A bit better - short field take offs and landings

No bruised egos, battered expectations, hugely and unexpectedly botched landings today.

Learned about short field take offs and landings. Needless to say, with my recent experiences I listened VERY carefully and took many notes as my CFI described the process, things to be careful about and things to focus on. Then we went out to try.

Started off with one round with normal take off and landing with me flying, just to see how well I was holding my pitch ... actually did a good circuit of the pattern with my CFI in the plane! I was beginning to wonder if I could do that with him in the plane anymore. That certainly helped with my confidence for the session.

Then he did a round demonstrating, then my turn a couple times through. Did each one with a varying level of success. Actually managed one or two relatively "soft" landings.. soft as far as shortfield landings go. Two go-arounds too... but the best part was. I didn't fall apart, I didn't beat myself up, and I got to learn something new.

I also got a prescription for how to address something that's happened to me recently, I've started to distrust myself and what certain pitches look like for certain airspeeds, started chasing that damned airspeed indicator. So, next flight, time to go high and re-set in my mind what airspeeds look like (yes, strange to say airspeeds "look", but they do) and see how long it takes for the airspeed indicator to tell the truth.

Looking forward to it :)