clumpinglitter (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} clumpinglitter) wrote,@ 2006-11-08 20:40:00 |
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checkride assessment
I haven't flown with Student since we did the dual day xc last week. She hasn't flown, either. Today, I'm going to be riding along as an observer while she goes through the checkride tasks. We'll hit maneuvers and landings today and leave hood and xc ops for next time. We depart to CBG and do steep turns and an engine failure emergency along the way, but that's it. There's a stiff headwind, and I want to get the TO/LA work done before the sun sets. Student demonstrates the specialty takeoffs and landings, and we head back to ANE -- we do slow flight and both kinds of stalls on the way. It's getting pretty dark by this time, and the panel lights in this airplane are atrocious. Student gets uncoordinated during the power-on stall, and I have to slam down full rudder to avoid an incipient spin. Going back to ANE, I have to shine my flashlight on the instruments.
It's hard to sit there and watch Student make an error that's going to screw up the rest of the maneuver and not say anything. She catches some of the problems and not others. She flies great, though -- we mostly have to do work on setup, tolerances, and recovery for pretty much everything. For example, Student does steep turns at 110 MPH with no clearing turns or landing light. She doesn't remember the exact configurations and speeds for soft and short takeoffs or landings. But once I remind her, she flies them pretty much perfectly. She flies like she's been doing it for years -- smoooth and positive control, airspeeds are balls on within like two MPH, and altitudes are nailed.
We have a long discussion the ground about what specifically needs work and what we're going to do about it. She doesn't have a little sheet that summarizes all the maneuvers, so I'm going to make one up for this airplane for next time. It's a 172L, which is a rather old model -- I think I'll go dig up the sheet I used back when I flew good old DT -- that was a 172M, so everything should be similar. I give her a small cheat sheet of all the tolerances in the PTS, so it's easy to memorize or even refer to in flight.
Student is going to attempt one of her solo xc trips on Saturday. So before that, I have to go over her endorsements carefully to make sure we're all legal. We'll go over the trip planning pretty carefully, too -- I have confidence that she can do it just fine, but I'm not sure she does.
In the meantime, my own checkride prep is not going so well. I've scheduled the II written for Saturday morning at 8am. Whether or not I'll have any time to study for it is a good question. I also have a BFR and a checkout in the new 150 on Saturday, but there are some questions about the whereabouts of its POH. This isn't a task I'm comfortable leaving to someone else to check on, so I'll be chasing it down today or tomorrow.
I haven't flown with Student since we did the dual day xc last week. She hasn't flown, either. Today, I'm going to be riding along as an observer while she goes through the checkride tasks. We'll hit maneuvers and landings today and leave hood and xc ops for next time. We depart to CBG and do steep turns and an engine failure emergency along the way, but that's it. There's a stiff headwind, and I want to get the TO/LA work done before the sun sets. Student demonstrates the specialty takeoffs and landings, and we head back to ANE -- we do slow flight and both kinds of stalls on the way. It's getting pretty dark by this time, and the panel lights in this airplane are atrocious. Student gets uncoordinated during the power-on stall, and I have to slam down full rudder to avoid an incipient spin. Going back to ANE, I have to shine my flashlight on the instruments.
It's hard to sit there and watch Student make an error that's going to screw up the rest of the maneuver and not say anything. She catches some of the problems and not others. She flies great, though -- we mostly have to do work on setup, tolerances, and recovery for pretty much everything. For example, Student does steep turns at 110 MPH with no clearing turns or landing light. She doesn't remember the exact configurations and speeds for soft and short takeoffs or landings. But once I remind her, she flies them pretty much perfectly. She flies like she's been doing it for years -- smoooth and positive control, airspeeds are balls on within like two MPH, and altitudes are nailed.
We have a long discussion the ground about what specifically needs work and what we're going to do about it. She doesn't have a little sheet that summarizes all the maneuvers, so I'm going to make one up for this airplane for next time. It's a 172L, which is a rather old model -- I think I'll go dig up the sheet I used back when I flew good old DT -- that was a 172M, so everything should be similar. I give her a small cheat sheet of all the tolerances in the PTS, so it's easy to memorize or even refer to in flight.
Student is going to attempt one of her solo xc trips on Saturday. So before that, I have to go over her endorsements carefully to make sure we're all legal. We'll go over the trip planning pretty carefully, too -- I have confidence that she can do it just fine, but I'm not sure she does.
In the meantime, my own checkride prep is not going so well. I've scheduled the II written for Saturday morning at 8am. Whether or not I'll have any time to study for it is a good question. I also have a BFR and a checkout in the new 150 on Saturday, but there are some questions about the whereabouts of its POH. This isn't a task I'm comfortable leaving to someone else to check on, so I'll be chasing it down today or tomorrow.
