On my second flight we took off and as we climbed to 3,000 feet it was noticeably choppy. This was particularly annoying since all the weather reports and pilot reports (PIREPs) reported calm air. Not. Betsy explained this is due to uneven heating of the Earth's surface. Different fields, forests, towns, etc. capture and disperse heat at different rates. This differential causes updrafts which bounce the airplane around.
The scheduled lesson was slow flight. After establishing straight and level flight at cruise (100 kts), I trimmed the plane for flight at 80 kt, then did turns, a climb, and a descent at this speed. Repeat these maneuvers at 70kts. Then put out increasing amounts of flaps to slow the plane to 60kts. I could feel the plane get "mushy" -- harder to control. I was getting fairly frustrated as it was very difficult to maintain a given altitude. Betsy told me much of the issue was weather and not me. After a few minutes of trying to get stabilized in "slow flight" she decided I'd had enough and we headed for home.
Still didn't get to land. Looking forward to that. There was significant cross-wind. I got to just "help" handle the controls as Betsy landed us. Then I taxied us back to the ramp, shutdown, and secured the plane.
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