Now to tackle instrument rating monster.

Back from my motorcycle touring.. Now I need to crack on to getting my instrument rating accomplished. After reflection and thought about my instrument checkride failure, I came up with some areas that I needed to improve and fix. (attached for those wanting to learn from my ways)   Overall my knowledge is there and I love flying IFR. However I need to put it all together and learn to keep the nerves out of if and learn it's a job, and move on if something goes wrong.

Motorcycling adventures!

Just back from eight days of motorcycling..  our travels took us east towards Lake Tahoe, north of San Francisco and back to San Diego. It was great to spend some time with John on the open road. Additionally on the trip we stopped at my parents house twice making the trip even more special. It's always great to hang out at the parents home.

Recovering from Jet Lag & Motorcycle ride prep

Well I've spent that last couple of days recovering from jet lag (I was in Jakarta two days ago), and prepping the motorcycles for an annual ride with John.. my college buddy and best friend.  Over the past eleven years we have gone on a annual ride to enjoy the open road (started in college). So this year John is flying out to California to borrow one of my bikes for a ride around Northern California. Looking forward to some open road and returning to knock out my instrument rating.

Off to Japan to learn a new job and make some $$

Heading to Japan to fulfill my loadmaster duties for awhile.  Looking forward to the trip as it is my last detachment as a loadmaster. After this trip I'll be finishing my crew chief upgrade requirements so my next detachment will be as a crew chief!  

Time with family & Reflection on success and failures

Well over the last few days I've taken some time to hang out with my family and decompress a little. Which I think has been good to allow some reflective thinking on my recent set backs with my instrument rating. 
OnThursday I handled some errands that needed to be attended to for my upcoming trip with the Navy. Afterwards I spent the evening with some cousins and aunts in town for a family gathering.   Later in the evening  I trekked up to Valencia to hang out with my sister and her family.  That was a good time, Dale and I got to chat some more about his career and what he went through to get his ratings.  On Friday I drove up to hangout with my parents.  Dad and I kicked around doing a few errands and the evening was spent at the local pub with a great meal.   On Saturday, I had the honor of having my Dad re-enlist me in the Navy one more time, and later that evening we went to a Bluegrass concert.  And today I relaxed in the morning before driving back to San Diego and prepping for tomorrow's trip.

On the aviation side of things.. I spent some more time reflecting on my recent instrument rating check ride failure, and the possible causes.  I do know that I was worrying about the test too much just by how well I've been sleeping since test was over.  Up to the test I was sleeping horribly and not feeling good.  So I know I need to learn to remove the emotional side more and relax otherwise I'll have continued issues.
As I continue to work on my assignment from Joe, I'm starting to see trends of what caused failures at each moment.  I'm not happy I failed but as a pilot I must keep learning, and from this experience I feel I can gain a great deal about myself and my future career.  ... (Needs more editing)  More to come!!  

Simulator and Paperwork...

Today was another day filled with FAR/AIM studies broken up by an awesome session in the simulator and some paperwork for my second try at the Instrument rating test with Joe.   I was extremely happy with my simulator flight, not perfect but it was great. I nailed the VOR A approach in Oceanside, the GPS in Carlsbad and the single engine ILS into Montgomery was great, overall Dane and I were happy.    Dane and I reviewed my new flight plan to Santa Maria that Joe asked for and he signed off my remedial training for the re-ride as required by 61.49 .   So this evening was spent trying to relax and having a nice diner.  Hopefully I'll get a good nights rest.  Good night..

FAR Review and Studying..

So with my oral exam failure I was concerned I had missed more then Joe had pointed out and found so I dug into the FAR's heavily the last few days.  Still confident in my flying skills I focused on my knowledge of the instrument flying regulations.  My studies were mostly confined to the actual FAR/AIM and Everything Explained for the Professional Pilot (much easier and funnier reading!).   I believe I had a greater understanding of the rules and regulations, though I would have learned the lesson another way, it was still valuable and I know I'll be a better pilot for it.  Thanks Joe!
Since I haven't flown for a few days Dane is going to put me thru my paces in the sim tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it!