Commercial Update: In Full Swing

It seems like I'm finally back in "full swing" on my commercial license. I've put myself on the schedule for Saturday and Sunday afternoons for the next month and a half (with the exception of one weekend -- seems like someone has the plane on both days), as well as on Tuesdays and Thursdays after work. The after work commute up to Paine Field will be tough, since I'll have to go up on I-405, which can be at a standstill during rush hour. But, during my days as a private and instrument student, I had to commute during rush hour on the 405 for ground school, so hopefully the knowledge of traffic patterns on the highway will help me out.

On the practical test preparation side, my landings seem to be getting consistently better. During the first after-work lesson, my CFI Kurtis and I went into Whidbey Airpark (locally known as "Langley") in the Arrow to work on short field technique. Langley is a quite difficult paved strip on Whidbey Island just across Puget Sound from Everett; the runway is 2470x25 ft, which on the surface does not sound all that bad. However, access to the airport is difficult because of trees in all four quadrants. In fact, at Langley, you land to the North and take off to the South -- even if the wind conditions would indicate otherwise. And, sometimes, you don't go there at all. Check out the AirNav Photo of the field to see for yourself -- but the photo doesn't really do it too much justice. Langley, by the way, is one of the favorites for Pilot Examiners for real-world short field testing: I had to demonstrate the ability to land there, in a Cessna 172, for my private checkride.

Aerial maneuvers are going OK as well. Historically chandelles have been my strongest maneuver, and I'm doing just fine there. Steep turns turned out most excellent as well -- not sure if that was just luck, or if I really did them quite well. :-) I'm getting better at lazy-eights as well, although these do need some work to stay within the PTS standards. And, during the next lesson, we'll be tackling steep spirals and eights-on-pylons -- the two things that I probably need the most work on (and incidentally have had the least practice on in the past).