Throughout your training at UND you start in the Warrior, or C172 now, then move onto the Piper Arrow for your complex and part of your commercial training(mainly commercial maneuvers) and end with the Piper Seminole. However, to instruct at a part 141 school you need to be "standardized" in every aircraft you instruct in. What does this consist of? Well usually it consist of stalls, and other maneuvers, as well as all the different types of landings.
I've been standardized in both the Warrior and C172 since I got hired but recently got the word that I was getting standardized in the Arrow. Awesome, I finally get to fly a "bigger, more complex" airplane! The stan flight went pretty uneventful and was over pretty quick. After not flying the Arrow for almost a year and a half it came back pretty quick.
So now that I was standardized in the Arrow I began looking for commercial flights to pick up for other instructors. Sure enough, the first weekend an email went out asking for help. I jumped all over it.
After take off and heading to the practice area to work on some maneuvers we head towards the airport for landings. Usually on midfield downwind is where you do your before landing check, Gear down and locked, fuel pump on, etc etc... So at midfield we put the gear down and I kept a watchful eye as we got one green, then two greens and finally.....just two greens. Okay, no worries, YET. The first step in trouble shooting is to make sure it's not just the bulb. So we will switch the lights and see if it lights up now.
Sure enough switch the lights and it turns green. Good to go. With the advantages of flying a faster, more complex airplane comes the disadvantages of more things to go wrong and forget. Every pilot will have experiences that they build on and this is one that I will make sure I'm always checking down and locked.
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