I had an interesting experience today. I flew with an airline captain to get him ready for a 709 ride with the FAA. I suspect he's in the tens of thousands of hours range based on a forty year career.
By way of background, he came to me back in Feb. to get reacquainted with general aviation flying since he was getting close to finishing his experimental. He hadn't flown anything smaller than an airliner in 20 years and knew he needed some brushing up. I admit to having feelings of "what can I teach this guy!" with his 3x or 4x times my few thousand hours, but we had a good flight and he definitely did need to be reacquainted with GA. By the time we finished he wasn't making greasers, but they were consistently safe. I thought we might be flying again, but I didn't hear from him again, so figured he got what he needed.
Fast forward to late August....on his second flight in his experimental he got it into a PIO and collapsed the nose wheel, turned the prop into kindling and dinged a wingtip. He felt horrible, as you can imagine...."40 years of flying and I've never scratched an airplane...until today" was his comment that day. I really felt bad for him.
So today was his 709 ride with the feds. We went out early to brush up on landings beforehand. On his first landing, I figured I'd just observe. We came in hot, he forced it onto the runway at least 8 knots faster than normal, with the expected onset of a porpoise. I assisted in the recovery, demonstrating that we had enough airspeed to get airborne again (which we did), and make a second gentle touchdown at a more reasonable landing speed (which we did!)
I know he was really nervous about his upcoming ride, but throughout the ride I just couldn't get him to relax on the controls. On final the yoke was pumping back and for so much I was thankful we didn't have anyone in back or they'd be puking! I tried to really emphasis the inherent stability built into the aircraft and tried to get him to use a lighter touch. I even flew one pattern as a demo using only three fingers to control it all the way around and to touchdown with no jockeying of the controls on final, just tiny power adjustments as needed.
But on the next circuit he was back to pumping it back and forth. I think I at least made progress on getting him to NOT go forward on the yoke once over the pavement. I even induced a balloon on one landing to demonstrate proper recovery using power WITHOUT forward movement on the yoke. That seemed to click. I also got him to bleed off much more of his speed before touchdown. Again, no greasers, but at least they were safer and mostly mains-first. I would have liked two or three more landings with him, but we were out of time. D-Day had arrived.
As we taxied back we saw the FAA inspector was standing at the counter waiting (we were one time!) Turns out he was apparently impressed that the guy was getting some dual in preparation for the ride, based on comments to the FBO staff. I have to say, the inspector was one of the more laid-back FAA people I've met, and was genuinely nice to deal with...not that most aren't but he was especially so.
After a bunch of paperwork and scrutiny of the marginal weather this morning, they headed out to fly.
We watched as they did two touch and goes and a full stop, during which we could see the pitch oscillations on final, but the touchdowns seemed okay, which obviously was good enough for the inspector. They both came back smiling.
The inspector joked that he had to hit the guy in the ribs while flying to get him to breathe! Like I said, he was VERY nervous about this ride. He was visibly relieved when all was over, understandably.
This guy is obviously a very good pilot....I doubt anyone gets to spend decades in the left seat of a major without demonstrating consistently good piloting skills on a regular basis. But it's a lesson to me that expertise and currency in one type of flying may not necessarily translate to current skills in another.
It also reminded me of something my instructor told me 35 years ago....."Log every hour of dual you can whenever you get the chance. Never stop learning." We need to recognize we are never beyond learning something new....or improving on what we already know.
By way of background, he came to me back in Feb. to get reacquainted with general aviation flying since he was getting close to finishing his experimental. He hadn't flown anything smaller than an airliner in 20 years and knew he needed some brushing up. I admit to having feelings of "what can I teach this guy!" with his 3x or 4x times my few thousand hours, but we had a good flight and he definitely did need to be reacquainted with GA. By the time we finished he wasn't making greasers, but they were consistently safe. I thought we might be flying again, but I didn't hear from him again, so figured he got what he needed.
Fast forward to late August....on his second flight in his experimental he got it into a PIO and collapsed the nose wheel, turned the prop into kindling and dinged a wingtip. He felt horrible, as you can imagine...."40 years of flying and I've never scratched an airplane...until today" was his comment that day. I really felt bad for him.
So today was his 709 ride with the feds. We went out early to brush up on landings beforehand. On his first landing, I figured I'd just observe. We came in hot, he forced it onto the runway at least 8 knots faster than normal, with the expected onset of a porpoise. I assisted in the recovery, demonstrating that we had enough airspeed to get airborne again (which we did), and make a second gentle touchdown at a more reasonable landing speed (which we did!)
I know he was really nervous about his upcoming ride, but throughout the ride I just couldn't get him to relax on the controls. On final the yoke was pumping back and for so much I was thankful we didn't have anyone in back or they'd be puking! I tried to really emphasis the inherent stability built into the aircraft and tried to get him to use a lighter touch. I even flew one pattern as a demo using only three fingers to control it all the way around and to touchdown with no jockeying of the controls on final, just tiny power adjustments as needed.
But on the next circuit he was back to pumping it back and forth. I think I at least made progress on getting him to NOT go forward on the yoke once over the pavement. I even induced a balloon on one landing to demonstrate proper recovery using power WITHOUT forward movement on the yoke. That seemed to click. I also got him to bleed off much more of his speed before touchdown. Again, no greasers, but at least they were safer and mostly mains-first. I would have liked two or three more landings with him, but we were out of time. D-Day had arrived.
As we taxied back we saw the FAA inspector was standing at the counter waiting (we were one time!) Turns out he was apparently impressed that the guy was getting some dual in preparation for the ride, based on comments to the FBO staff. I have to say, the inspector was one of the more laid-back FAA people I've met, and was genuinely nice to deal with...not that most aren't but he was especially so.
After a bunch of paperwork and scrutiny of the marginal weather this morning, they headed out to fly.
We watched as they did two touch and goes and a full stop, during which we could see the pitch oscillations on final, but the touchdowns seemed okay, which obviously was good enough for the inspector. They both came back smiling.
The inspector joked that he had to hit the guy in the ribs while flying to get him to breathe! Like I said, he was VERY nervous about this ride. He was visibly relieved when all was over, understandably.
This guy is obviously a very good pilot....I doubt anyone gets to spend decades in the left seat of a major without demonstrating consistently good piloting skills on a regular basis. But it's a lesson to me that expertise and currency in one type of flying may not necessarily translate to current skills in another.
It also reminded me of something my instructor told me 35 years ago....."Log every hour of dual you can whenever you get the chance. Never stop learning." We need to recognize we are never beyond learning something new....or improving on what we already know.
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