Tom,

I'm always eager to hear a good tip like the add-on trickle charger you told me about. I hope I can remember that if I need it later.

I tried to connect here yesterday evening to let you all know how the day's lesson went, but the site was closed for upgrades or something.

My take-off pattern is no longer looking like a snake trail. There were no other fliers on the field yseterday so we walked out to the center of the runway for my take-offs. That helped me keep the line straighter and I think that if I gradually move further back toward the edge of the strip I can eventually keep it straight.

When I went to fly yesterday I almost knew I'd have to try the landing portion of the training. There's 2 things different about the plane now from what I was accustom to. One is that both ailerons are connected now and the other is that the radio couldn't be set to the low side of the dual rate feature. I had gotten sort of use to controlliong the plane with those differences,,, then...

Sure enough, Ron had me try his usual landing scheme of cutting power and gliding in toward the landing strip. I just couldn't get positioned properly over the strip after cutting power. I tried that several times without success. While doing that Ron had to save my bacon more than just a few times to keep me from crashing.

After remembering what Ron said, when we first started training, about telling him if I wanted to try something different, I thought it would be worth a try to fly around real slow for a while to get the feel of the controls at the slower pace. That's because it was very tough for me to make the transition from controlling the plane at its normal flying speed to controlling it at the idle speed for landing.

Anyway, Ron said it was OK to try that. So, after doing the slow thing for a while and gradually working my way closer to the runway I finally got close enough that he told me to cut power and to land.

I put it down with a pretty good bounce, and I let it go off the side of the runway after rolling on its wheels for a short time, but the plane stayed right side up the whole time and nothing was broken. I think the prop hit the runway, but it was still intact.

It wasn't exactly a professional looking landing but I think it was one that real people could have walked away from if they had been in the plane with their seat belts fastened real tight. I guess I can smile about that.

Ron was elated because I had made the take-off, the flight and the landing without him taking control with the buddy box. He said I was his first student to do all that with just 3 lessons. I was just relieved the plane was on the ground, right side up and still in one piece, but mainly that the landing was over with. ha

I think that Ron was shooting for me to make a landing during that particular training sesson for some reason because we stayed on the field quite a bit later than he usually likes to clean up the planes and go home.

It was getting closer to dark than on any other day we had flown and I wasn't sure I was up to another landing, so I suggested we have a Sprite. We used that drink as a celebration and time to reflect on the day's events. Besides, making another successful landing may have taken until midnight. ha Ron likes to end a training sesson on a good note. I have come to believe that is a very good idea!

The next training session will consist of take-offs and landings. I'm pretty sure he'll get some dead stick landing attempts in there too. I have the feeling I better try cutting the power while way up high and practicing slow speed approcahes and control.

I know I still have a lot to learn before Ron disconnests the buddy cord, but he told me he's not putting me on my own just yet. I let him know that was very reassuring to me.

I'm happy to see I'm making progress and I'm starting to look forward to each training session more than I did the previous one.

elad