PIC and the student pilot

I ended up with four different instructors before taking my Private Pilot check ride. I wouldn't have put any of them in the "Bad" category, but when I found a good instructor that I clicked with, I hung on. He had the breadth and depth of aviation knowledge that come with a lifetime of study and enthusiasm for aviation. It turned out we both graduated from Purdue University, albeit several years apart. We just got along.

Maybe too well. The 'C' in PIC is for "Command". When your buddy, who knows vastly more than you is in the right seat, it's easy to become complacent about protecting your authority when you are the PIC. We all know intellectually that the PIC is responsible and the answers to these questions come easily on the written test and the queries from the FAA examiner; however, you get in the habit of trusting the guy to your right even if you've never flown with him before -- especially if he's a CFI.

On one flight after getting my PP ticket, I hired a local flight school CFI to fly as a safety pilot on the last return leg cross-country because there were delays forcing me to land at night, a head-cold that wasn't serious yet, but combined with the night flying and winter cold, it seemed like a good idea and worth hiring him and buying his return airline ticket.

It was agreed that I was to be the PIC, and it turned out to be a good idea when my sinuses flared up mid flight and I was able to hand off the controls for an hour and take a break. As far as I could tell, he seemed like a safe, conscientious pilot. As previously mentioned, my engine is getting close to TBO, and I suspect that despite good compressions, it just doesn't have the power it used to and using W&B calculations to look up take-off distance is pretty optimistic. In this case, my CFI felt more comfortable with full fuel (4h 45m) which also got us pretty close the gross with a 100 lb dog plus x-mas luggage in the back. I had planned of just fueling to the tabs which would save close to 100 lbs on take off, but only provide an extra 45 min of fuel instead of over 1.5 hours beyond what we needed to get to BTV. Well the runway at that flight school was 3200' x 75', and I was very close to aborting the takeoff when we finally got airborne and I nursed the airspeed for the first few hundred feet. We discussed how close it was -- if I had it to do over again, I'd lighten the load, but I wasn't going to turn around and land in order to do so.

Well, the CFI was flying the final leg and decided to take the landing. Between the gps, the heading indicator and ATC, we got lined up and landed fine, but couldn't stop in time and had to go around because, while we discussed the fact that my plane only has hand brakes, it was a long trip and he was searching for those toe brakes.

ATC wasn't too busy, and cleared us to try again, and I took the second landing. As we were circling (right pattern) to try 01 again, my safety pilot yells out that I should turn or I'll miss the runway. This should have been my clue that I'm not in charge as I should be. BTV really is a sea of lights, so I figure I'm just disoriented, and I turn -- but it turns out to be heading 33, BTV's longer (8320 x 150) commercial runway. A quick call to ATC and they were very cooperative in changing clearance to 33. As we stabilize on this heading and get lined up and on glide slope, I really should have reiterated that I was the one landing, and he should keep his greasy hands off my controls.

There was a crosswind component which I think got stronger as we got down to the last 50', I did some adjusting, but ended up landing about 20' left of center. Kind of embarrassing, but when your runway is 150' wide and your wings are 30' (not to mention the main gear are only 10' apart), being off 20' isn't any kind of panic situation. We've still got a little vector left, so I want to make small adjustments to get us traveling parallel before returning to the centerline.

My co-pilot evidently would rather correct back to the centerline in one correction and applies rudder pressure toward this end. Maybe there are some big, old birds where you can see your cohort's feet, but the Cherokee ain't one and particularly when my eyes are glued outside trying to get the plane to settle down. I definitely don't want to give the plane its head to slide over to the right and maybe off the runway since I'm struggling to get it hold steady now.

It seemed like an epic battle of wills, ala The Old Man and the Sea, that dragged on for a long, tension filled scene, but was probably all of 1.5 seconds. I figured out what was happening and yelled something unprofessional over the intercom. What I had thought was strong winds buffetting the aircraft as felt through the rudder suddenly disappeared, and I returned to the centerline, turned off and taxied to the FBO without incident.

So the question is now, do I add a veiled threat* to my passenger pre-flight briefing -- between "fasten your seat belts" and "there are no oxygen masks or restrooms in this plane"?

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* - Something subtle like, "If you touch the controls except when I tell you to, I'll break your arm."