On May 4, 3:07 am, kontiki wrote:

Good for you. I see too many pilots avoiding windy days. You are
building a lot of confidence and experience. When you start doing
it a few times you learn you can land a spam can in some pretty
gusty/windy conditions and even make it look well executed.

Yeah, the pattern was nearly empty. A couple of people came in, did a
landing or two and then left, complaining that it was too bumpy. I get
it. Images of pranged airplanes certainly come to mind, but I think
maybe sometimes people are just a little too cautious. (It's like that
NYT article posted here last week. The author said that GA is getting
safer, but people are getting more risk-averse faster.)

I also would never have subjected my fiancee to a ride like that just
for fun -- though there are some exes....

As an aside, it got me musing about what it means to fly an aircraft.
Too many pilots, I think, especially of high performance and heavily
wing-loaded AC think of it as driving around the sky. In reality, it's
always going to be a negotiation between you and that big ocean of
air. Sure, you could keep that AC perfectly straight and level on a
gusty day, but you'll end up working pretty hard for it, and getting a
less comfortable ride in the process.

-- dave j