Today was both harder and easier than I expected.

The day started at 0700 well below minimums, but the forecast was for better weather at 10.

They were right.

Clear to 7000 but with a wind at 330 at 7 knots. Cool.

Did the preflight, found water, drained a bit more, found just a trace of water, called the hangar guy, he drained a LOT more, we let it settle, no water. OK!.

Takeoff was pretty good, we flew south and did some turns. The wind made it a bit harder to do ’em smoothly, but I managed. S-turns with the wind weren’t too bad, but then the gusts started. 7 knots gusting to 27. I still made a decent s-turn both starting to the left and to the right, although my altitude control could have been better. I now see why this is a skill I need to master.

Turns around a point were ok, but could have been better. I kept my distances fairly well, but the gust made that a LOT harder than it should have been. Again, my altitude control sucked. I was up and down around the circle, gaining and losing about 200 feet. We also did some practice approaches flying with a road as a simulated runway from 3000′ to about 1500 feet. Again, the wind made me work to keep my course. This was the first time I felt like I was fighting to maintain my course.

Then we did some pattern work, The gusts were more frequent. and my approach was ok, but my course control as I flew over the runway at 100′ was…lacking. Again, I was fighting the gusts. Mike decided to do the landing and demonstrated a crosswind landing on runway 36, with the wind at 320. I understand the concept but need some practice to maintain my heading like that.

My taxiing continues to improve. One thing I did was to hold onto the dash with my left hand so I didn’t start to try to steer with my hand instead of my feet…until I needed aileron to fight the wind.
I’m also figuring out when to use the nosewheel and when to use the brakes to steer, and when to blend them.

1.5 hours.

The backlash against the NFL.

Good.

I may have to go buy a suit. 

Months ago: A white kid goes to a black church and shoots some worshippers and we get all sorts of coverage on the media and then a condemnation of all things Confederate because in ONE Facebook post he was wearing something with a Confederate flag on it….

Days ago: We get a (black) Sudanese immigrant who posted several posts Pro Jihad and then goes and shoots several people in a (mostly) white church and the press does all it can to bury the incident at all, and COMPLETELY ignores the pro Jihadi pats of his Social Media…and does their best to downplay the fact that he is an immigrant.

Odd that, Innit?

In the NFL debacle.

Seems that enough fans have requested refunds from DirecTV Sunday Ticket that the company has made it a policy to refund the money of subscribers who wish to cancel their subscription over the NFL anthem idiocy.

Good.
Hit the NFL folks where they will feel it most:
In the bank account. They’ll notice than. Betcha they change their tune when their revenues drop by 30%.

A thought occurred to me…..(yes, it happens, sometimes even twice in a week).

If Colin Kapernick had simply waited a year, he’d be on a contract and making somewhere north of $20 million a year.

And he could have taken a great deal of that money and used it to actually DO something to improve the situation of young black men. Maybe teach ’em a trade or teach ’em how not to look like a Yo and get the attention of police or something. I dunno.

I do know that he could have made a greater difference had he been a player in the NFL than he is now….which is nothing. He now has zero effect on the situation he was protesting. He hasn’t fixed a thing, and now never will.

And had he taken that path his adoptive (white) mother who raised him with the best of everything wouldn’t hate him and be embarrassed by him now.

Rightspeak is ok, badspeak is not:

Just a few short days ago  the Leftists were all for shutting down free speech when the National Socialists were doing their stupidity……

Yet today, we are supposed to support Free Speech ’cause this time it is for a Good Cause or something  when the NFL idiots did their little tantrum.

And the Leftists aren’t even smart enough to realize the irony. 

Ordering the players to stand and respect the Anthem is a BadThing. .

But ordering the players to stay inside the locker room in a half-hearted, half-assed, cowardly display of not taking a stand is ok.
Double standards of the leftists. 

So the assholes NFL players (and, by their support, the owners, managers, and NFL management) think that it is OK to protest the (perceived) bad treatment of some black me by officers: To wit the deaths when resisting arrest or otherwise failing to comply with lawful orders…..In other words, instead of taking their lumps when caught, they run, fight, kick, resist, scream, spit, struggle and endanger the officers who are arresting them.  
Perhaps they are right, and some officers target young black me. Or it could be that young black men make themselves a target by their actions and how and where they drive. Not part of my point here.

Are these National police? Are they Federal cops?

Nope most of the cops who interact with the groups that they claim (although statistics don’t bear it out) are disproportionally killing black men are LOCAL cops.

So why are they disrespecting a National symbol? Hating on their country? Why not blame their local government? You know, the one that they have the power to elect or replace? 

The Steelers player with the biggest balls is Alejandro Villanueva.

He did what he thought was right, and went against his teammate’s wishes.

I respect him for that.

Make no mistake, I think his teammates are cowards. Either stand, or kneel, but don’t hide. Next time, make your position known.

Landings, that is. Glad that wasn’t MY aircraft today.

Still no wind, so still no turns around a point. Today we did some reviews of skills I had learned previously and then just flew. I am getting better, smoother, and am learning more about flying. Climbs, descents, turns. All getting smoother and my power management is better.

Then some patterns.

My first landing today was a very smooth touch and go. If I could do it like that every time, I’d be happy.

The second one….not so much.

Approach was good, but I flared about 20 feet too high I was 10 feet off the runway when the stall horn went off and I ran out of airspeed….And bounced. Hard. then sideways, then hard on the runway. I didn’t damage the aircraft, but, as I said, I’m glad it was someone else’s plane. Pretty sure I know what I did wrong.

7.7 hours, 3 (or 4, depending) landings.