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I was thinking I would just go to the practice area and correct my tendency of lowering nose too much on stall recovery, and do some touch and goes. I wanted to remember how I flew well in a windy condition last time.

However, when I did pre-flight and got in the cockpit, the instructor told me to go to Washington County Airport (AFJ,) which is located about 20 miles south west of Allegheny County Airport (AGC.) It’s a kind of short test of the navigation. I took out my chart, and I drew a line from the Allegheny County VOR to AFJ, and checked that the airport was on 245 radial of the Allegheny VOR. I put my chart back in the pocket once, but I took it out again to see how high I can go without violating Pittsburgh Class B. I knew I should be allowed to go up to 3000ft at least, but just to double check.

My plan was that after take off, head south west until I gain enough altitude so that VOR receives the signal. Then head west to intercept the course and follow the course until reaching AFJ.

The main runway of Allegheny County Airport (Runway 10-28) was under re-surfacing construction. The ground controller called me “Taxi runway 13 via taxiway Alpha runway 5.” When I resumed flight training last year, I wouldn’t have been able to get after “Taxi runway 13.” “Taxiway Alpha” and “runway 5” had sounded like a random alphabet and number then. Remembering random alphabets and numbers in addition to “Runway 13” was very difficult. However, this time I could draw in my mind an image of the airport. And taxiway alpha and runway 5 were no longer random number and alphabet to me. I could correctly read back what the ground controller told me. It’s a sign of improvement.

Then I took off Runway 13 and headed south west. I was waiting for the VOR to receive the signal. But, I felt something was wrong. I don’t remember exactly what I felt, but the needle might have been left although it should have been right. Later (after coming back to AGC) the instructor pointed that the VOR was indicating “FROM” when I had to have “TO.” But, I don’t think I was thinking about TO/FROM indication. I guess it was needle. “Did I screw up?” I thought. Soon, the instructor told me that the VOR was set to RNAV mode, and I had to change it to VOR mode.

The RNAV mode creates a virtual VOR station located on a specified radial and a specified distance away from the actual VOR station. Because of this relative displacement, the indication was not quite what I expected. I am pretty sure that the Cessna 150 I was riding in Arizona for private certificate training did not have such a sophisticated function. Every Cessna 172 of PFTC has slightly different equipments, and sometimes I’m confused.

So I set the mode to VOR mode. But, I didn’t know how much I flew while I was thinking about what was going wrong. VOR was already indicating “FROM” which means that I already passed the VOR station. But, I also had lateral deviation from the course, and I could not tell if the AFJ is in front of or behind us. I decided to use the second VOR and tuned it to Wheeling VOR and triangulate to find the airplane location. The conclusion was we were way south of the course. Well, we should have been. I already knew that. But, it also implied me that we were very close to the airport. At that time, I saw something like a runway on my right forward. I guessed that should be it, and it turned out to be AFJ.

So, I somehow came to AFJ, the instructor told me to fly over the field to see the runway heading and wind direction. AFJ had runway 9-27. The wind was almost cross wind, but seemed to be a little favor to the runway 9. We started tough & goes in AFJ.

Last time, I did pretty well in a windy and gusty condition. But, for some reason I didn’t do very well this time. Roughly, I was adjusting the engine to 1900RPM when I start descend on downwind, 1800RPM on base, and 1700RPM on final. I pitched for 100kt, 80kt, and 70kt respectively. Then the Cessna was supposed to descend automatically at the right descend rate. At least it did last time. This time, it didn’t slow down or didn’t sink well. I ended up being too high or too fast on final. The airspeed was about 10kt faster than ideal speed. So, the airplane didn’t settle after leveling off above the runway. The airplane flew just a little above ground very long. AFJ’s runway was not as long as the runway of AGC. “I’m running out of runway” I thought and reduced the pressure on the control wheel. Then, the airplane made a hard landing and bounced. I managed to recover from the bounce, but it was a terrible landing.

Now I can think that I should have reduced the engine a little more. But, probably due to two months of no flying, I doubted what I did. I thought I failed to maintain the engine RPM 1700RPM. So I tried the same thing again for the second landing, and the bounced just like the first time. If I look at the positive side, I was controlling the airplane pretty consistently. But, I had to admit that that was a terrible landing. I did four touch & goes in AFJ, but all four were not good. I was a bit frustrated.

Then we headed back to AGC. The instructor told me not to use VOR. But, I already studied several ways to find AGC. The easiest one is to follow the river. I flew east until I hit the river, then headed south. AGC was almost right in front of the airplane. In AGC I did two touch & goes and landed. But, none of them satisfied me. It was a major frustration.

Now I know that I simply should have reduced the throttle to 1600RPM or maybe even 1500RPM. But, I had a prejudice that 1700RPM should have been right. It’s just like bowling. In bowling, you are supposed to throw the ball through a reference point on the lane. The reference point is usually a dot or an arrow drawn on the lane. To adjust the aim, you step left or right, but basically you are not supposed to change the reference point. After playing in a same bowling alley for several months, you learn where you should stand and what reference point you should use. However, the right standing position and the reference point changes depending on the humidity, temperature, and oil condition. If you are prejudice on the standing position and the reference point, and you refuse to move from your standard standing position and reference point, you will consistently make a same mistake shots after another, and you’ll get a terrible score. If you are flexible, and make adjustments after several shots, you’ll get a good score. (Actually I got 225 on Wed :-)

Flying an airplane is the same thing. I should have looked at the response of the airplane. Too high and too fast simply indicated too much power. Well, at least I didn’t destroy the airplane, and no one was injured. I guess it was not too bad after all considering that I didn’t have chance to fly for two months since the last flight. And, I earned my 100th flight hour! Next time, I’ll fly better.

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