Today was an interesting day. I had the day off, but Michael was out of town, so I decided to do a solo flight just staying in the pattern working on the same soft/short field takeoffs and landings that we did last time. Unlike last time, the winds were up in the 12 knot range and the active runway was 33. Larry described this runway as "not the best" for doing precision landings. I also had to use N80790, the oldest of the three plans and the one I have the least time in.
Taking off just before me was Larry and a student of his, a Japanese national who's English was not the best, in N64962. They flew off to the practice area while I started doing my touch and gos. The tower told me to make left closed traffic... and somehow I went right. No idea why, left is always easier so he gave me what I wanted... and I just spaced it. Luckily I was the only person in the pattern so it didn't make a difference.
After a short while, 962 returned, did one circuit of the pattern, then landed full stop. Apparently the Japanese guy was doing a solo and Larry was just checking him out to make sure he was capable, because as soon as they taxied to parking, he called on the radio indicating he was going to come back to take off again. Up to this point, his radio work, taxiing, landings, and flying had been perfect.
So I'm flying downwind for 33 and I hear the tower tell 962 to turn onto taxiway Charlie for runway 33. This is all normal. But then as I'm turning base, I hear him inform 962 that he's turned onto the wrong taxiway and that he is now on Delta (a taxiway that intersects the runway I'm lining up for). He tells me to exercise caution then instructs 962 to turn around and head back the way he came. I'm on final at this point, and I can see 962 still taxiing towards my runway. The tower starts getting pretty agitated as the guy is heading towards the hold line and a runway incursion. He's yelling into the radio, "962 stop. Stop moving right now. Stop now 962!" Meanwhile I'm getting pretty close to landing and have to decide what I'm going to do. Because of all the nonsense going on with 962, I was coming in a bit high, anticipating a go-around. When he finally did stop, just short of the hold line, I went ahead and did a touch-and-go without incident.
Behind me, the tower is now instructing 962 to make a left turn onto runway 15/33 and back taxi to the end for a departure from 33. As I'm climbing out away, I hear tower say, "962 where are you going?" and I look back to see him still on Delta, having crossed 15/33. Tower is totally annoyed at this point and sets him up for a departure on runway 2. I volunteer to go out to the VOR and orbit while he gets the mess taken care of, but he says it probably wouldn't help. I felt sorta bad for the Japanese guy, I think this was clearly just a language barrier problem; his flying seemed very solid. The tower was being really helpful as well, speaking very slowly and repeating instructions. It turns out this was the guy's second solo ever, so I imagine he was feeling the pressure and it was just too much when combined with the language barrier.
Anyway that was the end of 962's exciting taxi antics; he took off from 2 and went back out to the practice area and I didn't see him again while I was up. I got 14 total circuits of the pattern in, every time trying to do either a precision landing or a soft-field landing or both. I did a few soft-field takeoffs, but there's not really much to them. I wasn't very happy with my landings; doing tricky landings turns out to be hard with a bit of crosswind in an unfamiliar plane and the weird sloped runway of 33. I made some progress but wasn't totally happy with it. I'll need more work on this, I imagine Michael and I will work on it some more when I fly again on Sunday (weather permitting).
Just to add to the excitement for today, I started losing my radio reception towards the end. At the takeoff end of 33, I couldn't really hear what the tower was saying and he was really choppy. Apparently he could hear my just fine, but over the course of my last three circuits, the problem seemed to get worse. Couldn't find a cause on board, so I decided to switch to my backup radio... only to find that the small tuning knob was being wonky and I was unable to tune in the tower frequency. Great. I actually had to call for a light signal for permission to land. At that point, I was done.
Taxied back, which was fun because the plows hadn't done a great job on the ramp; there were significant ice chunks and berms of snow to navigate through. Pushing the plane back into its parking space was a real chore; I couldn't push very effectively because of the ice, I had no help, and occasionally I'd get a wheel chocked on some ice and have to either kick it free or back up and maneuver around it. Not easy with the tow bar. Eventually Larry saw me struggling through the window and came out to give me a push. I told him about the issues with his student (who was still out flying) and with my radio. He powered the plane up and tested the radios and couldn't replicate the reception problem. He told me that the knob on that second radio had always been touchy and showed me how to work past it. He also said he'd take the plane up later today and try to replicate the reception problem.
Quite an off-nominal day. Wow.
