A Day of flying ...

Today was another great flying day!  I met Brett at the field at 7:45 this morning with intent to get a check out on the flying club's Diamond DA-40 and Piper 6 Cherokee.

It was good to fly with Brett again, as usual he found the knowledge I didn't know but was great at instructing me through the preflight.  Once in the plane, the first impression is that the view is great. Then the cabin starts to heat up.  Once airborne, I was surprised about how responsive the plane was without being too twitchy.  Brett ran me through the paces of slow flight, emergency landing scenario, and stalls.  Once come we headed back to Montgomery for a few landings.  Overall I liked the plane, the only down side I found was the noise from the air vents.  I'm still surprised that an aircraft manufacturer can put a plane into production, that either has poor ventilation (Seminole), or noisy ventilation.    I hope to use the plane for some cross country flights to visit my family or maybe a date.   With an array of electronic gadgets it will make life easier during trips.

Diamond DA-40 .. a little sports car

 Once we finished with the Diamond we headed over to the Piper 6 to work on the second check out of the day. Unfortunately the registration was not up to date so we were grounded, I didn't feel like risking a legal battle with the FAA.  So after about a half hour of ground training , we called it quits and agreed to complete the actual flight later when the registration was updated.

Piper 6.. the SUV of the sky.. not sexy but it'll haul five friends and lots of stuff to Vegas with ease and comfort.

 
After signing my logbook for the Diamond, Brett was off for a contract flight, and I headed to lunch.

I met up with Dane after lunch and some studying for our trip to Long Beach.   With each flight, I'm getting more and more responsibility for the safety of the flight, communications, and navigation as my IFR skill get better.  Once airborne I concentrated on my instrument scans to hold heading and altitude.  If I gave myself a grade it would be a B-, I still to get better at my instrument scans and holding altitude.  On the positive side, I know I have an ability to keep the big picture in mind, staying on top of my location, the terrain and the air traffic around me.  I'm still enjoying things and learning life is good! 

Tomorrow I'm headed to Virgina with the Navy, which will help my bank account, but I'll miss out on on hanging out with my family for the 4th of July weekend.   On the bright side it will give me ten plus hours of studying on the airplane.   My instrument rating written test is still looming around the corner.

Well enough for tonight... time to pack 

An Awesome day of flying

Today was a great example of why I'm switching to being a pilot as a career. A bad day flying is better then any day at a desk. And a great day flying is just fun!   The morning was spent studying and picking up a rebate check.  The check came from the owner of 57361, the plane I did 98% of my private pilot instruction in. The owner was offering a deal fly five hours and pay for four. So I took advantage of that offer, and now I'll use the rebate check to get some more aircraft instruction in different planes.  I plan on getting signed off  (approved to fly) on two different planes. One s so I'll be able fly with more people and the other to fly faster, thus making flying to my parents cheaper when I splurge and fly to their house vs driving.

Tomorrow, Brett and I have four hours set aside to get me signed off. I can't wait. Additionally Matt and I'll be headed to Long Beach for some more instrument approaches.

Today Matt and I headed to Hemet and back to Montgomery. The flight was designed to give me more time flying "under the hood".  Overall I completed a Global Position System (GPS) approach to Hemet, then navigated my way back to Montgomery.  Once near Montgomery I then was given instruction to complete an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to 28R. Its pretty cool flying around just watching instruments and then looking up to see a runway in front when I look out.
A very educational flight, but I still have much to learn, and more skill to gain.  Overall a great day of flying. 
Tomorrow is set to be even better, I'll be flying for over six hours tomorrow. 
   Well enough for now, back to studying and early to bed. 

Reserve Duty and Paperwork!

Today was technically an off day for school. I spent the morning and early afternoon flying as a loadmaster for the Naval Air Reserves. The flight was local and easy, so it gave me time to handle some paperwork and personal errands.  The rest of the was spent studying IFR charts and all the little symbols.  Lots of memorization, but I can't wait to have the skill and knowledge to fly under instrument rules.   Tomorrow should be fun, we are scheduled for some ground training and an actual flight.. no simulator!

Back in the Groove

Nothing too exciting today, the day was filled with studying in the morning, some ground training and simulator work in the afternoon.  Overall the change to self paced has not slowed my progress down but has taken way the press if I need to take some time off.  Overall I'm happy and its making things fun again.   The instrument rating has lots of material to cover, some of it is new and some of it is being recovered from VFR studies. So now I'm trying to get a grasp on the items I don't know well enough to pass the written test scheduled for next week.   Not much new today.. back to studying.

Back to Having Fun....

Well this past weekend was spent working and flying with the Navy fulfilling my Naval Reserve duties.  So I didn't get much studying for my instrument rating done.  The time out gave me a chance to reflect and I decided I wanted to slow my training down a little bit to a rate I'm happy with.  And that decision removed some stress for me.  So today I told ATP that I was going to pursue the self-paced training track.  Which will give me time to deal with my divorce, fly with the Navy (for extra $$) and most importantly give me time to let the knowledge soak in!  

As a result today was an awesome training day; I was able to take the time to study and watch a bunch of instructional videos.   Later this afternoon, I meet with a new instructor Dane, (Matt is busy with a new student).  Dane put me through my paces in the simulator and for the first time I actually enjoyed it. It is still a huge challenge and I expect that, but I was learning and enjoyed working on various instrument approaches.  And finally I was not combating the altitude the whole time.    I'll spent the remainder of the night studying.