Checkride Notes

It's been a very busy couple of week with a bunch (and I mean a bunch!) of  successfull checkrides.  There are a couple of issues that came up that I want to address.

On one ride we had a runway incursion.  The pilot was very familiar with the airport and had a taxi diagram out.  Two issues lead to the incursion; confusion of the taxi route and the fact that the taxi diagram did not have the taxiways labeled (I'm not sure where he got it from).  The easy fix would have been having a good taxi diagram and asking for a "Progressive Taxi".

The other issue involves landings.  I have seen a trend of landing very long on normal, short field and soft field landings.  The private PTS calls for landing within 400 feet of a spot for a normal landing, 200 feet for a short field and for either landing you can not land short of the spot.  I don't get to excited if you go a little beyone the 400/200 foot distance (the PTS does give some discretion).  What I've seen has been WAY beyond that.  Applicants are telling me they will land at the first dash after the numbers and then proceed to touch down hafe way down a 4000 foot runway.  Usually the approach is way to high and way to fast.  I will allow a go around when the applicant recognizes the issues, it's good judgement, but after 3 go-arounds for the same landing it might be time to throw in the towel. 

Regarding the Soft field landing, the PTS does not give a spot requirement but it is generally accepted to have the airplane touchdown at the proper speed within the first 1/3 of the runway.  I've seen touchdowns 1/2 down a 6000 foot runway at speeds around 70 knots in a C-150. 
 
The other landing issue has been with crosswind control, or rather the lack of it.  We almost ground looped one airplane.  Kind of woke me up for a second.  

Notice I didn't give any "How to" advise here.  There are a bunch of teaching techniques available and I don't want to influance those.  But take a look at the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook, the airplane POH and the PTS and use them as your guide.

A point of interest, most accidents occur during the landing phase of flight!  Let

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