wrote:
I'm taking my 2nd stab at my commercial checkride in a couple days.
Last week, I got through the Oral exam fine. We first flew my
instructor's Bonanza for the complex pattern work. Didn't do too bad on
the soft-field stuff, but I sailed right past my short-field mark by
about 300 feet. We then tried a short approach. Not even the 180 deg
accuracy landing. Just make the runway. Well, after several laps of
dropping the gear abeam the numbers, I did it again & came up well
short of the runway.


With the Bo and a short approach put the gear down no later than
midfield. Full flaps, power off. Turn base at the approach end, speed
no more than 90 mph, assuming you and the FAA man on board. One
sweeping turn to final. You can't land short if you don't go past the
end of the runway. Much better to roll off the end at a slow speed than
stall it in short. You'll still only need 1000 feet of runway if you
keep the speed to 85 mph on the downwind to base.