Mazzie Flying Service

10/31: Today we went up and worked on Chandelles and Steep Turns. Was a very easy lesson.

11/1: My flight was canceled today because my instructor had to give a one hour debrief with a student who was doing his stage one checkride. The one hour debrief was on my time. This is one very frustrating thing about Mazzei's. They schedule students back to back from 0700-1700, and they don't schedule lunch breaks, so as each lesson goes over in the alloted time they just compound on one another until by 3pm the lessons do not begin until around 3:20-3:30. I was told that we would make up the lesson at another time slot later in the week.
 
11/2: Today we finished yesterdays lesson on lazy eights and eight on pylons. Looks like I will be spinning tomorrow, and if not then definitely on Friday. Can not wait until I am done next Wednesday and can start sending out resumes. I am going to finish my CFII and MEI but I want to be looking for a job while finishing up those last two ratings since they only take two to three weeks combined to complete. If anyone knows of an FBO that is hiring between Visilia, CA and Seattle, WA then let me know please. Basically I am looking for a west coast job.
 
subpilot said:
Looks like I will be spinning tomorrow, and if not then definitely on Friday.
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Oh NO! In a Tomahawk?! I heard that they self-destruct and every rivet pops out if you stall one . . . and isn't spinning one a federal crime? :sarcasm:

You'll love it! :D The poor Tommie is the most maligned spin plane out there, but it's great! WAY more fun than a Cessna. :rawk: And, yes. They are PERFECTLY safe!

Who's your spin instructor?
 
Pass a "Hello" on to him from Jeremy. I don't remember if I saw him when I was there with the Cirrus in September . . . if not, I haven't seen him since August of 2004.

Time flies!
 
11/3: Good times. Andy and I went up and went through all the different types of stalls. Accelerated, secondary, elevator, and cross controlled stalls. He told me that we would do spins on the next lesson. One time I think I almost put us in a spin during one of my cross controlled stalls though. When the lessson was over we were heading back to Fresno and Andy asked me what is the quickest way to lose altitude. I said a forward slip and he replied "nope...a spin." He was going to demo a one turn spin for me. I was caught off guard and said "Ok, before we do this, what am I going to experience?" Andy replies, "We will go inverted and then enter a nose down spiral toward the ground." I was still processing the mental picture of us being inverted when he began to enter into the spin. The last thing he said as he had the control inputs set to enter the spin was "I haven't done one of these for a while, lets see if I can do this correctly." I was seeing my whole life pass before me as he said that and then the plane tumbled over inverted.
Actually, when it was all said and done and he was pulling out of dive I realized that it was not so bad at all. I actually thought it was fun.
 
That guy can be so funny sometimes. I'm ticked that he didn't call me back for dinner last night, though!
 
11/4: Today was a long day. I first had an evaluation flight with Joe and he ripped me apart on my process of explaining maneuvers. It took almost 30 minutes before I made him happy in explaining and demostrating slow flight at minimum controllable airspeed. I kept explaining the targets to hit using rote knowledge and was not at the correlation level of knowledge. I would say something like "reduce power, were at 80kts now so add the 1st notch of flaps, 75kts so now bring in the second notch of flaps, ok we are at 70kts and now we need to smoothly pitch up to a two finger pitch attitude and capture our target speed of 55kts." NOPE>>>

He wants to here me say "Ok, we are going to slow to our minimum controllable airspeed (throttle gets pulled to idle), We are approaching the flap region (flaps are entered with about a three second pause between 1st and 2nd notch), now we are entering the slow flight region (start pitching up to two fingers), (when the stall horn sounds) now capture this airspeed (throttle forward) and we are now at minimum controlable airspped."
The point being that if I only talk about the targets then a student will not understand the big picture of what the plane is doing. I should only have to mention key words (flap region, slow flight region, etc) and the student should know what actions must be taken automatically because they have learned those actions in an earlier lesson.

Later in the day Andy took me up to do a few more cross controlled stalls and then SPINS. He did two or three spins and then I took the controls and did three or four. We never lost more than 800ft on any of those spins and man was it fun. I think every pilot should go out and spin. My fear of spinning that I have had for the past two years of flying is now gone. The airplanes characteristics and reactions were completely predictable and I now have no fear of going up solo and doing spins just for fun.
 
11/5: Came in on Saturday to give my ground lesson on spins so that I could get the endorsement completed. We then went out in the Tomahawk to do an evaluation flight and I put Andy under the hood. Why are the simplest concepts to understand so damn hard to explain sometimes. I had the darnest time spitting out the correct terms to explain how to use the scan technique when under the hood.

11/7: Went up in the Arrow to demostrate slow flight, power on and off stalls, and landings in the complex plane. I forgot that the gears get lowered for slow flight. I next went up for my final evaluation flight in the Tomahawk. We did soft field Takeoff, steep spirals, emergency from altitude, eight on pylons, and then I evaluated Andy doing a short field landing with a 10kt tailwind. Tomorrow is my final day to prep for the FAA. I have one more flight scheduled in the Arrow and then tons of book cramming. I'm getting nervous with the exam just around the corner.
 
11/8: Tomorrow is the big day! I have to be at the FSDO 8am sharp to begin my Flight Instructor Exam. I am nervous but everyone of my instructors says that I will do fine so I guess I should just trust their experience and wisdom. Today we knocked some dust off my landings in the Arrow. I forgot to trim on the first landing and had the darnest time pulling the nose up on the flare. Better to do that today than tomorrow. :)
 
Good luck! My favorite checkride was my MEI ride with Larry DeCosta at the Fresno FSDO. He was great!

I'm sure you'll do well. Afterall, JD didn't train you . . . :D
 
Wow. After the week I've had, you hit me with that?! That hurts, Photo. That really hurts.



:D

I'm curious who your examiner will be. Just don't be like my student who showed up 15 minutes late, left his 8710 at the school and had to go get it, then came back and had left his certificates in his car. And no, he didn't pass. Jackass.
 
jdflight said:
Wow. After the week I've had, you hit me with that?! That hurts, Photo. That really hurts.
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Hey, when I wrote that I had no idea how lousy your week had been! :)

The real question is, "How was Sub's day?"
 
You know I'm kidding. But I'm guessing since it's just after 1400 local, he's either still in or just finishing up.
 
11/9: Got'er done. I am the the proud owner of a new, crisp CFI certificate. I am bone tired right now. It was a long day but it all went smooth. The oral was painless and the flight was good. Not bad since I began at Mazzei only 3 and 1/2 months ago.

Time for a vacation, I deserve it.
 
Congrats! :nana2: JD and I aren't too far removed from the same spot you're at now. The world is yours . . . just don't let your students kill you. :)

Who was your examiner?
 
Doug Taylor said:
People never believe me that when I grew up in the San Joaquin valley, we'd have days where you couldn't see 8 feet in front of yourself! And "foggy day schedules" where school would be delayed until the fog partially burned off.
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Ain't that the truth.

I swear, there are times I've arrived home after work and have no idea how I found my way home.
 
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