So, I recently took up a very experienced CFI. Mike Hance has a ton of experience and even owned a canard for a time. He gave me a bi-annual review. Most of the time was spent in the conference room, as it should be. Although the sun was going down, I pulled out my EZ and completed the pre-flight. We taxied out to the ramp and got taxi clearance. Once the run-up was done and the pre-flight checks were done, I took off and headed North. We determined my VOR was not coupled with my Blue Mountain EFIS. So, no IFR approaches. Mike was disappointed, but didn’t show it.
Mike wanted to show me how to turn the plane around if I lost an engine on takeoff. So he had me do a form of a canyon turn. The first canyon turn I did was completed with a 180 and I lost no more than 500 feet. Point being if I lost an engine on takeoff I could land the plane back on the runway no problem. I’ll have to practice those more in the daylight. It was getting pretty dark. We headed back in for landing. Mike asked me if I would like to get “night current”. I replied Sure! So, I’m thinking three full stops and we’re done. You know, nice square wide patterns. Mike was thinking we need some carrier landings at night! So, with his direction, we kept the pattern in tight, full power-off opposite the landing point and execute a diving turn to final. What a total blast! I’ve done those in a boring ### (So sorry to all those Cessna drivers), but these were at well over a hundred knots! Well, touch down was a mild 87 knots, but that was in flair. Full stops each one. We were to a full stop at 1500 feet. So checking the marks we were off the runway in 3500 feet. Maybe less. Very informative flight. I’ve got much to learn and flying with experienced pilots that can teach, helps me continue to grow and I love it.