Tuesday 8th May
Those weather "gods" kept on smiling but only just. After almost a week of settled weather with cool nights and beautifully sunny days frontal weather was on its way again and it looked as though I would be lucky to do any flying - my last chance for the next few weeks as we (my wife and I) are off to the UK shortly for four weeks.
The stratus cloud over Tauranga stayed nice and high so visibility was not a problem although it would not last long - out East over the Coromandel Peninsula it already looked wet and miserable. The wind was 020ยบ at 13 knots, so about 10 knots of crosswind off runway 07. Instructor Pete reckoned we should be OK so off we went into the circuit (right hand off 07 at Tauranga).10 knots probably doesn't sound much but it is enough to make things interesting in a taildragger - they can be very unforgiving if you relax your attention as I had found a few months back when I did probably my worst ever landing in any plane, not just the Stearman.
We spent about 40 minutes in the circuit which was enough for 6 laps - some a little wider than I would have liked due to traffic and, I ended up pleasantly surprised with one pretty near perfect (for me) landing, 3 acceptable, one a bit bouncy (the first) and one not so good. I have tendency to round out a bit high (I am working on it) with a touch heavy arrival the result. Coupled with a bit of loss of direction on the roll it meant a bit of playing with the rudder pedals before getting straight to complete the "go" part of the touch and go. At least I got it sorted out myself without instructor help.
All in all I was pretty pleased with my efforts. I managed to keep straight down the runway on short final each time with the controls "crossed" (as you do for crosswinds in a tailwheel plane) without drifting off he centreline enough to cause anxiety - much better than my last go in a crosswind some months ago. Pete was pleased with my progress, too. After a coffee and eggs and bacon at the Avgas Cafe it was back into the car for the trip home - through a few heavy showers - the rain had come!
