Cory,
And how many times did you punch or elbow him??? Not enough room in a
65 150 to get a good swing at some one but the elbow works good. That
metal knee board across the forehead works pretty good too. On my
check ride for private pilot the examiner pulled the throttle back when
in the pattern on downwind. "You just lost your engine". I pushed it
back in and looked at him. "No I didn't" The third time I finally
realized. "Oh make believe I lost the engine". My husband had told me
the used to turn the plane off on you, but too many bad things had
happened so they stopped doing that. Always been flying my own plane
so I usually try to be careful. Any tricky stuff we'd better be in the
instructor's plane if he feels brave. Don't know if it's the
adrenaline but I've been known to pull knobs completely off, can break
plastic stuff real easy, so I try to be real gentle and easy. Had a
red neck ex-biker friend who would horse his little Piper Colt around
and get close to the runway eight or 10 feet above and do a hard flare
and come bouncing in. That convinced me easier is betterer.

The Ayuhtaollah of Aviation (my last instructor so far) got up to 6,000
feet one day over a little lake a couple of miles away from Coleman Tx,
KCOL I think, (just mostly go by the big pictures on the map), and we
throtlled back to an idle. We got to the airport with 2 or 3,000 feet
to spare and had to spiral down to the runway. That was the first time
he had ever made it. That little 150/150 with the STOL kit would float
real good. First similuated engine out on downwind, I went into a
little dive got to 120 MPH. What are you doing? He asked. Best glide
120 I said. On that glide trip from Hordes Creek Lake I experiented
and the best glide was what was published in the POH. Above or below
you'd gain rate of descent. That kind of made me a believer.

First flight in my 182 the Ayuhtalloah wanted me to do a tight turn.
Instead of cutting the throttle I just pulled the nose back til I got
to 85 knots cause I thought that was a good number and did a perfect 2
minute turn. We gained 3,000 feet with him pinned back in his seat
looking out all the windows with a real startled look on his face!!
First time that ever happened to him. Surprised the FBI or FAA has
been out here cause I've been calling him the Ayuhtollah since before
911. Every time I'd say "Oh God". He'd say "Yes". I'd say "You ain't
God, I already got one of those, but you can be the Ayuhtalloah of
Aviation".

He's a retired Air Froce flight engineer. Guess he's been replaced by
an E-6 type little hand held unit. Saves a lot of weight.

We'd be flying along and he'd make some weird noise and you were
supposed to think something was happeneing to the plane. first time he
did it I looked oevr at him with his mouth all scrunched up. "What the
heck are you doing?" First time he had ever got caught. Says he's
done it for years and people will sit up and look around. "What's that
noise?" "What noise?" What a bozo. If I can't enjoy myself flying, I
won't do it. You do have to pay attention of course. I usually fly
out in stix so there isn't much traffic. Most Military traffic here in
Brownwood MOA and hawks and buzzards dive bombing you if they're above
you.

Well take care. Foggy and rainy again. Probably be a month before I
can even think about flying. Have to go get the Doping manual out and
start working on that Champ project after I get some work done. I'm at
at-home medical transciptionist, everybody thinks it's great. Been
doing it 20+ years and it's still way too challenging, but seeing as
how I'm still learning on this job but have enough time left to learn a
new occupation. The only good part is I get to type for a hospital in
Alaska which if I try real hard I can envision myself there instead of
being in Texas when it's 118 degrees. Take care, God bless.