ready2fly
Well-Known Member
R2F\'s CSEL/CMEL Rides (long - get a cup of coffee and enjoy!)
Okay...where to start:
Got to TPF around 11:45 a.m. and retrieved the aircraft logs from the mx hangar, went in and grabbed a cup of joe and reviewed for about 10 minutes and decided enough was enough. I'll just chill.
The DE was suppposed to be there at 1 and came sauntering in a 1:20 - JUST as I was picking up the phone to call him.
The winds were 09018G22K and the cigs were right around 3000, and he asked me "Well, Stan, what do you think?".
I told him that I had checked the weather and it did not appear that it was going to get much better, so naturally, he said "let's go fly now and we'll talk later."
BOOYAH!!! Exactly what I was hoping for.
Single Engine:
Fired up the Warrior and he had me start with a normal takeoff and straight out to the practice area where we climed to 2000 and did slow flight first, followed by steep turns. Before every maneuver, I did GUMPS and clearing turns.
We then did a power off stall in the landing configuration, followed immediately by a Chandelle to the left (into the wind), a power on stall, then Lazy 8's. All of which went VERY VERY well.
On the Lazy 8's as well as the Chandelles, I made sure that I called out my 45, 90 and 135 where appropriate. I personally felt that my Lazy 8's were some of the best I'd ever done. I know my Chandelles were.
After the final Lazy 8, he had me Chandelle up to 3000, which also put us over Waimama (the private grass strip), and had me do the Steep Spiral down to Traffic Pattern Alt, to base to final for RWY 9, where we broke it off at about 200' and did a low pass. This was his only complaint of the entire checkride and that was that I should have had a steeper bank to my Spiral. I never really got pass 30 degrees for more than a few seconds at a time.
After that, it was back to TPF for the landings and takeoffs. The first was a normal landing (remember, we had about a 50-60 degree crosswind off and on), which I nailed, then as we were on the roll, he had me do a soft-field takeoff. I could have stayed in ground-effect longer, but otherwise acceptable.
The next landing was Soft-field landing and taxiback for a Short-field takeoff over a 50 ft. obstacle. I nailed both. The soft-field landing was one of my better ones. With the crosswind, I landed on the right main and held it there and let the left gently settle, then held the nose off until it came down on it's own.
The last landing was the power-off 180 accuracy landing. I picked the first taxiway and - let me just brag here for a second - I landed SPOT ON my mark. I may as well have been a helicopter!
And just like that, the single-engine portion was over. He had neglected to have me do 8's on Pylons, and I wasn't goin to remind him. He also, because we mixed the schedule up and did the rides first, did not have me start my x/c and then divert. I was ready if he had though.
Mult-Engine
The multi-engine was by far, the easiest.
But, like everything else, it almost never was because - get this - the battery was dead - AGAIN! That's the one thing I do not like about the old Beech's. Generaters SUCK! If you leave the landing lights on for more than a few seconds in that thing, it zaps the power.
So, we had to have the outside power source hooked up to get her going. After that, it was cake.
We did a normal takeoff and out to the practice field where we did slow flight and a power off stall.
That was followed by steep turns to the right and left. Those, I have to admit, were'nt my best. I didn't keep my eyes outside as much as I should have and relied way too much on the attitude and heading indicators - bad, bad. But otherwise, I rolled out okay and never lost or gained more than 50' altitude. He did comment on the "eyes outside" thing. My bad.
He asked me to turn to a heading of 360 and suddenly, my right engine "failed". I did my check "Mixture, props, throttles - full, flaps up, gear up. Identify (Dead foot dead engine), verify.... fix or feather - feather ..." then we shut it all the way down.
After securing the engine, he had me begin the restart procedure. I kept my heading and altitude NAILED the entire time - much thanks to trimming the plane after I had secured the engine.
The restart went well and after I got full power back to both engines, we climbed to 4000' and commenced an emergency descent down to 2000'. I leveled off at 2050, sucked the gear up and we were home free.
We headed back to TPF where the pattern was HOPPING! We had two instructors (together) in the pattern, one student in a Skyhawk, and a King Air coming in, not to mention an ATP checkride going on at the same time - so, needless to say - it was a hornets nest.
Just as we entered the 45 for downwind, he pulled the right engine and told me that we were going to do one landing and it would be a singl-engine landing. SWEET!
We were behind the King Air who extended his downwind and base, and that let us have a little more room too, which worked out beautifully. I kept the power up until we were turning base to final so that we did not get too low.
At about 100', he gave me back both engines and my landing was a greaser dead on centerline.
The rides were over. Praise the Lord!!!
Oral Exam:
By this time, it was 4:15.
His oral exam was the furthest thing from "straight forward" that anyone could imagine. But, it was so in a good way. He likes to teach, so he likes to take you to the edge of your knowledge, then teach you a little more.
The first thing we covered was 100 hr. inspections: Do our airplanes need them and why? That lead into questions regarding what I could and could not do with my newly minted Commercial Ticket...all of which I had down pat.
The next series of questions got squirrely. He started out with "Tell me: for our flight today, was a transponder required?" (yes) "okay, why?" (umm....I took a stab at airpsace and lucked out) "okay, why are their different requirements for the differnt altitudes? What is the difference between 10,000 and 2500?"
And so it went, the entire time. He'd take me tot he end of my knowledge with "why" questions until he could asscertain how much I knew.
In the two hours that comprised my checkride, we talked about inspections, Part 119, Airpace, Airspeeds, Transponder requirments, Mag Course/Mag Heading, True Course/True Heading as they related to my assigned x/c, leaning (whya, when and how we do it PROPERLY - some good stuff there) and how it relates to exhaust gas temps, and a short lecture/Advice session on how to get better and how to prepare for the CFI ticket.
I walked out of the FBO at 6:38 with my newly-printed Temporary Airman's Certificate that read: <font color="blue">Commercial Pilot: Single & Multi-Engine Land, Instrument Airplane. </font>
A long day that I'll never forget!!
MAD PROPS to my instructor (**coughcough <font color="red">LURKER </font> cough**) for all of his hard work. He drilled me over an over and over on all things Commercial and it paid off in dividends in the end!!
Okay...where to start:
Got to TPF around 11:45 a.m. and retrieved the aircraft logs from the mx hangar, went in and grabbed a cup of joe and reviewed for about 10 minutes and decided enough was enough. I'll just chill.
The DE was suppposed to be there at 1 and came sauntering in a 1:20 - JUST as I was picking up the phone to call him.
The winds were 09018G22K and the cigs were right around 3000, and he asked me "Well, Stan, what do you think?".
I told him that I had checked the weather and it did not appear that it was going to get much better, so naturally, he said "let's go fly now and we'll talk later."
BOOYAH!!! Exactly what I was hoping for.
Single Engine:
Fired up the Warrior and he had me start with a normal takeoff and straight out to the practice area where we climed to 2000 and did slow flight first, followed by steep turns. Before every maneuver, I did GUMPS and clearing turns.
We then did a power off stall in the landing configuration, followed immediately by a Chandelle to the left (into the wind), a power on stall, then Lazy 8's. All of which went VERY VERY well.
On the Lazy 8's as well as the Chandelles, I made sure that I called out my 45, 90 and 135 where appropriate. I personally felt that my Lazy 8's were some of the best I'd ever done. I know my Chandelles were.
After the final Lazy 8, he had me Chandelle up to 3000, which also put us over Waimama (the private grass strip), and had me do the Steep Spiral down to Traffic Pattern Alt, to base to final for RWY 9, where we broke it off at about 200' and did a low pass. This was his only complaint of the entire checkride and that was that I should have had a steeper bank to my Spiral. I never really got pass 30 degrees for more than a few seconds at a time.
After that, it was back to TPF for the landings and takeoffs. The first was a normal landing (remember, we had about a 50-60 degree crosswind off and on), which I nailed, then as we were on the roll, he had me do a soft-field takeoff. I could have stayed in ground-effect longer, but otherwise acceptable.
The next landing was Soft-field landing and taxiback for a Short-field takeoff over a 50 ft. obstacle. I nailed both. The soft-field landing was one of my better ones. With the crosswind, I landed on the right main and held it there and let the left gently settle, then held the nose off until it came down on it's own.
The last landing was the power-off 180 accuracy landing. I picked the first taxiway and - let me just brag here for a second - I landed SPOT ON my mark. I may as well have been a helicopter!
And just like that, the single-engine portion was over. He had neglected to have me do 8's on Pylons, and I wasn't goin to remind him. He also, because we mixed the schedule up and did the rides first, did not have me start my x/c and then divert. I was ready if he had though.
Mult-Engine
The multi-engine was by far, the easiest.
But, like everything else, it almost never was because - get this - the battery was dead - AGAIN! That's the one thing I do not like about the old Beech's. Generaters SUCK! If you leave the landing lights on for more than a few seconds in that thing, it zaps the power.
So, we had to have the outside power source hooked up to get her going. After that, it was cake.
We did a normal takeoff and out to the practice field where we did slow flight and a power off stall.
That was followed by steep turns to the right and left. Those, I have to admit, were'nt my best. I didn't keep my eyes outside as much as I should have and relied way too much on the attitude and heading indicators - bad, bad. But otherwise, I rolled out okay and never lost or gained more than 50' altitude. He did comment on the "eyes outside" thing. My bad.
He asked me to turn to a heading of 360 and suddenly, my right engine "failed". I did my check "Mixture, props, throttles - full, flaps up, gear up. Identify (Dead foot dead engine), verify.... fix or feather - feather ..." then we shut it all the way down.
After securing the engine, he had me begin the restart procedure. I kept my heading and altitude NAILED the entire time - much thanks to trimming the plane after I had secured the engine.
The restart went well and after I got full power back to both engines, we climbed to 4000' and commenced an emergency descent down to 2000'. I leveled off at 2050, sucked the gear up and we were home free.
We headed back to TPF where the pattern was HOPPING! We had two instructors (together) in the pattern, one student in a Skyhawk, and a King Air coming in, not to mention an ATP checkride going on at the same time - so, needless to say - it was a hornets nest.
Just as we entered the 45 for downwind, he pulled the right engine and told me that we were going to do one landing and it would be a singl-engine landing. SWEET!
We were behind the King Air who extended his downwind and base, and that let us have a little more room too, which worked out beautifully. I kept the power up until we were turning base to final so that we did not get too low.
At about 100', he gave me back both engines and my landing was a greaser dead on centerline.
The rides were over. Praise the Lord!!!
Oral Exam:
By this time, it was 4:15.
His oral exam was the furthest thing from "straight forward" that anyone could imagine. But, it was so in a good way. He likes to teach, so he likes to take you to the edge of your knowledge, then teach you a little more.
The first thing we covered was 100 hr. inspections: Do our airplanes need them and why? That lead into questions regarding what I could and could not do with my newly minted Commercial Ticket...all of which I had down pat.
The next series of questions got squirrely. He started out with "Tell me: for our flight today, was a transponder required?" (yes) "okay, why?" (umm....I took a stab at airpsace and lucked out) "okay, why are their different requirements for the differnt altitudes? What is the difference between 10,000 and 2500?"
And so it went, the entire time. He'd take me tot he end of my knowledge with "why" questions until he could asscertain how much I knew.
In the two hours that comprised my checkride, we talked about inspections, Part 119, Airpace, Airspeeds, Transponder requirments, Mag Course/Mag Heading, True Course/True Heading as they related to my assigned x/c, leaning (whya, when and how we do it PROPERLY - some good stuff there) and how it relates to exhaust gas temps, and a short lecture/Advice session on how to get better and how to prepare for the CFI ticket.
I walked out of the FBO at 6:38 with my newly-printed Temporary Airman's Certificate that read: <font color="blue">Commercial Pilot: Single & Multi-Engine Land, Instrument Airplane. </font>
A long day that I'll never forget!!
MAD PROPS to my instructor (**coughcough <font color="red">LURKER </font> cough**) for all of his hard work. He drilled me over an over and over on all things Commercial and it paid off in dividends in the end!!
