Can't be perfect every time

I went out again this evening to try to get back on my streak of perfect landings. Conditions were pretty good; there was a 5-7 knot wind, but by the time I got out there, it was heading straight down the runway. So, not bad. I think the only thing that was a little disconcerting was the fact that it was SO busy!! There were huge backups both on the ground and in the air, and the controllers were just doing the best they could to get to everyone. I guess everyone wanted to be out.

So I went out, and decided just to get my 5 landings in -- I had originally thought about heading out to west of 280 and doing some maneuvers, but for some reason I thought that with the busy pattern, I didn't want to do anything that I might have trouble with, like leaving the airspace, and more importantly, having to re-enter it. So I stayed in the pattern.

My landings were OK, not exemplary, but decent. I bounced one, I got one perfect, and the rest all had small problems. The bounce was actually really small, and I recovered just fine. The final one was great, except that it was a couple of feet too high so I had a little bit of a thud -- not bad, just a little suboptimal. The only thing I really did wrong was I didn't properly pay attention to the ATC. She told me I was #3, and I assumed that meant I was cleared, which it didn't. She set me straight. Slight embarassment, but now I know -- I'd never been given a sequence number without a clearance before! And no harm done.

So, I have an actual lesson on Tuesday. Hopefully I can have my good landings that day so we don't have to spend so much more time on them.