Leaving the Cradle

This lesson really caught me off guard. I have been flying around in the pattern for the past 9 lessons. 9 Lessons!! That is to say 76 take off and landings all in a row. TOL has been my life and life has been good. (As of now I've done 86 landings but who's counting?)
Today however we left the pattern. He explained I was to do 4 maneuvers and bring her back for a handful of crosswind landings. Ok I told myself, I have just found myself in my most challenging lesson ever... stalls and crosswind landings. I haven't even thought about stalls in months and crosswinds have just been off the radar lately. Now, it was go time.
I performed the crosswind takeoff and climbed out to the southwest up to 2500 feet. First thing was a steep turn to the left. I bank it over to 45 degrees and in watching that attitude indicator with an intense focus I made the cardinal sin for steep turns. I let the nose drop. This starts a decent and I found myself in a really in a steep decending turn. Jeff points it out as I shallow out a bit and pull up feeling some Gs push me down into the seat. I keep in the turn and do a full 360 about face. Ok, that was a rookie mistake, I have to save face. I start another turn to the right and this one is right on, less than 100 feet of altitude loss. Bring it on.
Next is slow flight. I love slowflight. It is a technique to significantly slow the airspeed of the plane. In fact if there is a stiff headwind you can get the thing to practically hover! Slow flight is possible with a suitably high angle of attack and power setting. A high AOA is needed to create the required lift due to the reduced airflow, the high power setting is to overcome the drag induced by the larger cross sectional area presented to the airflow. I slowed her down perfectly... and captured a mere 45 knots with almost no altitude loss. Textbook! I was feeling good.
Now it was stall time. I am not ashamed to say stalls have made me uncomfortable since I met them. This is probably because the second time I performed one I got it into something called an incipient spin. Look it up, its bad. Good thing Jeff was in the plane because I freaked.
So a power off stall is just what it sounds like. It is a maneuver to pitch up the plane high enough to make the airflow separate from the wing, thereby causing a loss of lift. To recover all that is needed is to pitch the plane over to pick up airspeed and get the plane flying. Easy enough right? Just pitch the plane over as it falls from the sky. Piece of cake.
I reduced power, and threw in 30 degrees of flaps. I watch as the airspeed needle quickly sank and then against all instinct pulled the power. The plane quieted to hum and I began pitching up. The sky is all in the windshield and the stall horn began to cry out its horribly high pitch squeal. The frequency went even higher and silence... I was falling and the plane was pitching over. Ok, give it full power and presto! I'm flying agin.
The power off stall went perfectly... he even made me do a turning power off stall. It was awesome, I felt in control the entire time. I wonder though if I'd ever do one alone in the plane.
The power on stalls were less awesome. I had trouble getting them to "break". I'd just kind of hang in stall territory where the deck angle is high, the p factor is high and my speed is slow. It's not a good place to be. We called it off and headed back to the airport.
The entire time he was getting me to be more aware of my location relative to the airport. Pretty soon I'll be able to take the plane away to the practice area by myself and it'd be nice to know how to bring it back. It's amazing how tiny that airport looks from 5 miles and 1500 feet in the air.
I entered the pattern and got ready to land her in a gusty 9 knot crosswind. My first approach was good until the final 20 feet. I didn't apply enough rudder to align the body of the plane with the runway. I ended up placing on the ground slightly sideways. I correct once on the ground but that isn't great for the plane. I gave it full power and lifted up off with the yoke turned into the wind. I was off again.
For that entire set of landings I just was not compensating for the wind the way I should have been. I was being blown off course during the climbout and landing hard. Maybe my brain was full but it was a good experience. I got in 5 landings that night. It was a big lesson and I plan to do better this Sunday for my next. If all goes well he plans on giving me the combination to the hangar this weekend. I will be free to take the plane out, preflight it and fly it to the practice area and back. I am almost as anxious as I was for my solo!