passed Commercial checkride yesterday!

On Jun 15, 6:15 am, xyzzy wrote:
On Jun 14, 1:42 pm, "gatt" wrote:



"xyzzy" wrote in message

oups.com...

On Jun 14, 12:34 pm, "gatt" wrote:

In a 182--he says--rear pax can feel like their asses are dragging the
ashpalt if you hold the nose too high in the flare whereas in the Arrow it's
not so bad, but it's much more difficult to keep the nose wheel off without
bouncing.

Well, Cessnas do all seem to flare at a higher deck angle than
pipers. I've been in the backseat of a 172 that was being landed in a
crosswind by a commercial pilot, and I can understand exactly what he
means. Pipers do land more airliner-like IMO.

Must be that high wing low wing thing. A lot of the Cessnas I fly
have the front gear shock pumped right up so you have to be quite nose
high when you flare to avoid a 3 pointer or a nose wheel bounce.
Agree about Pipers though, with them its more a matter of getting into
ground effect and letting it settle in its own time.

gatt wrote:
Only flew for 1.9 (eventful) hours. After we landed, the examiner said
"Well, the problem with this airplane is that you can't do a landing gear
failure. In most planes, you can disable the landing gear and make the pilot
manage that extra stress and workload while setting up to land."

So I showed him the little tab to pull the circuit breaker on the landing
gear and he just looked at me. "Guess I need to get to know the airplanes
better."
Now I suppose everybody he tests in the future has a reason to hate me, but
I told him that it didn't matter, because the FBO owner doesn't let anybody
fly the airplane until he's pulled the circuit on them and the first time he
did it to me, I thought it was a genuine failure. In fact, every instructor
I'd ever been with up in the Arrow did it, so any of the applicants there
will have gone through that whole drill.

I spent WAY too much time memorizing chapter and verse of Part 135, 121,
etc. He said he doesn't dwell on that stuff because if you go to work for
a Part 135 operator, it's all in their own manual and you have to learn it
then anyway. Meanwhile, my brain broke on the most basic stuff, like
needing Mode C over the top of Charlie airspace up to 10,000 ft.

He apologized for not knowing about the landing gear circuit breaker tab,
but I don't feel short changed; his oral exam was more like a discussion,
and the checkride was more like a lesson such that by the end of it I was
able to demonstrate that I could do everything he asked.

By the time we got back, I knew I was a much better pilot for the
experience. I definately felt like I put way too much stress and paranoia
into preparation for the exam which translated into "checkride-itis." Way,
way easier than the Instrument checkride.

Woohoo! On Monday I start working on CFI.

-c
CP-ASEL-IA


Congratulations on the good ride. Sounds like you learned the first
valuable lesson for the CFI from this examiner as well when he admitted
he learned something from YOU on the ride.
A good CFI (in this case a good examiner) is always engaged in an
ongoing process of self learning and self evaluation both as a pilot and
as a teacher.
Go for it!!
Dudley Henriques

gatt wrote:

By the time we got back, I knew I was a much better pilot for the
experience. I definately felt like I put way too much stress and paranoia
into preparation for the exam which translated into "checkride-itis." Way,
way easier than the Instrument checkride.

Congrats! You are now licensed to try to get a job working for someone
for less money then your time is worth!


Woohoo! On Monday I start working on CFI.

CFI training is a lot of fun. I learned a lot. My only problem with it
is that after all of that training, you have to take the checkride. I
take my checkride on Monday and I've already got an upset stomach.

Anyone got any suggestions or advice?


-m
--
## Mark T. Dame
## CP-ASEL, AGI
## insert tail number here
## KHAO, KISZ
"Unix gives you just enough rope to hang yourself -- and then a
couple of more feet, just to be sure."
-- Eric Allman

"... We make rope."
-- Rob Gingell on Sun Microsystem's new virtual memory.

"Mark T. Dame" wrote in message
...
Woohoo! On Monday I start working on CFI.

CFI training is a lot of fun. I learned a lot. My only problem with it
is that after all of that training, you have to take the checkride. I
take my checkride on Monday and I've already got an upset stomach.

Anyone got any suggestions or advice?


Thanks and good luck, Mark!

-Chris

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:27:08 -0700, Jim Stewart wrote:

This is something of a mystery to me as well. I've spent most of my stall
training dancing on the rudder keeping the nose pointed straight.

You're sure this is "stall training" as opposed to "slow flight"? The
latter serves a different purpose than merely learning how to recover from
stalls.

It's
occurred to me that rather than playing with an impending stall, I
should develop the habit of breaking it right away.

That's what my stall training was all about. However, this developed
something of a fear of stalls in me. I subsequently did spin training.
This helped a lot with the stall fear (since I'd experienced the "bad
thing that could happen"). But not completely.

Then I "checked out" a CFI before I let him fly with my wife. We did PPL
PTS stuff, including stalls. He noticed how rushed I was in breaking the
stall, and concluded - correctly - that I was too apprehensive. So we sat
in a stall for a while. Unlike my spin training, we stayed coordinated.
And nothing happened (but for some altitude loss {8^).

So while the habit of breaking a stall right away is a good one, it's also
a good idea to get at least somewhat comfortable with it as well.

- Andrew

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:04:43 -0700, gatt wrote:

I jumped out the door at 5,000 feet and watched it
land beneath me next to the drop zone.

See? The point is that we should fly in a way that *doesn't* have
passengers that eager to jump out.

- Andrew

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:34:19 -0700, gatt wrote:

He emphasized that a single bad landing can turn off a prospective GA
enthusiast forever

I get around this by making up some excuse about why we're going to land
hard. I usually say something about practicing a landing on a specific
point, or how the bounces will help clean the airplane, or some such.

- Andrew

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:34:19 -0700, gatt wrote:

He emphasized that a single bad landing can turn off a prospective GA
enthusiast forever

I get around this by making up some excuse about why we're going to land
hard. I usually say something about practicing a landing on a specific
point, or how the bounces will help clean the airplane, or some such.

LOL! I like it.

"We're gonna shake loose the gremlins."

-c

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:34:19 -0700, gatt wrote:

He emphasized that a single bad landing can turn off a prospective GA
enthusiast forever

I get around this by making up some excuse about why we're going to land
hard. I usually say something about practicing a landing on a specific
point, or how the bounces will help clean the airplane, or some such.

- Andrew

LOL

That's a keeper! And of course, I'll use it as my own when I get around to
shaking off 20+ years of rust--I may need all of the excuses that I can
find.

Peter

Peter Dohm wrote:

That's a keeper! And of course, I'll use it as my own when I get around to
shaking off 20+ years of rust--I may need all of the excuses that I can
find.

If my landing is "firmer" than I anticipate, I mention how in certain
conditions it's better to get the plane firmly seated on the pavement
than to float along to a greaser. I then use whatever means necessary
to justify how we were currently in those conditions. G