CSEL Add On

[Crockrocket94]

I already had my CMEL, so the checkride for this was fairly thin.

The oral started out painlessly as I showed him the two required endorsements, and then he checked my licenses and made sure everything matched up. He was a really cool DE.

After the initial paperwork BS which took a whopping 3 minutes, he just had a sheet of paper with all the stuff he had to touch on. This being an ADD ON rating, there were only two TASKS for the oral portion, Systems ,and Performance and Limitations.

The Systems part was painless for the most part, as I was flying the Arrow III that day.

He covered the usual, Prop, how it works, what happens if the airplane is pitched down without touching the throttle or prop settings. How does the landing gear work, what happens if we lose hydraulic pressure? How would that effect our landing for a short field? He failed to clarify if we lost pressure for the brakes during that, so I answered that you wouldnt be able to use the main brakes due to hydraulic pressure loss. Well, he quickly said the systems were independant, which I knew, but I was just not clear on the question. No harm he said, he didnt clarify.

He asked a few odds and ends about the deicing and anti icing systems, and then we worked out a few performance limitaitons of the airplane. He then asked what the I in the IO360 stood for pertaining to the engine. I quickly said Fuel Injection.. yay studying does help. Who wouldve thunk it? kidding. I study alot.

We did a weight shift formula which was pretty sweet because I had never actually had to do one pertianing to actual flight situations, just the crap the FAA delivers Crap? I mean.. wonderful.. faa...

Anyhow after about 30 minutes he said, alright, lets roll!

We went to the plane and I don't believe he asked any questions other than why is this counter weight on the airplane (the one on the aeileron for flutter) and then he asked why would it flutter... I actually didnt know the exact answer, so he helped me out and showed me how the aileron itself was tapered and how the pressure differences caused it. No big deal, I learned something.

We fired her up and headed out to the runup area.

It began with a softfield takeoff, which went fine, nothing wrong at all.
After that we ducked under some low layers of clouds around 2500 or so and then headed to a nice clearing where we could get some good altitude.

Then began the commercial maneuvers, I will flat out say I am not the best at learning things extremely quick. I have about 10 hours in the Arrow doing these maneuvers and I think I need about 20 haha.

Anyhow, the Chandelles went alright, I am still pitching up a little to quickly at first, and then holding a tad too much back pressure in as we pass the 90 degree point, which resulted in 1) reaching the too slow of a speed to quickly and 2) I wouldnt roll the plane out smoothly after the 90. So in the debreif he said although they were within PTS, I should try and smooth out the rollout from the 90 so that they are alittle smoother and i am not jerking the plane out of the turn. That and don;t hold so much pitch up throughout the maneuver. In addition, I need to work on keeping it sliiiightly more coordinated. Nothing bad, just a little work.

The next item on the list was the Lazy Eight. Well, it was PTS but not pretty as I had a little too much bank in the first half of the eight, but it was nothing too horrible. Once again, I need to work on smoooothing it out. But the maneuver itself was to PTS. Moveing on

Steep Spirals...

I usually never have a problem with them, but today I started it out uglier than anything. Set up fine, got the point, established on the downwind, prop full, power at 2000, Best Glide +10... I for some reasom deceided to turn extrememly shallow around the first turn, and I knew that, but for some reason I didnt correct, and he got on me about that and told me to tighten it up a bit. I did that and the rest of the maneuver went excellent, held the point fine. I doubt I will do it as well from the right seat hah.

We then did some eights on Pylons. The first one I actually lost my second pylon, it ran away, moved, flew.. or I just turned blind. Either way I screwed up the maneuver roooyallly.
I exited it and then told him, I want to do it again, he said sure. I did it again,however, I had a horrible time on the second pylon holding the sight picture and although apparently it was PTS, I thought it was bad, but we moved on anyhow...

He said, alright lets head back. As I was going for the Atis, he pulled my engine at 900'. Quickly, I found the longest straightest road out there and set up on it, after establishing best glide. I quickly attemped a restart you know how it is, fuel selector, fuel pump, mixture, alt air, mags, etc etc.

After that he gave me my engine back, oh joy. Anyhow back to the airport for some Short field TO and landings, and a Power off 180.

We started with a nice normal landing in, and it was nearly a direct cross wind, thats ok, got set up nice and everything. Uneventful, then took off into a Short Field Landing, which went nice, hit the point dead on and stopped on a 3100' within 900 feet. Arrows... are not the best for short field landings and takeoffs. Anyhow, On the Brakes for a Short Field takeoff and away we went, climbing at its astounding 200 fpm climb rate. It needs a 300 hp engine I think

The next item was the Power Off 180, man I alwayyyys have a hard time with this. The first time I pulled the power, hit best glide and turned toward the runway, I had a headwind in the turn so I lost good altitude, which I wanted too since I kept a fairly close pattern due to the winds. Long story short, I over shot the point by about 300 feet and decided to go around instead. A go around is a TASK anyhow that needed to be done so no problem. The next one I set up for I dumped all the flaps a tad early, but no biggie, I hit the point dead on! Man I was pumped, my hardest maneuver I just nailed it.

We took off for the last landing, which was to be a soft field. Uneventful, floated it down the runway with a little power holding the nose off.

All in all, it was an ok flight, not the easiest and not the best but eveything was to commercial PTS and in the end that is what counts. He congradulated me on being a Single Engine Commercial Pilot and told me to work hard on CFi and that I would do well since I already verbalized everything I do in the cockpit.

Looking forward to CFI now!

[meyers9163]

Congrats! I with any luck will FINALLY have my done next week. Checkride is scheduled for next Thursday. Then onto ATP for CMEL on the 21st-25th and then be CMEL rated as well. I cannot wait as this means the end as far as the basic ratings are near the end and the hard yet rewarding ratings are yet to come CFI-MEI (more rewarding because then I'll be able to teach others what I love to do).

[worm19]

meyers.. what loaction you thinking about doing your CMEL at??