Back To The Beginning

Today was my first commercial lesson. It was basically a stress-free refresher before beginning practice for the commercial maneuvers (Chandelles, Steep Spirals, Lazy Eights, Eights On A Pylon and Power Off 180's).

I think the purpose is to make sure that the former instrument student didn't forget how to fly an airplane. As an instrument student, I viewed myself more as a pro-active passenger/programmer. I'm not making light instrument flying. I'm just saying it's different and there are things you forget how to do well...like landing.

So we went out and did some stalls, 50 degree banked turns and some slow flight. Yawn. At least I remembered how to do them all properly.

Then we returned to Gateway where my instructor informed me that we would be doing some touch and goes. Good information to have when I call the tower.

So we get in the patter and he tells me to do a soft field landing. Where is HG Wells when you need him? How the hell do I do a soft field. Finally about half way down wind the squirrel cage starts spinning and I begin to remember. I line up for final on 12R and tower tells me to sidestep to 12C just to ruin my concentration, I'm sure. I grease the landing...until he tells me to transition to a soft field take off. As I reach down to take flaps for 40 to 25 degrees, I push in the yoke too far. Then as I take off, I completely blow through ground effect. How embarrassing. Oh well, that's the point of a review flight, right?

Then he tells me to do a short field on the next one. Instead of closed traffic, tower had instructed me before landing to fly runway heading. We're about 4 miles out and I'm about to call the tower and say, "just wanted to confirm that we're to fly runway heading" and they finally tell me to turn crosswind. Some people might think, what's the big deal? Well touch and goes are quite an investment at KIWA. The runways are all 10,000 feet long and one turn in the pattern is a ten minute investment. Extending upwind 4 more miles adds 5 plus minute to that.

So I'm mid-field downwind for 30C going through the mental checklist for a short field landing, which I haven't done in over 3 months and the tower calls me and says to extend downwind and they'll call my base. CRAP. Now I'm going to have to recalibrate my approach. Sure enough, they extend my downwind to the Utah border before issuing the landing clearance. I actually touched down on the 1000 foot markers. The landing was a little harder than I wanted it to be, but would have passed PTS. I flared about 3 feet higher than I should have. We do a stop and go and one more short field with the same result. I flared too high.

Since this was my first flying event involving PTS maneuvers in over 90 days, I wasn't too upset with myself. The most important thing I learned to do when things don't happen the way you plan them is: Be Patient. Bad decisions happen quickly. Good decisions take time.

Today was a long day. I woke up in a strange hotel room, worked all day and drove 100+ miles to be at school on time. I got to see my kids for a half an hour before bed time. I feel bad about that. I'm afraid my wife will learn to live without me. This is hard. I know it will be worth it, but damn, it is hard.