"More of That"

Today's debrief... "more of that" :) Finally, today, I put together a 100% whole solid very good pattern. I danced the edge all the way around. Kept my airspeed constant during the climbing turns and finally (yet again) listened to what he meant when he kept saying to check the extended runway center line against the instrument panel to know if I'm high or low on base. The last two pieces finally came together. He even said the word "perfect" today about my climb out and turn and leveling off on downwind. I never thought I'd hear him utter that word.

Oh, not to say I didn't screw up too... first time around the pattern my climb pitch was wrong.. the warmer weather required a different pitch and I refused to believe the instruments, then I was WAY too low on base because of an extended downwind and didn't fix that quick enough. Second time too low again... Third time around the climb out and through downwind was perfect, but I screwed up final, came in way too high and did a go-around (which was almost done right... cram, CLIMB, clean!). Fourth time blew past pattern altitude by 100ft, but fixed it.

My landings weren't as incredibly awesome as they had been.. bounced twice on the first landing, flat on the second, third.. go around.. fourth, actually landed and exited on Delta for a change. Fifth I could have made Delta, but, my CFI was so happy about how good that pattern was he decided to end on a high note.

But it was so cool... I finally danced the whole pattern. That same feeling that got my landings good... those many many little adjustments throughout the process that made it very good. Made it good enough the debrief was simply "more of that" and we both smiled.

I'm smiling still.