When I sat down a few nights ago to write about my failed ride in April I had already had my re-test. Here is how all that went...
The CFI reinstatement ride is one of the only check rides for which you don't require an endorsement from a CFI. But when you blow a ride, you need to get training and be able to show it. The DPE I had used suggested I work with the chief instructor from the FBO, and scheduled my do-over for May 30th.
The chief instructor is gruff, and as cuddly as broken glass. He's also quite busy. Being as he's slammed with a 141 school he didn't really have time to squeeze me in, but for some reason he took a liking to me. He scheduled me for two nearly back to back flights, and then two more pairs of flights with the last one just two days before my scheduled ride. He also made a point of scheduling me in the same plane I had just been using.
The paired lessons were mostly to cover for weather, and I'm glad for that because one of each was cancelled for weather and the other was fine. He was demanding and used his military background to make me feel 1/4" tall and then bring me back up. Some people would not appreciate his method but I grew up as an army brat, so I knew the drill. I appreciated the pressure because the ride brings pressure and I wanted to be able to perform well.
He hammered me through ground reference maneuvers from rectangle courses to 8's on pylons. Steep turns, slow flight, stalls of all types including accelerated and cross controlled. I was hung up on steep spirals because for my commercial test we did "emergency descents" with full flaps and top of the white arc. Once again, ACS is your friend. The steep spiral is flown at a "specified speed" (I used 65 knots as clean best glide speed for the C172. There might be a steep(ish) bank involved but it is hardly what one would choose if you suddenly felt compelled to be done flying NOW.
Before I continue I'll address the centerline issue. Not caring about the centerline is my own hang up and I probably made myself sound sloppier than I am. I've never taught that it wasn't important. I do carry a bit of "primacy" with me from my private pilot training though. A perfect landing is a bit of herding cats. You've got the stabilized approach cat, the point of touchdown cat, the touch down quality cat, the runway alignment cat and the runway centerline cat (both offspring of crosswind cat). First and foremost is landing on the exact spot where I intend to. As taught to me, more than any other skill, the ability to land where you want to is the one thing that can keep you from dying in an off airport emergency. "First third of the runway" are not words I utter - ever. Every landing is a spot landing contest - period. And that I do teach.
Stabilized approach cat is redundant, because without it any good landing you make will be mostly luck and statistics. With a tail dragger the next most import cats are runway alignment and crosswind cat. And call it a right brain sense of pride but seriously greasing a landing - you know the kind where there is no chirp there's just a hiss as the tires spin up - demonstrates skill and feel of the aircraft more than flopping on the runway at 1 ft/sec with the nose pinned to the white line.
Like I said, it's my hang up and I've spent the last month not wavering from the line. Damn cats anyway.
Back to the maneuvers, there are some that just leave me clammy. Like WTF happened to the Lazy 8? Am I the only person who sees the Lazy 8 in the "approved aerobatic maneuvers" section of the POH and wonder why it's there? Thirty degrees of bank? What kind of watered down crap is that? Cross your reference line and roll just a little bit and then pitch about twice that much and just hold it there until you cross the mid point. Lazy, see? In my Citabria I do them with a maximum bank over 60 and less than 90 degrees. Going across the top I'm near stall speed and also near zero G (so the wing isn't holding the plane up anyway). Absolutely no need to visualize a 45 and 135 point because if you fly it right there is no action to perform. It is a graceful, artistic maneuver and quite fun, possibly even justified to include in the aerobatic section of the POH
Flight at minimum controllable speed. As a private pilot candidate 22 years ago my 21 year old punk a** instructor insisted I fly circles with the horn blaring at an AoA where it would absolutely quit flying if I increased load factor or reduced power at all. Apparently that would get me jailed now for scaring my student. Flying around at "first indication from the stall horn +5 knots" is just flying around with your nose in the air. The only thing it teaches is how to follow instructions.
Enough of that. Back to the ride.
May 30th it was foggy all morning. The DPE called me at 6:30am and asked me to move it to the next afternoon. For most of the month the weather has been fog/low clouds in the morning and it burns off in the afternoon. The flight school was amenable and moved me (and the plane) to the afternoon of the 31st.
I got there an hour early to find "my" C172 down for maintenance, and in its place was one I had never flown before. Oh well. Got the paperwork out of the way and went flying. My steep turns were excellent, my slow flight a yawn, my power off stall good enough (he commented on my set up in the debrief but my recovery was good). I called out my mistakes as they happened and taught the maneuvers.
He asked me to do 8s on pylons (again). I mentioned that I did them before and was happy with the way I flew them, but on that occasion I just flew them and didn't talk much. This time I was a bit askew because I couldn't find a suitable spot to set up for it. The DPE suggested an area and I used it but really the only thing good about it was that it offered a lot of room to land if the engine quit. Regardless he was happy after not even one complete lap and we went to the same gusty/windy non-towered airport we used last time for short and soft.
That went well enough and I was actually starting to loosen up and fly okay. Back to the home airport where I knew I was going to have my engine out emergency. No surprises, I ran the flow for engine out, mentioned that if I were higher I would pull the checklist and use it but at under 1000' with the runway in range I was going to change to the emergency landing flow/list. I touched down right on the 1000' marks I had called out from the 180 degree point. I think I only had in 10 degrees of flaps when I touched down.
That's it. I'm a CFII again.
Looking back, flying my own plane during the month was of almost no benefit. I guess I did go out a couple of times and talked to my empty back seat while I flew manuevers. I beat myself up about keeping altitude within 20' and of course those darn runway center lines. But I can execute steep turns and lazy 8s in my Citabria without even glancing at the panel and it has no bearing on doing them in the C172 to ACS standards. I came to the conclusion that to fly steep turns to ACS standards is mostly a head down maneuver. If I fly "eyes out" then I can keep my bank angle and altitude cats in check but then airspeed runs off. Getting that back with just a glance down will require more practice on my part.
I could have thrown in the towel on the DPE, who is known to be difficult to please. Instead I accepted it as a challenge, and an opportunity to step up my game. I feel like I earned the temporary he handed me friday afternoon.