Today I got to the airport for some more takeoff and landing practice. The wind was pretty much aligned with the runway but it varied a little in strength and direction. The sky was filled with white, puffy, Cumulus clouds. While these clouds don't signal bad weather they do show that the atmosphere is "unstable." The clouds are formed by rising warm air that has been heated by the ground, which in turn has been heated by the sun. Below the cloud base the air is turbulent.
After takeoff the ride was probably the bumpiest I've been on in the Cessna. I got pushed up, down, and sideways. I came around for a landing and bounced down the descent and into the flare. The landing was crosswind and I side loaded the mains a bit when I touched down. I was up for another try at a "good" landing. The wind couldn't decide just which way exactly it wanted to blow and how strong it wanted to be. I took off again and got pushed by the turbulence into a 10 degree roll. I came back around the pattern and concentrated on a stabilized descent. I got what I desired and locked in some left aileron and right rudder to keep the alignment on the crosswind. As I approached the runway I refined my slip and made sure I was aligned. I waited for the speed to decay and flared. I was rewarded by a good but not great crosswind landing. I kept a stabilized and center line aligned descent and got down pretty soft on the mains before letting the nose wheel down.
I decided not to press my luck and taxied back to the tie downs. Only 0.4 Hours and 2 landings but I'll take that on a challenging solo day.
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