Well today wasn't exciting but it was educational. Matt held a little ground instruction on instrument rating work. The knowledge for IFR instruments is much like VFR instruments but a deeper knowledge of the instruments is required for IFR flying. In addition we covered anti-icing and de-icing capabilities. After lunch we headed to the simulator.
Matt was nice at first, having me fly solely by instruments, the engines kept dying on take off, giving me a challenge, even causing a nice fireball at one point proving Matt's point about staying awake. Afterwards he covered more basic maneuvers that I've seen before, but now I was doing them solely by instruments. I was doing ok, but still very frustrated with the sensitivity of the simulator. I can get the handle of the turning, but I can't stay on altitude to save my life. I keep telling myself to be gentle and I'd tried flying using three fingers, but still no luck. Matt keeps telling me "baby corrections" but smoothness is still elusive. Grrrrr. After a quick break, back to the simulator we went. This time around Matt ran me thru some basic instrument maneuvers, climbs, turns, climbing and descending turns. All my maneuvers were ok, not good or great. My frustration with altitude control was making things tougher then they needed to be. Finally after four hours in the simulator, Matt gave me a break and we wrapped up the day with some more ground instruction. Tomorrow beholds more ground instruction and simulator work. In total I'll spend 50 hrs in the simulator, only 38 more to go. I'm going to practice the altitude control on my own tomorrow. I need to stop fighting with the simulator and get a handle on the altitude control!... Well back to studying!
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