The Pre-Checkride
So close! The day of the checkride was coming up on Friday, and Thursday evening we were out again practicing maneuvers. To say the least I was a bit anxious, especially given yesterday's (see previous post) failure on the simulated checkride because of a botched emergency approach and landing. The focus of Thursday's lesson was just that: emergency landing, together with a review of lazy eights, and of course, eights on pylons. This time, we north of Everett, and our practice area was between Paine Field and Skagit County Airport.
How did the first emergency approach and landing go? Well, I again overshot a bit... I was actually really disappointed in myself at this point, because I should have judged the distance to the field much better. And, there were no obstacles at the beginning of the field to provide any kind of excuse for the lack of good performance. The next one was not much better either -- all because I somehow insisted of flying the pattern too close to the field. Of course, that, combined with the fact that I was making the approach just like a power-off 180 meant that I was not losing as much altitude in the descending turn. And hence, the overshoot. Once I figured this out, and managed to get it in my head, things started going better.
Power-off 180 accuracy approach landings were still a bit dicey. Out of 4, I think I made two within PTS limits, although the other two were not too far off -- but they were off, and I was not feeling too confident.
Nevertheless, I was to meet my instructor tomorrow, at 10am, to get officially signed off. My CFI was confident that I would be a commercial pilot in less than 24 hours!!
posted by Seattle Pilot @ 21:24
1 Comments:
After failing my commercial single engine add-on, I’ve been trying to find any available reference of steep right spirals - and my effort has been to absolutely no avail. Which has been very frustrating, but I did find your site and think you’ve got a good thing going. It was nice to be able to read and identify with your experiences in flight training. Right now I’m stuck beneath the shadow of pink slip purgatory. I hope you never have to deal with that. It’s been tough, I’ve been through five checkrides so far and this is my first time failing. The examiner had me do a steep spiral to the right (the winds at 3,000 were 38 knots and increasing due to an approaching front) and I blew over my point. I was completely unprepared to execute this maneuver in that manner because typically it would be practiced to the left (if you’re sitting in the left seat) and the winds are usually calmer. When I was setting up for the maneuver I told the examiner what roads and tree lines I would be using to fly over to help keep it cylindrical all the way down and to use for when I was unable to see my point. He told me I should always be able to see my point. I can’t wrap my head around this one…With idle power, a light C172, and winds which necessitate using maximum bank on the downwind and barely any bank upwind, I know you must maintain a tight uniform radius about a quarter mile around a specified point, but to be able to keep it in sight at all times out of the opposite right hand window – I’m just not that good. Tomorrow I’ll try again with the same quiet, yet intimidating examiner. God help me. I thought I was ready the first time. I’ve had the wonderful experience of knowing what it’s like to lose and I’m ready to move on now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some sleep tonight, although I’m sure if I do my dreams will be of performing the perfect steep spiral; just like last night.
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