Tale of 3 flights

Flight 1 - reprise of the the disaster flight before.  I went back to American Flyers, but deliberately picked a different instructor ( the same one that I did the first flight with).  We flew the same Cessna 172, and did more or less the same routine - GPS 17 at McKinney, followed by the VOR/DME (partial panel), then the ILS 17.  It was somewhat better, but not much.  At that point I decided to jump through the hoops and get my Sundowner approved for instruction in at that school (mostly an inspection by their A&P and some insurance riders).  I think flying in an airplane I know well will take away some of the workload.

Flight 2 - Saturday afternoon, we got the Rocket out the hangar, and with Instructor Anne in the right seat and my Mom in the back, we did a tour of the local NE Dallas airports.  I wanted to practice short field techniques in the Bonanza, as I am going to rent a hangar at AeroCountry, which has a 3000 foot runway - not really short, unless you have been spoiled by a 7000 foot runway for the past several years.  I found the Bonanza to be honest in a slow approach and really fast to slow down if you flare properly.  It still wants almost 2000 feet to take off, however.  It was a blustery day, 20 kts gusting to 35, which the Bo handled with with a disdainful glance.  What a machine!  Only 1.7 more dual hours until I can solo.

Flight 3, today, Monday late afternoon - Flew my "for sale" Sundowner 49C to Addison, and met the American Flyers instructor (I will call her Evelyn).  She grilled me on the "Fundamentals of Instruction", at which I truly suck.  The trouble is they are all just somebodies opinion, written by a professor on a grant, reviewed by a panel of lawyers, blessed by the FAA bureaucracy,  and we poor applicants are made to memorize them word for bloody word like they are gospel truth.  Still, it's a problem I must surmount eventually, or not become a CFI.  The flying went much. much better, despite 25 kts of wind gusting to 45.  I flew in my own airplane, for which I know the V-speeds and the power setting for any given flight domain.  My hold was poor, and my steep turns not so good, but it's still strange to be sitting in the right seat and try to read the instruments from there.  Still, I managed 4 good approaches, and to teach while doing it.  Evelyn says I just need to do a good set of steep turns under the hood and do some good holds (at the CFI level they are never SIMPLE holds....), memorize the FOI's, and she'll sign me off next week..........