Crabbin' 'n' Slippin' in an Echo Super

In an effort to expand my horizons I booked a flight with an instructor in a Tecnam Echo Super.
The photo above is what the airplane looks like, it's not the one I flew. It's a basic high wing design that resembles a small Cessna. It was cold at the airport and the wind was picking up. There would be crosswinds to deal with on our approaches. If not for the instructor on board I would have decided the winds were above my personal minimums. I did want to get checked out on the airplane so away we went. Once in the air we proceeded through slow flight, power off stalls and steep turns. The power off stall in the aircraft is sort of a non event. The airplane really does not break very hard and is easy to recover from if you keep it coordinated. That is different from stalling a Skyhawk. The steep turns were not my best but were acceptable. I also did some turns on slow flight. Our flight took us over the Chester River until we headed back toward the airport. The winds had picked up and there was a noticeable right crosswind on the runway.
It took me two go arounds before I could get lined up with the runway. Each of the previous approaches blew me left because I had turned onto final too soon. In addition I was trying to side slip the airplane all the way down on the final. I soon learned that while this might work for the Skyhawk, it wasn't the best method for the smaller plane.
I was well aware of the crab option on final that transitioned to a slip but had never needed it in the Skyhawk. Now it was time to try it out. I delayed me turn to final and then flew the airplane with its nose pointed to the right on the final approach. This crab allowed us to stay on the centerline track of the runway. Once we got to the short final I went into the side slip with the right wing low and the opposite rudder. The landings themselves were very smooth despite the crosswinds. The flight went well and I'll be finishing up my transition training in a subsequent flight.