Pad landings and xwind practice.

Today my instructor and myself went to practice landing on this log pad for about .5 . I still suck at that. Not sure why, but at least in my mind I do. But he seemed to think I was fine, and after that he had me drop him off to go and tackle it myself for an hour.

Oh, a backtrack. It was rather funny. I was commenting on my deathgrip again, and he said..."you know, you are good at this, and you have a good mind for flying, and you fly good...so there is NO reason you should be stressed out!". Funny. But in all honesty...I don't FEEL stressed...only my hand does. And tomorrow I shall try out the tip from T ...the one with the pen in a strategic spot between fingers...I can feel the pain on my middle finger already. But if that doesn't cure me of this stupid issue, nothing will!

So then off I went.

And of course, the wind picked up. Not a ton (in my fixed wing life, hardly any wind!), but way more than I have done by myself in a chopper. So I tried a few on the log pad...and kinda got a bit nervous with the gusty winds swirling around and kicking my ass, so I chickened out after a bit and headed to the taxiway to practice xwinds on the line there. That was much better.

So all went well, and slowly but surely I am getting the hang of this thing. Actually, today was the first solo where I felt like a pilot again, not a nervous student. And I much prefer that feeling!

Back tomorrow, hopefully the sling hook is fixed so I can get back at that. I can only imagine at this point what it's like to do circuits with something hanging off the bottom of you. ;)

Oh, and I have no clue who has any solo pics of me, so that's why I haven't posted any. Maybe one day.....LOL