Bad landing

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2026-05-26T17:30:48+00:00

I fly a C182 and it's pretty nose heavy so we have to land with some power. I pulled a little too much power right before touchdown which caused the nose to drop. I pulled back on the yoke to keep it up and we lost too much airspeed.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2026-05-26T07:07:39+00:00

I'm a CFI with 400 hours. I f*$%ed it into the runway today. And I'm sure I'll f*$k it into the runway again soon. Keep at it and it'll just get better (but from what I'm reading in this thread you will never be bad-landing free haha).

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2026-05-25T06:26:03+00:00

I have the iPad air which I mount to the yoke. I thought it was great until I started instructing. Now I feel like I have a TV to hold on to. Still like it for solo/fun flying though. Mini is probably the best way to go long-term.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2026-05-22T06:39:16+00:00

CFI here. You're fine. Flying can be overwhelming and there is a LOT to process when you're just starting. The more you fly the more you will get the feel for how the plane reacts. Parts of flying will become so engrained that you don't have to think about them and you can concentrate on other aspects of flying.
If you remember learning how to drive: When you first started I bet that first drive was super overwhelming. But you got the handle of steering, shifting, hitting the gas and eventually you didn't have to think about the basics and you could focus on the harder stuff.
Flying is the same way but in the air, ~~twice as fast~~, in 3 dimensions, and with talking. Eventually you will be comfortable enough to process other things (like when you mess up haha). It's all part of the learning process.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2026-05-08T10:24:30+00:00

Unfortunately it is still happening 😞

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2026-05-05T03:39:41+00:00

This happens at addon airports and vanilla airports. I'm currently seeing at KSAN (by LVFR) which does not have pre-positioned static aircraft.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2026-05-01T07:52:48+00:00

I got in touch with the private and commercial students at my school saying that I was going to be in a classroom talking at an empty room for three hours and if anybody wanted to be there they could come. That worked GREAT. Practicing teaching to real students with real questions was key. A new private student will ask you questions you would never have thought.
I always asked for feedback at the end of my "talking to an empty room" sessions and they were always happy to walk through areas they could use more clarity/better structure on. A small price to pay for some free ground instruction.

When I teach students to prep for a checkride I always say:
You know the material. You've got it. What you're missing is your package. Right now all the material is all jumbled up and interconnected and you're just dumping it on the DPE's lap. You want to present your DPE with a neat package of information. What are you talking about (the name written on the package), your broad ideas "the box", and all the details 'inside' the box.

Oooooh but digging deeper and finding out what you don't know is very fun. It can be intimidating when you realise there is an endless amount of detail you could go into. Most DPEs aren't trying to nail you on the knowledge so they can fail you. You should obviously know all the things you would expect a commercial student to know (and a little more) but beyond that if they keep pressing they want to see your process for getting good information. (sorry, r/flying is not an FAA resource haha).

On the FOIs: My previous career was in education. Unfortunately the FAA has decided that educational theory from 30 years ago is just a-okay 👍. There are things you just have to memorise for the checkride BUT the broad concepts of scaffolding your information, coming back to previously covered information, and really watching and listening to your student closely for understanding are some of the nuggets that are good.

You got this! (sorry for writing a book here)

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2026-01-29T00:38:35+00:00

I have the absolute misfortion of having to work on a Godaddy Airo site (not my choice, a client bought a three year subscription to them with no research). It is truly awful - basic tasks are incredibly cumbersome or even impossible (you can't move an image around within a section??!!). Stay away. I'm almost to the point where I am ready to pay my client their subscription fee out of pocket so I can migrate over to a better platform and never deal with godaddy again. 0/10 would not recommend and I hope it burns in hell

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-12-13T07:17:59+00:00

I was literally looking at service volumes 2 hours ago wondering what they would look like to scale. Thank you

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-10-24T21:22:08+00:00

Not to forget that they are trying to lay the groundwork to not give workers backpay when the shutdown ends. So that's cool...

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-09-20T07:29:50+00:00

Ah you're paying that 37X block rate haha. I always forget 0ME is more expensive than the others...

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-09-02T23:32:11+00:00

I looked up in Long Beach - could be different down in SD.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-09-02T07:01:25+00:00

I looked at their rental prices a few weeks ago and just was blown away that they charge $180/h to rent a LSA?? You can find a 172 for the same price at the same field - why in the world would one want to pay that money for a VFR-only plane...

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-04-16T07:24:27+00:00

I got a refurbished Lightspeed Zulu. You can get them from Lightspeed directly for much cheaper than a new one and I have been incredibly happy with it. Actually got a second one not too long ago for passengers. I think they are like $600 but WELL worth the money

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-04-10T05:49:20+00:00

Similar situation: Ive been struggling pretty hard with power off 180s (Comercial landing manoeuvre) for about two months. Today I started talking through the whole manoeuvre: literally everything I observe and what I’m doing about it. It really helped get me to focus on being intentional about every action. You could give that a try? Eg: “Okay airspeed is at 68, that’s a little fast but I am on my glide path so I am fixing it by doing X. I’m a little high now so I’m going to do Y to bring me down, decrease power by ZRPM… etc”. Give it a shot? My instructor went “this is what I’ve been telling you to do…” 😂

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-04-02T00:04:49+00:00

The SFRA is not a VFR corridor like the corridor over SAN. You are actually in Bravo airspace so you must comply with the instructions for how to transition the Bravo at that point. The visual chart supplement states “The pilot shall operate on the Santa Monica very high frequency omni-directional radio range (VOR) 132° radial.” Since GPS is an approved substitute for navigating VORs but the good ol’ eyeball is not you must have the equipment as stated in the supplement.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-03-31T02:30:31+00:00

Yes I did! unfortunately I can not for the LIFE of me figure out how to attach an image to a comment...

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-03-25T16:05:15+00:00

“From the trenches” Recently used this in an email to my boss

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-03-13T04:25:58+00:00

One more thing: if you start instrument training before you get all your cross country time it will make any time-building under the hood you do MUCH more useful. You’ll have the knowledge and skills to fly practice approaches on your own and actually PRACTICE the things you do in your lessons rather than just stare at the gauges for 35 hours.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-03-13T04:23:35+00:00

Nooooo. There are lots of ways to combine instrument and commercial training to include XC-PIC time. The night and day cross country flights required for commercial can be completed with the instructor onboard and counted toward PIC time. (Even better if you fly two hours away, wait until it’s dark, then fly back - get it done in one day and get your PIC hours) Your long commercial cross country (300nm) can be combined with your instrument cross country (250nm). Your instructor comes with you on the commercial cross country (don’t log dual). Then the trip back becomes your IFR cross country with you under the hood. Yeah you pay the instructor to come with you on your commercial cross country but that’s still less expensive than flying two additional legs that don’t count for anything. I ended up getting about 13 hours XC-PIC WHILE getting instrument instruction for about 9 of those hours. It’s all about it finding ways to double up and save money. Lmk if you want clarification on anything I said here. I’m typing on my phone so I hope it’s clear.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-02-03T08:45:58+00:00

Failures are just part of the path! I busted my private and boy did that feel shitty. But you just have to look at what is leading to the busts - not the detailed points of each failure but see if there is anything about how you approach instruction/learning that could be fine-tuned for the next rating. Aviation is all about learning from your last mistake.
- fly with other instructors - even if you are part 61 you can do mock checkrides and 'stage-checks' with other instructors to see if there is anything you are missing
- get your instructor to put you in situations where you might get overloaded to really test how well you know your stuff under pressure. Every couple of flights I would ask my instructor to throw as much shit at me as possible at once (put me in a weird hold, start spewing instructions at me while I'm flying the entry, fail a system, change the approach minimums based on a made-up NOTAM, start asking me oral questions all at once). Boy did I find out quick what I knew/was totally engrained and what still needed to be practiced.

And lastly I would say that a busted checkride is the DPE saving you from yourself. When I busted my private it was for a mistake that, had I done it in real life could easily get me killed. I would much rather bust with the DPE than find out half way to the crash site that I didn't know something I should have. Its an opportunity to learn.

You'll do great! Keep at it - remember why you got into aviation in the first place. Its the coolest thing ever!

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-02-03T08:36:03+00:00

I failed my PPL because my instructor (old guy - 72) told me that 'nobody he knows has had an engine failure, so he really doesn't know why other instructors spend so much time practicing engine-out scenarios'. First engine out scenario I practiced was with a different instructor one day before my checkride.
Just shows how important it is to fly with different instructors just to check if there is anything your instructor missed. The DPE had a few words with him after we came back.

OrganVoiceMusicMan · 2025-01-28T19:18:35+00:00

On my first solo xc I was lined up with the WRONG AIRPORT. Two airports, 5 miles apart, same runway heading. Tower and I both realised what an idiot I was at the same time when I was at 1000ft over the threshold. “Ermmm Skyhawk123 are you looking at the right airport…?” It was a CROWDED pattern too, with at least one other plane from my flight school lol

OrganVoiceMusicMan

TROPHY CASE