The Flare

Imagine the horror on my face when I showed up only to find that the instructor was still sick - and that his flights that day had all been handed to I99. For a fleeting moment I considered canceling and walking out - however at this point I wanted to fly, especially after being rained out the previous day. I thought long and hard about how to identify and react to a stall during the exercise and even in the worst case scenario I'd be in the air gaining experience, even if I99 was a brutal instructor.

Everything was taken care of and ready to go 15 minute prior to the flight. I spent some time reviewing the air exercises while waiting for I99 to return from his previous flight. After this was completed I moved to reading some sections of From The Ground Up. When I grew bored of this I visited the bathroom, browsed the restaurant, looked at photos from the clubs "Solo" wall, and played around with various items for sale in dispatch. Once we hit 15 minutes AFTER the flight was scheduled, I started losing my patience.

I2 showed up on the scene and we chatted - then she asked who I was flying with. I told her I99 and that I wasn't impressed he was 20 minutes late already. Turns out she wasn't either. There was another student who had an instructor, but no aircraft - and I had the opposite. The other student left after we hit the 25 minute mark and wasn't too happy. I asked who his instructor was since I had an aircraft ready to go, but I2 apologized and said she couldn't cut into her next flight which was a flight check for a PPL Exam. 35 minutes after the scheduled start time I99 shows up in the dispatch area. Turns out he was with the whiny student from the day before who kept interrupting us. She just made my "list" as well. I99 apologized profusely and blamed "the winds". He said he didn't have anyone else scheduled after me and that the aircraft was available so we could fly as long as required. I told him I had nothing scheduled either and that we were all gassed and ready to go. He said he'd meet me out there in 5 minutes.

10 minutes later he showed up. Yes - I was pissed off. While sitting there I decided not to wait for him and started on the checklists that I could. I also considered walking out since I was concerned about my performance while this pissed off. When he showed up I told him where we were at and we headed out for the runway. During the taxi I decided it was time to tell him how I felt about everything. I told him how I felt about his briefing the other day, his cuing method in the air, and his tardiness. I reminded him that he wasn't doing me a favor by teaching me, I was paying the club for his time and the aircraft rental. Finally told him that I took the training very serious and did my best to act professionally and that I expected him to be the same. I didn't sense any attitude in his short apology and the cockpit grew quiet after that.

During the entire flight there was not a lot said aside from what had to be. I told him that I wanted to handle everything except in any cases where he had to demonstrate something or take over for safety reasons and that I was hoping for constructive feedback in all phases. I was all business after that and I nailed the flight. My recoveries from all the types of stalls we did were swift and by the book. He allowed me to retain control when we encountered an aircraft who was in the practice area but not communicating, and again while we sorted out someone else on the radio who said he was somewhere that he wasn't.

As we hit the circuit on the way back we had a brief discussion about the landing flare during which he actually gave me an excellent description of the landing from threshold to roll out. After he answered a few follow up questions from me I simply executed it exactly as he described it. The big change was to keep my nose down over the threshold while cutting power. When I finally leveled us off I was to slowly pull back on the stick to bleed off the airspeed slowly while we settled onto the runway. It wasn't a soft landing but the process of "holding it off" allowed me to understand something about landing that my simulator could never supply. Whatever the financial or emotional cost of these two flights with I99 were in the end, I can at least attribute him to teaching me one useful thing about the flare. Well a second useful thing might be that I fly really well when I'm pissed off.

On the way back into the club, I99 told me that I flew like a completely different person than the last flight. I had no idea if he was blowing smoke up my behind or not, but I did consider the possibility that my performance was poor during the last flight. After he filled out my PTR we discussed a few areas to work on and I asked him what to be prepared for next time. He told me he'd be happy to fly with me again in the near future. We shook hands and said goodbye.

While settling up my account, I2 came out of the office and asked how the flight went. I explained to her that the flight went really well because I appeared to be "on the ball" this afternoon. I then asked her to make a note on my file that I wouldn't be flying with I99 again... ever.

Tomorrow I fly with I3 and the lesson of the day is spins. I'll admit it now. I'm already freaking out about it. I have no idea why or over what - I'm just extremely nervous.

8.5 Hours and counting...