planned. You see, West Houston Airport (my airport) is uncontrolled. That means it doesn't have a tower. When you are flying around my airport, you are in charge of what you do. You watch for traffic, announce what you are doing and then do it.
Sugarland is a controlled airport. That means that there are nice people up in the tower running things. Contrary to popular myth, the folks in the tower may be in charge, but their job is to help me out. They make sure I can do whatever I need/want to do. As a general rule, they seem to be good people. Just make sure you play by the rules.
Anyway, my problem is talking to the tower. About 2/3 of the time, I know what I need to say/do, but for some reason I get very uncomfortable and screw it up. From all of the training materials I see advertised in flying magazines, I think this is a common problem people have.
So, instead of soloing to that airport, we just made 2 different runs at it. Good stuff. But my landings were horrible as well. Whenever I get uncomfortable or nervous, it shows everywhere. It also doesn't help that I haven't been flying enough. As relatively early as I am in my flying experience, it doesn't take long to get "rusty" at something.
So, the plan is this: start flying more frequently. I'm at almost 24 hours in the air. And my CFI says that I'm well over halfway to be ready for my check ride. I'd like to take my check ride in the next 2 months. It's taking me longer than average to get my license, but that's becuase I haven't been flying enough. But it's become clear from my CFI that I'm ahead of the curve in terms of experience/hours.
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