Mystery of weight and balance

As you can see in other post I took my wife with me. I know that I’m not supposed talk about weight in woman presence but one thing I learned is that Cherokees are very, very weight and balance sensitive. Plus those additional 150 lbs (wife and photo gear) made this bird really heavy.

Having her with me allowed for some additional help. She took a series of photos of one of my approaches.

As you can see the flare (second plane from the back) was definitely done way to soon and to much. Loose of airspeed, releasing the elevator (third plane) and sudden sink (fourth). Another panic elevator try (fifth plane) and long float in ground effect before she finally settles down on sixth. A lot of wasted runway. Yeah, yeah, now I know that. I always knew. Somehow I can’t make myself to do it right.

But I’ll get there before breaking club’s record to solo.

1.0h/0.0h inst : 7 to/ldg logged
19.9h/0.8h inst : 85 to/ldg total