Cow Tippin'

Today's hop was a lot of fun. Weather was severe clear, winds light and variable. We headed out to somewhere I'd never been- another little grass strip just west of Mobile Regional. My instructor was the same laid-back 20-something guy I went to the grass field with last time.

We used the GPS to find the airport. I was too high on the first pass, so we waved off. Second time around I nailed it, and we floated in for a nice soft landing and the dusty embrace of dry Alabama field grass. This runway was a little bumpier and not mowed as recently as the last one, but still remarkably smooth and a lot of fun. We used every inch of it the first time, as I wasn't in any particular hurry to stop.



After a couple of soft-field landings, we demonstrated short-field technique. That focuses on hitting a particular point on the runway and then pulling the flaps up and standing on the brakes. The first one of those, I brought it in a little too fast and we floated past our aim point by a couple hundred feet. That was still within the lesson standards, but I could do better. The second time around, I aimed for the same big brown spot and I totally nailed it! I think we must have hit within one wingspan of the point. With the flaps up and heavy braking, we stopped in less than half of the runway. (The picture captions, from left to right, read: aiming point, runway, and cows.)

Monday will be a great flight, too. They're giving me an airplane and one hour to do whatever I want with it (within safety, of course). Any suggestions?