August, 1985

The airplane I had scheduled for my commercial checkride was broken, the second choice was broken, and the last of the type I could use for this session, we broke ourselves. A problem with the door latch recurred prior to starting up. I bent it a little with a screwdriver. The nice Mrs. FAA Lady and I declared it still safe to fly. I botched one of the maneuvers by flying it the way Kira taught me. Mrs. FAA showed me how to do it right and how to teach it correctly. After one practice landing and short-field takeoff, the landing gear wouldn't retract properly, then it wouldn't extend properly. I flew away from the airport, climbing the whole time, to sort out the problem. The backup procedures required hand pumping the landing gear into place. I informed ATC of our problem. They rolled the crash trucks, which seemed excessive to me. Mrs. FAA suggested I execute the softest, slowest landing possible. We both exhaled a big one after landing on wheels. I parked the plane in the maintenance hangar while she finished the paperwork. I did better than the plane. I earned the certificate and it was grounded.

An accomplished dinghy sailor standing in the middle of a meadow on a sunny, summer day can close her eyes, spin on her feet for one complete turn and stop within one or two degrees of her starting point. She perceives the sun angle through her eyelids and feels the direction of the wind on her neck and arms to accomplish this. When sailing with April Meier before and after races, we would see how far one of us could sail with our eyes closed. The boat's heeling angle provided a lot of information, too.

My flying student from Volume One, Barbara Reid, overcame her difficulties with landing after I had her try it with her eyes closed. For the last five or six seconds she had to imagine the runway instead of look at it. After touching down -- at first with my assistance -- I had her open her eyes and look out to the far end of the runway and register where her butt was in relation to that horizon. It took about twenty tries but each one improved and her mind flipped from frustration to elation. Once past that hurdle, the rest of her training flew by.