2nd Solo!

Today’s beautiful hot morning found me at the airport for my second solo!

When I arrived Instructor Cheryl had a gift for me. Photos of my solo from last week! Two ‘official’ first solo photos in frames and a bunch of photos of me flying around the airport. How cool is that! And she had a photo of my first solo in the hanger, ready to go on the wall with all the other pilot photos. Best instructor ever!!! Thanks Cheryl. First I did three landings with Cheryl in the plane and then I dropped her off by the hanger and off I went on my second solo. The first time around I was doing fine, but then on my landing I goofed up and started to bounce a bit, so I threw in the gas and did a go-around. The second landing I was just turning base and the Tower asked if I wanted a short landing (ahh hell no) or if I wanted to extend my base. As you probably guessed it I extended my base and kept going and kept going as there was another plane coming in to land ahead of me. Then they gave me clearance and I made my way to the runway and was pretty close and they had me turn left again and extend my base once again due to another plane coming in and I was too close. So out I went again and then finally got permission to land again. By this time I could have done one more landing (the original plan was to do 3), but the previous two were so weird that I figured it was time to return to the hanger. So I taxied to the hanger and the Tower told me that I did a great job today (best Tower guys ever!) and I found Cheryl sitting in a chair in front of the hanger watching me fly and listing to me talk to the Tower on her radio. So the second time around I was not as nervous and a bit more calm. I still talked to myself around the pattern, calling out what I was doing or going to do, and I think at one point there was a little singing and some of the now traditional swearing with my bad landing.