Time: 1530Z (0930 MST)
Flying time: 1.1 hrs. (cumulative 20.0 hrs)
Landings: 6(cumulative 60)
Aircraft: Skyhawk N7898N (T-41C)
Flight: ABQ-AEG-ABQ
Short one today, just to keep landings work going. FAA is still sitting on my paperwork for the medical waiver. [afterthought: got home tonight and found the denial letter --- they hadn't been processing the waiver all this time, they were processing the original request. Now I have to apply for the waiver, which i did within ten minutes of pulling the denial letter out of the envelope. Grrrrrrr.]
Mostly an uneventful flight, but some niceties. On takeoff from runway 17 we turned right to a heading of 260, and were advised to look for the single F16 on right downwind. He flew right over us, so we got a nice view of his belly.
5 landings at Double Eagle of various qualities, mostly good. In fact, one was a greaser which got me several "beautifuls" from Jeff, and a comment that "I make one of those about one in fifteen tries." So I felt pretty good. Still, there were some things to work on, like not ballooning in the flare --- I've got the recovery from ballooning down pat, but it would be nice to be able to avoid it altogether by applying proper technique. One of the landings was a pretty icky bounce-and-blow, but still after the bounce I was able to recover and turn it into a nice gentle set-down.
Returning to ABQ was straightforward, although they had me land on a different runway than usual. Runway 3 has a blastpad and precision instrument markings, which is different from what I've seen before. Also, there are high-speed taxiways, nice and wide so you can start your takeoff roll in them. Well, not me, but all those jets.
And while taxiing we heard several calls from ground vehicles responding to "the in-flight." Lots of fire engines, police cars, and so forth. And when we finally taxied clear of the area a flight of 2 F-117A Stealth fighters came in. One landed with a parachute braking it, the other did a low-altitude flyover. Presumably the landing aircraft had something wrong in flight and the emergency vehicles were there just in case.
Next lesson scheduled a week from today, but had to cancel it because I didn't feel well that day. Next lesson was actually on the 29th.
Things to get straight: be more responsive with rudder application during landing approach. Take time in approach to get everything right. Gentle control movements during flare to avoid yanking the aircraft back up when I should just be slowing the descent.