Today was supposed to be our first cross-country work, but the weather just wasn't going to cooperate. As Cristian and I drove out to Taylor, the skies opened and it began to pour. No thunderstorms, just a lot of rain. It let up a bit by the time we got to the airport, but by the time we pre-flighted the plane, it was coming down again. The clouds were high enough that we were still VFR legal, so Bruce decided I needed some time flying in the rain. On taxi I noticed a stiff crosswind, almost 90 degrees to the runway. So not only was I going to get rain, I was going to get some crosswind practice.
It all went pretty well. It's very different flying in the rain. Not having clear skies is a bit intimidating at first. After about 20 minutes and 3 landings, the rains stopped and we practiced soft field takeoffs. Not pretty. On the sixth landing the winds had shifted to an almost perfect headwind, so Bruce had me let him out again and told me to do two takeoffs and landings on my own.
As I taxied out, the wind shifted back to the 90 degree crosswind and the wind sock was standing straight up. I put the left airelon down and did my takeoff. Bruce said I used too much right rudder climbing out for the wind, and as a result got too far out on the pattern. When I turned to base, I had the stiffest headwind of the day. I was almost like the plane was suspended for a second. I kept my flaps at 10 degrees until right before I turned to final and had a tough time lining up on the landing. I didn't bounce, but it definitely was not smooth.
I did a touch and go and climbed out (again with too much right rudder per Bruce) but got back into a tighter pattern. Turning base, there was that headwind again. This time, since I was tighter, I configured the flaps for a regular landing and made a pretty decent crosswind landing, getting the left wheels down first and only slightly left of the centerline. That was it for the day, but now I have a couple of solo crosswind landings under my belt.
