I got my commercial due to being a military pilot so I only had to take a
written test on civilian regulations. Won't the examiner allow you to use
power on final to drag it to the point you wish to land and then throttle to
idle? After I retired from the Air Force some friends let me be a member of
their aero club for free in exchange for flight instruction. This one guy
had the same problem you're having. He couldn't consistently land at the
beginning of an actual short runway. I asked him why he didn't take his
base leg out a little further so he could drag it in with some power and
then chop it at the runway. His eyes got big and he said he didn't think
that was legal. I told him it was silly to purposely enter an uncontrolled
event to avoid the POSSIBILITY of an engine failure and not having enough
glide speed/path to get to the runway. Sure, if you have a normal runway
length you should set up so that with an engine failure in the pattern you
can still make it to the runway.

You try not to deliberately enter a dangerous situation to avoid the
possibility of something else happening. But if the regs for the CHECK RIDE
don't allow it you have to do it that way for the check ride only. But not
in a real very short field situation.

--
Darrell R. Schmidt
B-58 Hustler History: (see below)
http://members.cox.net/dschmidt1/

wrote in message
oups.com...
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.
Pink slip.
I've gone up with my instructor to work on both accuracy landings, but
can't seem to hit them consistently. Any advice? Any examiners care to
tell how much "fudge" factor they may allow if I'm a little short or
long? If I am, can I request another try at it?
I haven't even had the chance to demonstrate the airwork in my Cherokee
yet (which I think will go much better). I'm hoping the DE will let me
do that stuff first & save the complex for last. But, since the complex
is what I failed the first time, I don't know if we have to complete
that first.
My CFI says I fly just fine, and I'm starting to feel more comfortable
in the Bo (only 7 hours so far). I've got 160+ in the Cherokee & 450
total. I'm just psyching myself out over 2 little landings.
Ugh.