Commercial Training - Day 15

Summary
Scheduled Time: 10AM - 12PM
Actual Hours Ground: 0.3
Actual Hours Flight: 1.4
Total Hours Flight: 9.0

The weather today was absolute perfection. The temperature was in the mid 70's with just a slight breeze from the north. We decided to fly east towards the valley near Monroe and work on eights on pylons. On the way, we did four chandelles, gaining altitude with each. By the time we finished, we were at 5000 feet, so we did a steep spiral around a small lake in the valley to lose altitude and set up for the eights on pylons

After that, we found some pylons and did two sets of eights on pylons. This time, I was much better prepared than the last time and we had lots of fields around us, in case we had a mechanical issue.

Next up, we flew to Monroe and did three short field approaches. The first was too high, so we did a go-around and tried again. The second wasn't bad, but I was a little too fast. The third was the best, with a well controlled approach, but still we floated a bit past our mark.

The next time around the pattern, we did a 180 degree turn to landing. I did not turn soon enough and would have came up short of the runway, so we did another go-around and headed back to Paine Field.

At Paine, we wanted to do another turn to landing, but there was traffic in the pattern, so we simply landed and called it quits for the day.

The syllabus calls for about 10 hours to complete the commercial training. Things are coming along quite well, but I'll certainly need more than one more hour to master the maneuvers.