Went up with Adam to practice some non-normal landings--flaps-up (come in normally, Adam said, but push the nose over near the ground and get the wheels down, instead of pulling back, to keep from floating), engine-out, and short-field with no obstacle.  Soft-field and short-field takeoffs,

On the first short-field takeoff I was concentrating on climbing at 54 knots--climbing slowly with full tanks of fuel, 340 pounds of human, and a density altitude of 2400 feet--and had gotten up to about 50 feet when Adam pulled the mixture to cutoff.  The engine immediately stopped dead, the prop straight up and down, and we dropped fast.  I put the nose down and landed with no trouble--but then we had trouble restarting the engine, which was awkward because a Gulftream was on final, coming in fast.  Finally the engine fired and we taxied off the runway just in time so the Gulfstream didn't have to go around.  Later on, when that Gulfstream took off, he pulled up the gear at about 20 feet and turned south before passing the end of the runway.  A pretty departure--but maybe there's a safer way.
 
 
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