When I was doing some work for a company at Love Field, there was a "vulture's row" deck overlooking one of the runways. Watching Southwest come in, you can tell the difference between Navy and Air Force pilots. A Navy pilot comes in exactly on speed, touches down exactly on the markers and gets off at the first taxiway. An Air Force pilot touches down somewhere between the target and 1000' further and rolls to the end. All the rubber on the runway past 1500' was left there by an air force pilot.
That's the difference between pilots who are trained to land on a 500' pitching runway and one that is trained to land on a 10,000 ft runway.
Well 7 hours into my flight training I was feeling pretty good. Doing well on my maneuvers, really controlling the plane in the air. Communicating well with ATC. Today I said let’s practice touch and go’s. My flight instructor said sure and off we went. Well holy **** did I get slammed with some humble pie. I have some well on landings at the end of my lessons but this was totally different. Working the pattern and handling everything needed while in the pattern is tough but fitting some big gusts of wind while trying to do it was definitely overwhelming. I was sweating trying to handle it all and after we finished I was pretty down on myself. My instructor said I did fine, no rough landings, no failed landings. A couple of bounces and a lot of crabbing. But I thought I would do better in my head. Anyway tomorrow is another day just looking for some encouragement. Thanks everyone.
As someone at the literal beginning of training I find your post pretty inspiring actually. You are 7 hours in and when hit with a new challenge you handled it. Being humble in the air is probably a solid virtue too. Good job!
A go around is not a failed landing.
A go around is not a failed landing.