My flight school is located at a class D airport. It is fairly busy... not too bad for practicing touch and go's but it can get a little difficult for me to work the radios in the pattern if tower gives me more complicated request (complicated for a noobie).
Last Saturday we flew to a nearby airport that had some decent crosswinds. My approaches are not great but are getting better. This was my first time flying to this airport. I came in high everytime though my landings were actually pretty decent. Protected the nose gear, did not hit the mains hard, and straightened the nose pretty well before touchdown.
Well... yesterday we did touch and go's at my airport (which we have done before several times). I am getting better at flying pattern.
Winds were calm but we may of actually had a 3 knot tailwind based on the windsock (That is what my CFI said). Tower had that runway operating though...
1st landing - approach was not good. Was a little low, added some power in then came in too high. Also was a little fast. My round out is decent but the last bit of flare is bad. We were a little high when the plane lost the remaining airspeed to fly and dropped. I don't know how high... maybe 1'-2'? We hit pretty hard on the mains actually. Hardest I have hit on landing to date.
2nd landing - approach still was not great. Similar to first approach. A little high and slightly fast. I do not remember much about the landing, other than it sucked. I think we had a little bit of a side load on touch down. I am trying my best to work the rudder to keep nose straight.
3rd landing - Approach was better but not quite on point where it should be. Came in a little high again, speed was slightly fast (approx. 70 kias) Round out was good. I do not remember much about this landing, but when I debriefed with my CFI he said this one was not too bad.
4th landing - Approach was pretty good. Downwind I maintained pattern altitude (1,000') 90 KIAS, abeam touchdown power 1700, 10 flaps, pitch for 80. Then 70 KIAS at 20 flaps, and then 65 KIAS at 30 flaps. Maintained a good glide slope. Roundout was good. I was bleeding off airspeed, I'm look down the end of the runway trying to use peripheral vision then all the sudden boom! We landed flat, maybe a touch forward on front gear and it bounced us up. The senior CFI who I did a prog. check with said if you bounce to not nose down but just to hold steady back pressure.
Well, I kind of just held the yoke in place. Did not dive forward, but did not pull back enough to break the porpoise. We bounced 3 times.... My CFI pulled back on the yoke to help protect the nose gear. This wasn't a high porpoise (Maybe a couple feet.... not like 5'+). I thought this was going to be the good one... my approach was MUCH better than all the others.
Ironically, all of my previous landings have been with some wind (at least 7 +) and have pretty much ALL been better than these 4.
I have watched tons of videos on youtube, have read different tips, etc. I know one tip I saw was to look out the side of the window to try and see a "pizza" (between the dash and side of the window so you have a better view of the horizon).
What do you guys suggest? I transition my aiming point from when I roundout to the end of the runway. I can watch 100's of videos on landings, but ultimately I guess it just comes down to doing LOTS of them to get better. I just don't want to damage the plane in the process!