How long did the commercial maneuvers take to master?

455 Bravo Uniform said:
Great, thanks everyone. I’d love to knock this out in May or early June. Sounds doable. I’ll try to report back here when I’m ready for checkride.
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@darthanubis reminded me I hadn’t reposted on this.

I was close to checkride then my plane went down for annual summer 2022. Sent my FP/MP gauge out for service and didn’t get it back for over a month. In hind sight I should have just done an off the shelf exchange but I was too cheap and also wanted my known gauge. When the plane was back, I was a week out from starting my PhD.

Obvious now, but full time work, starting full time PhD, and trying to finish commercial was a lot! It sounds stupid when I type it out, lol. I was getting 2-4 hours sleep. Did my mock checkride a few weeks into the PhD and failed half of my maneuvers that I was adept at 2 weeks prior. Fatigue is real - it was an eye opener. So I quit the commercial (wife said I postponed it, but I say quit),

Fast forward to late summer 2023, I picked it back up, but instructor availability was spotty. Then plane went down for annual. This time, I spent my spare time during annual also doing an EDM-830 installation overseen by my avionics expert. Then when I finished that, weather in late fall and early winter was jacked and my open time slots were cancelled due to weather. Plus, too many irons in the fire again. Quit for a 2nd time. Written expired last month now.

I’ve gone part-time on the PhD, and retiring from work in June. Maybe I’ll pick up the commercial, retake the written, and finish up this time, 3rd time’s a charm.
 
I passes my instrument checkride in sept. Started the comm training in Nov. My cfi is available 2 days per week so we did some training then the weather crapped out then I crapped out by being gone the whole month of March. So, I have not practiced any maneuvers for a while. Starting to pick it back up this Fri and hoping to be ready for the checkride this month. I too am struggling with the lazy 8s. I think I have gotten the others down and able to practice on my own but the lazy 8s make me feel like I dont know anything. lol
 
Yeah, I was never very good with the Lazy 8’s. The rest of the maneuvers I never found to be terribly difficult. A month or so of regular training and it can be done.
 
I had to go back and look. 15-20 hours, although some of that was just BBQ runs where I practiced some of the maneuvers on the way to/from. Probably 10hrs dual total, including signoff for ride.

The key is to compress the practice into a shorter amount of time, once things click it is a depreciating art. My first lazy 8 in 6-12 months of not doing one, is normally not ideal.
 
About ten hours with an instructor ,then probably another 20 or 15 hours practicing . I enjoyed them mostly. Back in the day you could schedule flight test when you were comfortable with the maneuvers.
 
commercial maneuvers are more about understanding performance and using ground references. No doubt that they make you a better and more precise pilot.
 
Bonchie said:
8s on pylons are only “hard” because people don’t teach it right. Pick a straight line, fly a 45 across it and drop your wing. Whatever it lands on is now your point. Do the same on the other side.
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I was taught them this way with one exception. Choose the first pylon, the second is wherever you drop your wing.
 
The commercial maneuvers were the most fun flight training I’ve had so far. Take the plane dancing.
 
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