I think that I made nearly every mistake in the book years back when I first learned to fly. I did not crash however. My mother told me back in the 1930's my father crashed three times in the Royal Air Force. Tiger Moth etc. Crashing in those days was not so big a deal. It was not unusual! One thing my instructor used to say was that I landed too fast. He would demonstrate this by his taking over after I landed and hauling the aircraft back in the air, flaring and landing it again. Landing too fast takes too much rubber off the tires. As regards xwind landings, that was also hard for me to learn. I took 14 hours to solo but after a while a good x wind landing becomes natural. And then there's learning to fly a helicopter which I did not have patience for.....that's another kettle of fish altogether. Enjoy the ride!
