Date & Time: Thursday, 19th June, 1997, 18:00 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 1.0 hours solo. Running logbook total: 18.7 hrs, 3.3 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

Where did all the grease go?
   Lunchtime today had been wet and thundery, as the weather is wont to do in these parts. However, as the day went on to the point where I decide whether I would go to the airport or not, I checked the weather and found it was going to be a good day for flying after all. The storms had cleared out, the clouds that were around were high up in the air. The towering cumulus in the distance wasn't headed our way, either, and the weather radar was clear. But there was wind. Ellington's METAR report said it was 150 degrees at 12 knots. I got to the airport, thinking 'here we go, I bet it's a direct crosswind' but I was wrong. It was coming barreling down Runway 13, with the windsock extended. There was no sign of the squirrely winds we had on Saturday morning, but there were some gusts and lulls in the wind, but they weren't bad enough to stop me doing touch and goes. So I got the airplane fuelled, preflighted and taxied out to join the 152 that was also doing touch and goes.
   I couln't believe how quickly the airplane left the ground! I was at 1000 feet halfway through crosswind - the headwind  combined with the lack of instructor's weight really had made an appreciable difference. I was climbing out at around Vy (73 knots in our 172), and of course my ground speed would have been 12 knots less than that if the reported wind was still doing as reported. I did 6 touch-and-goes, none of them elegant, but none of them bad either. I was searching for that sweet touchdown again, but every time it looked good, the wind would either pick up or drop, and I'd end up bumping down or bouncing a little. At least I was reacting more quickly to it than I was on Saturday. My base leg was well crabbed into the wind, as at this point it was a direct crosswind trying to shove me off towards Clear Lake. I also applied some wisdom my instructor had imparted on our last gusty session "you can add 5 knots to your approach speed for pucker factor", so I did this. This helped my approaches - I had them pretty well nailed on the centerline all the way in. By now I needed a break, so I exited the pattern to the east for our practise area. I saw someone else headed there too, so I stayed a little to the north of it, so I made a climbing turn to gain altitude to cool off, and did a little ground reference work using the shoreline nearby (the strong wind gave a nice crab angle).
   The other aircraft had by now left the practise area (I think it must have been Chris, one of the part-owners of the club's Piper Arrow pracising manuevers for his commercial), so I climbed out and made sure I could still do slow flight OK (hadn't done it right down to 55 knots for a while). This worked out well, so I decided to come back in, since I had been out for nearly an hour. I couldn't make any traffic reports as some student at La Porte had their mike stuck (I could hear a lady's voice saying "I think our time's about up...I can't hear my voice through my headset...shall I broadcast anyway?" followed by another lady's voice saying "I can hear you fine, go ahead", followed by a traffic call for La Porte. I think this unstuck their mike button because the frequency cleared up). I quickly made a call for base for a full-stop for 13. It seemed there was less headwind - I was having to hold less crab angle than before. I turned final, and made my radio call, I could feel why...we now had a crosswind. I could see the windsock near the 13 end which confirmed the 45 degree crosswind/headwind we had. I made a great approach - I banked into the wind and held a straight course for the centerline with the rudder, making slight adjustments as the wind gusted a little. I kept in the extra 5 knots of extra "pucker factor" airspeed, and had my glideslope stable. I pulled the throttle all the way back - it was going to be a nice, power off crosswind landing!
   Time to flare. I played with it, looking a little to the side to judge my height. Then all of a sudden, the wind must have died and the bottom fell out of it! The wheels thumped down and I bounced. I managed to get the nose down and prevent the bounce from getting high, but the wind decided to give me a brief gust, and then having gotten that under control, the bottom fell out of it again, and I bounced for a second time. By this time I could hear Lee's voice in my head "You're giving up! Keep pulling back and play with it! It won't get better all by itself! Keep using the elevator!" My third quick landing in succession wasn't too bad as I got the yoke right the way back before the wheels touched down this time.
   As I rolled out (surprisingly I didn't stray much from the centerline through all this bouncing) Chris called on the radio (he'd landed moments before) "Good job!". I replied "hmmm... I think that was just about my worst landing."
"Well, it looked OK from here anyway - the approach was certainly nice"
"Yeah, it was good - but I didn't really 'touch' down..."
After we had both secured our respective aircraft, I spoke to him, and he told me that I would really learn how to do crosswind landings at Houston Gulf. I agreed heartily! I related my bouncing story to him, and I could see that he had plenty of familiarity with the sort of thing I had just described...

Conclusion.
   Well, my first session of gusty takeoffs and landings - and despite the bouncer at the end, it went pretty well (I wonder if I can record that as three landings in my logbook...?). I just need some more sessions like that so I can get lots of practise at flaring with a variable windspeed.

What was learned.
   Don't fly like a robot - I found it was good to apply some flexibility with the winds as they were. Crabbing into the wind on base and a shorter final worked wonders for my approaches into the headwind. I didn't use any more than 20 degrees of flaps in any of my landings because it was enough for all of them. The extra five knots helped controllability in those gusts, and although my touch and goes weren't greasers, they weren't bad either because of it.
    I need to work more on my usage of the elevator during flare. Lee's words drifiting through my head on my final bouncer were absolutely right. I just wasn't giving it enough. Next time I go out I'll say "don't give up...don't give up..." to myself all the way during flare...
   I'm glad I got to go out today - the wind made it more interesting, even though I never got that really satisfying squeaker of a landing made during this session. At least my fear of the turbulence off 13 has subsided so I can put my mental energy into getting the approach nice (I've really learned in the past few sessions that a good approach goes a long way to getting a good landing).