Official Airport Bum!?

I don’t even want to update this thread but here goes.

Friend who had the surgery came back to work. I was free to go get the ratings finished up.

Brother in law died. Committed suicide. We’ve all been dealing with all of the aspects of that. Covered in another thread. That took a couple of months and we’re still not finished selling some items, and well, whatever.

Friend went back for checkups on the surgery the BIL stuff took so long. So I went back to the office full time for that for a while.

I don’t even know what else. Broken cars, sick dogs at one point, weather. You name it, it’s happened in 2017.

Oh yeah, three other people we knew well, died in the same week. That was fun. Not.

Then Annual. At least that went well. Replaced the tire I chewed up practicing power off 180s sometime that feels like about a century ago.

Even an airplane wreck in there. Ha.

Flew only about once a month from July until now. Which absolutely sucks.

Finally. FINALLY my schedule has started to free up. I took today off to finish the rest of the to-do list that was scheduled for the buddy-landed-on-a-road day AND... to go flying.

FINALLY got all that stuff (including more BIL stuff) done earlier today. There’s still more but the schedule is finally opening up.

So... I went flying. Yay on that.

I have about a week or two here before the airplane hits the shop for new avionics. Maybe three.

In my idiot head I thought it would be cold, snowy, crappy by now... and I’d grab an instructor and we’d go freeze our butts off and get this stupid SE add-on done, if I even remember how.

Nope. We set a new high record of 81 today. And when I talked to one of the instructors at the place I’ve been flying with...

They’re slammed. Really slammed.

Oh right. People have vacation time this time of year and they’re booked — into January. And there’s wacky airline hiring going on.

They even brought back another full timer they’ve worked with before and an additional part timer. Wow. Busy.

My reaction to this news is not printable in mixed company, let alone getting past the censor filters here.

Well anyway. At least I got the airplane up today and did some air work, and a few landings from the right seat.

A friend of mine joked, “Don’t worry about it. Sheesh man, it’s not like you weren’t doing anything all this time!” LOL. Perspective.

2017 has sucked basketballs through a garden hose. Maybe soda straws.

I wouldn’t mind it if I could catch a scheduling break and nobody would die and the weather would cooperate and ...

JUST GET THIS DONE.

Anyway. There’s the update since there hasn’t been one since August.

AUGUST. Grrrr. It’s freaking November.
 
Wow, pretty crazy update. Too much sad stuff Nate :(

On lighter note - what will the avionics upgrade be?
 
denverpilot said:
I don’t even want to update this thread but here goes.

Flew only about once a month from July until now. Which absolutely sucks.
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'bout the same for me, but I haven't had the issues you've been dealing with
[snip]

Nope. We set a new high record of 81 today. And when I talked to one of the instructors at the place I’ve been flying with...

They’re slammed. Really slammed.

AUGUST. Grrrr. It’s freaking November.
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Very true - talked to Paul yesterday....nothing until after the first of the year - he's got 3 multi's trying to finish up. All I want to do is finish the instrument. May move the cherokee down to KAPA for 3 months just to avoid the commute.

Taking the 182 to KALS? Wish I could help, but even Mosca at this time of year isn't practical for me. Boutique Air offers $99 special twice a day. And you get to fly in a Pilatus.
 
denverpilot said:
Even an airplane wreck in there. Ha.
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Just for posterity’s sake when someone reads this ten years from now...

Not mine! LOL. Also covered in another thread. And the pilot was fine!

(I re-read that and realized someday someone will read this and necropost it back to life. Hahaha.)
 
denverpilot said:
Garmin GTN 650, GTX 345, and a new OBS and rearranging everything in the stack to pull one of the King radios to make room for the Garmin.

Looking forward to that.
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Wow, that will be a sweet setup!!! The newest thing in our panel is a android tablet. If that's an old KX155 with a working display, we happily take donations :)
 
Sinistar said:
Wow, that will be a sweet setup!!! The newest thing in our panel is a android tablet. If that's an old KX155 with a working display, we happily take donations :)
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The one without glideslope, yup. But I think the avionics shop quite has them keeping it on trade in.

We’re keeping the one with glideslope even though technically we won’t need it with the GTN up top. Gives us a backup way to fly an ILS if the GTN ever goes Tango Uniform.
 
Juuuuust updating...

Almost got to go flying this morning. Talked to the CFI and he had a couple of hours to go help me knock off some rust, and then wanted me to just go fly the snot out of my airplane from the right seat.

Forecast looked gnarly for doing lots of landing practice though. Was supposed to kick up to 18G22 right after we were planning to launch.

We talked on the phone and decided we’d do it another day. No real reason to beat ourselves senseless as a cold front passage came through.

Drove to work in a bunch of wind out here on the prairie. Windy at the office near DEN too.

Got some news that applies to the “grand plan” and called the instructor. He had just gotten back from a twin flight. Apologized that we cancelled. Apparently it never hit the south side of town. Little gusty but nothing near 22. Ha. Oh well.

So the news...

Thought we had some time to get this done in December but the avionics shop wants the airplane a week or two sooner than we thought they would... so... airplane will go into the shop for its panel upgrades and we won’t have it for a couple of weeks here soon.

And actually it’ll be three weeks. The shop wants to give some employee time off around Christmas and we can’t blame them, of course, so they were honest and said they’d like an additional week. Sooooo... we get the airplane back in early January.

Called instructor, talked this over and decided with major work stuff going on for me Friday and Monday and possibly more days if anything goes sideways with this major project, and there’s a good chance something could go sideways, trying to cram a few days of flying plus scheduling a DPE just before Christmas (hey, this story sounds familiar eh @jesse ?) that we’d just nail down an early January date (Oh goodie! Freeze butt off and pre-heats for all morning flights! LOL... hey @jesse sounds familiar again doesn’t it??? Hahaha...) to just hammer at this whole burrito.

New IPC, CFI SE add on, and CFII.

So I guess I can go make some “filthy lucre” to help pay for Mr. Garmin to keep one of our friendly forum members here employed, and also to pay for a flurry (bad word... no snow. No snow. No SNOW!!) of flying activity in early January.

I should probably just fill another propane bottle for the preheater now, and go fill the kerosene/diesel tank on the giant construction blast heater in the hangar after checking the tire pressure on it and making sure the little Honda generator has been tested and is happy. Haha.

Maybe order some hand warmers for my jacket pockets too. Ughhhhh. LOL. I hate cold. But it’s survivable. Just annoying.

So there’s the news. Looking forward to it. All I want for Christmas is a January where nobody keels over dead and nobody needs to go have emergency brain surgery and the weather at least partially cooperates without too much precipitation and...
 
Hmmm. One of my instructors texted me today and said he has time between now and Jan 5. Then no availability until Jan 19.

Airplane won’t be back from the shop until Jan 6.

LOL. Of course.

I’m completely unavailable Jan 26-Feb 4.

So it’s either rent an airplane NOW and do some stuff between Dec 26 and Jan 4 (too tight I think) or schedule Jan 20 - Jan 25 (also horribly tight) or... schedule for February.

Uggggh. I don’t like they way this is panning out for January.

This ... is not a good start ... to 2018.
 
Flew (someone else’s) 182 yesterday with instructor for 1.7 and started beating the rust off... also good to get a slightly different sight picture out the front and fly a slightly different panel and control layout. Was fun.

Most notable was that it’s an S model and heavier than mine. They got fat. Takes a little more power to do everything. The fuel injected engine is actually louder in the cockpit I think... different sound for sure. Might be the three bladed prop doing that also.

Kinda liked the leather seats and the better panel lighting near sunset. Ha. Made me realize how wimpy our panel lighting is. ;)

Going up again this afternoon...
 
I would think the 3-bladed would be quieter? Maybe its the extra nose weight of the prop or are the 'S' models just that much heavier?
 
Sinistar said:
I would think the 3-bladed would be quieter? Maybe its the extra nose weight of the prop or are the 'S' models just that much heavier?
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Dunno for sure what makes them heavier. Seats, nicer interior, stuff in the panel, the prop, it all adds up I guess.

Another 1.4 in it today and it definitely won’t float like mine with the STOL kit will. I have to slow up more, which can quickly turn into a bad habit in this one. Interesting that mine has more flaps by ten degrees too, but I can make this one come down a lot faster without power. That prop probably plays a part in that also, as a big speed brake. With two big dudes in it, we were playing with the W&B Mary today and proved that without anything in the back, we can pretty easily push it out of the forward edge of the CG envelope at high fuel load and heavy total weights.

Seems a bit more forward than mine is. Two big dudes I’m up against the line, but in this one we go over it just a hair. Tossing almost literally any weight in the baggage area fixes it though, and it has the higher MGTOW than mine does, so if you can burn down some fuel... you’re good to go. 3100 vs 2950 which we’ve looked at for ours and just don’t do missions that need it very often. It also will carry more fuel.

It’s subtle. But it definitely needs more power for stuff, about 200 RPM more through the normal pattern, but still well out of the governing range.

Power off 180s could be entertaining in it. Not quite Arrow-like... throw brick out window, follow brick... but closer than mine.

Did a bunch of full stop / taxi backs both days so we could discuss teaching technique and the landings in depth each time. Today it got dark and I got to do some of the landings at night. Interesting how hard it is to keep teaching/talking while you yourself are experiencing a bit of s depth perception problem, and trying to explain why you’re working harder than should be necessary... then you realize after you land that the “student” turned the landing light off and that’s the taxi light you’re landing by.

Hehehehe. Evil instructor-simulating-clueless-student stuff.

Having fun with it. Learned a good word for me today... teach what the student can “anticipate”... in other words just like being ahead of the airplane and the student, also teach a little further into the “future” than right this second. That’s cleaning up some “didn’t teach it soon enough” slowness. Don’t know why that word made it click with me, but it did. Tell them what they can anticipate. Seems simple, or even DUH, but helped a lot today.
 
You should be doing this stuff in a certain Piper. Just think what the evil instructor could be doing to you then...
 
Clark1961 said:
You should be doing this stuff in a certain Piper. Just think what the evil instructor could be doing to you then...
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After all, I'm available and love playing the stupid student....er....sometimes, not even playacting at it...
 
Clark1961 said:
You should be doing this stuff in a certain Piper. Just think what the evil instructor could be doing to you then...
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I appreciate the offer, but looking at the paperwork scattered in the office, it looks like they’ve recently done some homework on doing stuff in aircraft that aren’t theirs, and have a new form where they want to be properly named/listed on insurance or otherwise properly covered in client aircraft...

So that’ll be a minor headache (thank goodness our insurance agent is awesome) if we move back to MY airplane, let alone yours...

Might be noteworthy for @murphey also, since the plan was to fly that OTHER Piper with one of my instructors next year, I think.

Just happened to see the form sitting out, but didn’t ask about it yet. Haven’t seen it before, but I “get it” if they’re adding a “are we properly insured” checklist for client owned aircraft. Kinda surprised they didn’t formally do it before, really.
 
Insurance shouldn’t be a problem for you acting as PIC in your aircraft regardless of the ballast in the right seat. Obviously if they are named insured then there won’t be any question.
 
Clark1961 said:
Insurance shouldn’t be a problem for you acting as PIC in your aircraft regardless of the ballast in the right seat. Obviously if they are named insured then there won’t be any question.
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Yeah, understand. I didn’t read all the bullet points on the form to see if they’re all required, or if it’s an if-then-else sort of document. May not even be their form, might have just been some printed off research material.
 
denverpilot said:
I appreciate the offer, but looking at the paperwork scattered in the office, it looks like they’ve recently done some homework on doing stuff in aircraft that aren’t theirs, and have a new form where they want to be properly named/listed on insurance or otherwise properly covered in client aircraft...

So that’ll be a minor headache (thank goodness our insurance agent is awesome) if we move back to MY airplane, let alone yours...

Might be noteworthy for @murphey also, since the plan was to fly that OTHER Piper with one of my instructors next year, I think.

Just happened to see the form sitting out, but didn’t ask about it yet. Haven’t seen it before, but I “get it” if they’re adding a “are we properly insured” checklist for client owned aircraft. Kinda surprised they didn’t formally do it before, really.
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If I'm in the airplane (even in back) you're covered. More fun if I'm the student.
 
Got another 2.0 in today.

Forecast and actual winds never matched once, and mountain wave plus oddball warm front made things keep going from dead calm to ultra-squirrelly, direction and speed. One of those days where your gut says, “watch it”...

And it was good I did. Doing a power off 180 I leveled off a little high and was waiting for the sink rate to finish taking me on down where I would need a much heavier flare than usual and the bottom fell out... immediate full power announcing “going around!” and we still bounced off of the mains. Whew.

All day long everyone up in the wave was complaining of moderate and even one severe turbulence PIREP from an A319 (!!) (no, it wasn’t Delta, it was United) on approach into DEN from the north, and on and off LLWS warnings at KAPA with 30-45 minutes of dead calm or variable in between, as the wave and where it was bouncing off the ground was at and how it was mixing with the stuff below it in the valley.

Still not quite used to the non-STOL 182. Got to see how it behaves with a 10-15 knot shear and it isn’t as nice as mine... I’d have just sunk and settled on with a hard pull and lots of power.

The near gross 182S plummets like a Piper. Haha. (just picking on y’all that fly bricks... hehe)

Anyway before that we did air work. The Commercial maneuvers from the right seat aren’t a problem for me.

One oddity is I still feel like the airplane isn’t straight when it’s actually tracking straight from the right side. The landings are okay, some even good, but I eventually end up landing with the nose pointed slightly right. It’s odd. But I’m learning just to land with what feels to me like it’s slightly nose left, and that works. The centerline to me from the right seat looks like it’s at an angle.

I tried something on the ground and it may have something to do with my glasses and my dominant eye.

If I close my right eye the paint line looks straight. Both eyes open, my right eye further from centerline is dominant and I think that’s what is doing it. Without ruining my depth perception by keeping it closed, I think I’ll try briefly closing my right eye on a few landings just for a moment and memorizing and correcting from THAT runway paint line angle rather than the one I get with both eyes open.

And interestingly I know I’m right eye is dominant from shooting. Took me forever to figure this out! I should have realized this sooner.

No idea why it never was a problem in the Seminole, but I bet knowing this I can absolutely fix it now in the 182. No wonder!
 
Metars this morning were all over the place. I decided to not even go to FTG since there was a 7 degree C between DEN and FTG. Bad weird stuff stay home.
 
Clark1961 said:
Metars this morning were all over the place. I decided to not even go to FTG since there was a 7 degree C between DEN and FTG. Bad weird stuff stay home.
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We came really close to canceling and then decided when it dropped to literally dead calm to go do air work and see how it looked when we came back. And it was great, until that last landing. Instructors always want to have you quit on a good one so he suggested we could do a couple more, but I was done... I told him I understood the psychology of stopping on a good one, and we could make a good one for the next full stop and call it a day.

Plus I was a little surprised at the end when we read off 2.0. It was a workout. It was probably time to be done anyway. ;)

The TAFs for tomorrow originally looked “okay” and we talked about doing another day tomorrow, but I see the TAFs have gone to crap, and as we talked he said I’ve got the stuff all headed the right direction again now, and just need to practice a bit to smooth it all up. He said I’m “officially” checked out in their airplane now and can rent it if desired to practice without him.

He’s headed out for vacation in a few days and has two other students to move along with harder personal schedules (it’s interesting watching my instructors try to juggle everyone’s schedules... especially with accelerated courses where if folks can just make the time, they’ve usually saved up the money), so we decided I’ll practice both in their airplane and mine if/when it comes back from the shop.

As soon as he returns from his trip, we’ll hit as many days as weather will allow and checkride will be scheduled for two days before I go out of town for a short trip. First day as primary, second day as weather backup. And of course this time of year, who knows... but that’s the plan for now.

We left a voice message for the DPE today to see what his schedule looks like that week. Haven’t heard yet, but not expecting to yet either. See what we hear on that. :)
 
A friend of mine lives at the north end of Horsetooth Reservoir and complained this morning the winds were nearly ripping his shingles off ... (he exaggerated a little, but showed 56 mph winds), while at the same time, the METAR at KLMO showed 6 knots.
 
gkainz said:
A friend of mine lives at the north end of Horsetooth Reservoir and complained this morning the winds were nearly ripping his shingles off ... (he exaggerated a little, but showed 56 mph winds), while at the same time, the METAR at KLMO showed 6 knots.
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Yup. Northwest was NOT the place to be. Multiple PIREPs of shenanigans at KBJC today too, but that’s pretty normal for winter. And spring. And summer. And fall. At KBJC. ;)

Gliding forecast from NWS said the wave was good to 44,000’ today. My glider nut friend and co-worker was wondering if anyone braved the always-underneath rotors those Boulder glider-heads plow through on-tow, to get up to the laminar flow of the wave today.

Would have been a good day for opening the wave box with Denver Center, and freezing your butt off in the flight levels in a glider, if that’s your kinda thing. I hear electric socks and electric or chemical hand warmers make it such that at least you won’t have frostbite when playing up there in the gliders. Haha. No heat in a glider and hanging out in the flight levels... just sounds cold.
 
denverpilot said:
We came really close to canceling and then decided when it dropped to literally dead calm to go do air work and see how it looked when we came back. And it was great, until that last landing. Instructors always want to have you quit on a good one so he suggested we could do a couple more, but I was done... I told him I understood the psychology of stopping on a good one, and we could make a good one for the next full stop and call it a day.

Plus I was a little surprised at the end when we read off 2.0. It was a workout. It was probably time to be done anyway. ;)

The TAFs for tomorrow originally looked “okay” and we talked about doing another day tomorrow, but I see the TAFs have gone to crap, and as we talked he said I’ve got the stuff all headed the right direction again now, and just need to practice a bit to smooth it all up. He said I’m “officially” checked out in their airplane now and can rent it if desired to practice without him.

He’s headed out for vacation in a few days and has two other students to move along with harder personal schedules (it’s interesting watching my instructors try to juggle everyone’s schedules... especially with accelerated courses where if folks can just make the time, they’ve usually saved up the money), so we decided I’ll practice both in their airplane and mine if/when it comes back from the shop.

As soon as he returns from his trip, we’ll hit as many days as weather will allow and checkride will be scheduled for two days before I go out of town for a short trip. First day as primary, second day as weather backup. And of course this time of year, who knows... but that’s the plan for now.

We left a voice message for the DPE today to see what his schedule looks like that week. Haven’t heard yet, but not expecting to yet either. See what we hear on that. :)
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Are you working with Larry or Paul? I need to set up a schedule with Paul - when I talked to him after Turkey Day he said get in touch after Christmas. Also need a new IFR cert for the cherokee. Didn't happen when the 335 was installed, which really surprised me.
 
murphey said:
Are you working with Larry or Paul? I need to set up a schedule with Paul - when I talked to him after Turkey Day he said get in touch after Christmas. Also need a new IFR cert for the cherokee. Didn't happen when the 335 was installed, which really surprised me.
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Paul. Both are still slammed, schedule-wise. I wouldn’t wait to talk to them if you’re looking to get on their schedules by February.

That is a surprise on the IFR cert. It was required to test the static system anyway as part of the install, maybe even the whole system, but they definitely had to break into the static system to add it, I think. If so, seems stupid not to do the whole test. Huh.
 
Checkride tomorrow. SE CFI add on.

There. Now I’ve jinxed it. LOL.

Haven’t had time to update this thread. But I’ll try and go back afterward and update the story for posterity after stuff settles down. I like that it’s all here in one place for some strange reason.

Was signed off to do this at the end of January. Illnesses, schedules, and airplane stuff delayed it. Some of that was covered in other threads but I’ll put it here eventually.
 
The deed is done! ASEL add-on to the AMEL CFI, completed!

And the usual write up...

I’m freakin’ exhausted. Really only got about three hours of sleep last night. I always have checkride anxiety. This was not helpful. LOL.

Anyway, passed. Already mentioned that.

Wind calm and sunny all day until the examiner arrives. Wind blows up to 13 G 22 straight across the runway during the taxi out.

Maybe even right around the first takeoff. Little bit squirrelly. Lot squirrelly actually.

I really thought after the first two landings I was sunk... I could see the examiner tensing up. I had chosen to do the landings first just to knock them out. Turns out that was a good thing but more on that in a sec.

First two being so wimpy on my part I suddenly got motivation to just nail the third. Why I hadn’t gotten in this mode until then, I have no idea.

Third landing I quit trying to crab and kick and set the thing up much further out... while trying to teach it. Then got that aileron all the way hard over after touchdown.

Yes! That’s what it’s supposed to look like and not those lame things I was doing! Very difficult to keep flying and talking to the simulated student in those conditions.

Went out to the practice area and did maneuvers. All reasonable but I was flying the 8s on pylons with less power than I usually do for unknown reasons really, checkride jitters. Those are usually my best maneuver. Love those.

So strange how stuff you usually do awesome can go a bit sideways on a checkride and stuff you usually struggle with just is nailed. Anyway, wasn’t completely out of standards. I think really I was slowly throttle jockeying it a bit, again, unknown reasons. But no “we’re done” from the examiner so plow on.

Little bumpy, and climb rate seemed a little poor today. Maybe I had a bit too much fuel on. 182 always climbs well compared to a Skyhawk say, but if I can, I try to stay out of getting into the LR tankage on checkrides and maneuvers. Departed with 55 gal. Probably should have been closer to 45 with a warmer day.

Finish a bunch of maneuvers and head back in. They’ve switched runways but it’s essentially still a direct crosswind. Make a very nice crosswind landing of the last one, even nicer than the third. Finally! It really felt like my brain was a tad off and then it “clicked” and I was all “go” from the second landing. So odd.

Anyway, taxi in, still haven’t heard any of the magic bad words. Not my best checkride ever, and a workout with the gusty crosswind, but survived to fight another day.

One thing the examiner got a bit cross about and I get it. My instructor and I were working on me talking and teaching pretty hard throughout multiple preps and stops and preps and stops (I’ll post all of that timeline later) that I missed something critical but was able to start correcting it with a few mistakes during the ride. The examiner pointed out that a student hearing ATC and me talking at the same time will get NONE of it.

At our busy airport you’re not going to get much time to say squat to them in between transmissions but you need to zip it whenever they’re talking. I get it. I was just building a bad habit of talking and attempting to teach over it. Not good. The first time he admonished me for it I was kinda stunned but immediately knew why, second time I realized I had to work hard to get words in between radio calls, tried not to get a third admonishment.

Totally get it. Just had been doing so much work with other pilots I forgot how confusing that would be for a student and also adds a level of a real safety problem. I appreciated that he gave a couple of “zip it” admonishments (not what he said) and gave me a chance to get in the talk, pause and listen, talk mode. By the end I was putting my finger up to shush myself. Ha.

All sorts of things I would love a “do over” on but lived to fight another day. I would love to report the “perfect” checkride but it was a struggle from start to finish today.

Fatigue, a little inpatient with all the delays in this process, tried to hurry some things, went a little lazy on other things, it just felt “off but in standards” all afternoon.

Glad we decided to do the landings in the pattern FIRST. The front coming through really got with it while we were away from the airport doing maneuvers. My CFI was watching the crazy weather blow through and heard the tower report a 35 knot direct crosswind gust. Which explains why the pattern was empty when we got back and it was (to us) still just gusting 20-something across.

By the way, yes... I could have asked for the crosswind runway for the last one. I honestly had kinda come out of the fog as the ride went on and no “you’ve failed” was heard, and as the pressure came off I was flying better. I wanted that crosswind landing on the last one. Wanted it bad. I was ready to go around instantly if it got weird but it didn’t and I got it.

Anyone ever have a checkride where they felt the whole thing was a little “off” but progressing along like you were pulling your own teeth to keep it all in standards, right up until that last nailed landing? That’s how today felt.

Oh, the oral. I was in a big hurry. Part of that “annoyed with how long this has all taken”. Critique and debrief was to slow down and be concise. Go figure. I was just hammering through topics as soon as they were presented and that’s mediocre instructional behavior. I know it. Examiner knew it. Explanations were good, I just rushed through it. Nerves and impatient.

That pretty much sums it up for the whole day really. Nerves and impatient.

Now that the pressure is off, I could go right back out and do that whole thing better, all around. Ground and air. Not that last landing though. That was a one wheel down done right crosswind landing. That one might be hard to top, in my head anyway, for a while.

One of those last landings on a checkride where you think, “Okay, if I can manage to taxi us to the ramp and park without hitting something or busting any rules, that’s a GREAT way to finish this checkride!”

Strangely even though it felt “off” the whole time, it was also simultaneously fun. I don’t even know how to describe that. I really enjoyed the add-on ride. It was that strange sense I was hurrying it and off feeling the first two times around the patch that got me all weirded out. But I just kept pushing through. It’s not over until someone says it’s over and I was just fighting tooth and nail not to let that happen.

Some stuff was cakewalk. Steep turns which every once in a while I can get goofed on in my airplane because it’s damn near impossible to see the top of the AI because of the deep plastic panel overlay being in the way from the right side, I literally just rolled in and did them after clearing turns and barely looked over there at all. I could just sense when I was shallowing or steepening the bank with even thinking about it. And managed to speak all the way through both directions fairly well with good explanations to the student as a “demo”. Stalls were also pretty decent. Already mentioned the 8s on pylons was a tad weird but workable.

Also learned a couple of new landmarks in the process for the Bravo shelf. We were further west than I usually do this stuff and there’s a nice road for one layer of the shelf and I knew another reservoir was the line. I like knowing as many of those as possible to avoid being in-cockpit looking at the in panel GPS or ForeFlight to confirm.

Weird day. But I’ll take it! Stupid winds and frontal passage. It went calm as soon as we landed, too.
 
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BrianNC said:
Congrats! What's next? Or is that it?
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CFII. But I need to spend at least a couple weeks maybe three at the day job full time before messing with that. Could even turn into a month. I want to be sensitive to their needs for a bit. Never was “the plan” to have me be hourly for over a year when this all started. They’re just awesome people. I don’t want to test anyone’s patience anymore for a while.

We’ve got a ton going on and my boss and co-workers knew how screwed up the timeline had gotten for all of this and were some of the best folks ever in saying, “Just go get that done, and then get in here and help with this stuff.” In fact we’re working on some “must do on weekend” power distribution and UPS battery refresh work tomorrow (Saturday) and I’ll be there.

So yup. Still have another ride to do. But need to back down on the CFI ratings push for a bit. Have managed to go from Private Pilot to CFI ASEL/AMEL and both Ground Instructor certs in a little over a year with absolute insanity for circumstances including Karen’s brother passing away and all of us closing down his businesses, etc. That one was the real kicker for September and October of last year. Just brought everything to a screeching halt again.

More recently it was airplane going in for ADS-B and GPS work that was planned and scheduled six months earlier and DPE, myself, and my instructor all catching the flu at staggered intervals. Bad. All of us were down for the count for a minute of two weeks, overlapped from late January to late February. And even one good one, the delays pushed the ride into and then past our annual music cruise we pay for 10-11 months in advance to get our choice of stateroom. It’s always booked solid.

I was signed off for this ride by my CFI at the beginning of February. Due to another student’s schedule being messed with by a different broken aircraft the last time I flew was late January just prior to sign off. Then nothing until 3/3.

Ramp up, stop. Ramp up, stop. Ramp up, stop. That was most of 2017.

Everybody got sick for multiple weeks each and here we are — doing it on March 8th. Crazy.

The whole year has gone like this for both the ME and SE rides. It got to the point where when the Garmin announced that it had a failed pressure input yesterday, I was just incredibly POed and not surprised, but I climbed under there and found the stupid connector had fallen off. I was so in “Damn it, we need to get this DONE” mode this week.

Oh, yeah. ELT battery came due 3/1 and I’m like ARRRRGHHHH. Got that sorted before flying on 3/3.

Literally every few days it was SOMETHING.

My wife was so supportive. I’d come home and tell her “this might cancel the ride” and it did, so many times I can hardly count. Or stuff like her brother, it was just known. Over and over and over this happened.

That was mostly why I wasn’t in the totally perfect mindset today. I think I was just anxious about “oh hell, what next?” We even found a minor discrepancy in the aircraft logs that I completely missed in reviewing them that nearly stopped the ride today also.

It turned out there was a reasonable workaround for it — and we need to have a chat with our mechanic to be a bit more careful about what he writes. He’s busy these days and once in a while we see a paperwork snag now when we didn’t in the past. It’s not a “big scary” trend at all, just tiny things we notice. Good shops are busy. He needs a bit more automation I think.

Some shops have nice big stickers with small font and tons of detail, his entires are often longhand and once in a great while there’s an omission or minor error in them.

We have talked about getting ADLog going on our airplane and now I really want it done. It’ll force a little more organization overall which is never a bad thing. Multiple aircraft I know that the owners have done it, and I haven’t heard a bad comment yet about that service.

My instructor made me feel better saying his ATP ride was scheduled and cancelled seven times long long ago. Sometimes you just have bad luck.
 
You've done really well to persevere through all this training and ratings. It's easy to lose interest and momentum and get bummed and basically just stop with so much adversity. Way to hang in there.
 
BrianNC said:
You've done really well to persevere through all this training and ratings. It's easy to lose interest and momentum and get bummed and basically just stop with so much adversity. Way to hang in there.
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I’m rooting for the guy who’s run smack into the meat grinder of illness, work schedule stuff, and the Seminole breaking last week and waiting on a part to come in... who’s also struggling through silly stuff like this.

After illnesses, weather, the airplane needing to go get a trim and AP issue dealt with out of state, and other airplane issues ... knocked him off of two other DPEs schedules. Today I heard both CFIs digging hard managed to find one for him for Tuesday.

He fell off the 60 day sign off wagon a couple of days ago and now he and the instructor need to go do at least three hours just to do the checkride endorsement.

It’s been quite the year for both of us. We see each other at the office/school from time to time and just shake our heads knowingly and ask how the ride scheduling is going. Mine just happened to work out first in my airplane.
 
denverpilot said:
The deed is done! ASEL add-on to the AMEL CFI, completed!
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Got room in my R182 for another instructor. Of course you aren't a "II" but that is ok there will be two others in the plane. We can train you for your II on the way to SUN AND FUN!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats. Was it with thighmaster?
 
Landing Fees said:
Got room in my R182 for another instructor. Of course you aren't a "II" but that is ok there will be two others in the plane. We can train you for your II on the way to SUN AND FUN!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats. Was it with thighmaster?
Click to expand...

Haha. It was Drew. From overhearing other conversations about other rides folks were trying to schedule Craig was unavailable/busy this weekend. He was teaching a class on Friday night at his business also.
 
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