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. 

Challenges with the Simulator and Internal Stress

Well the last two days have not been fun for me. I'm still struggling with the simulator and flying smoothly, while trying to learn the art of instrument flying.  During yesterday's lessons I was all over the place, making my life not fun. My troubles are basically summed up by a few things, over controlling the control yoke, not scanning my instruments quick enough and focusing on things too much, (altitude being the major culprit). So with these troubles I was having a hard time concentrating on learning new challenging skills, such as holding patterns, single operation IFR, and various approaches.  Overall I'm learning alot, but I feel like I'm not learning it quick enough.    Matt tells me that these challenges are tough and the flying I'm doing will be the toughest it gets.  Which makes me feel better but still worries, and frustrates me.  The simulator troubles came to a head today with me, I couldn't handle the altitude and it pushed me to far. I had to stop the training and ask Matt to help me figure the simulator troubles out. So thankfully Matt was patience and worked with me, till we figured out the issues.  Finally by the end of the day, I was able to hold altitude and stay on course.  I learned that I was being gentle on the controls, but when I got into trouble I was over controlling. Once I figured out the control feeling to keep the altitude under control (still needs work but better). Matt pounded into me to keep my scan of the instruments moving.  Finally after a few hours I was feeling better and the simulator and I were getting along... Thanks Matt!
 
The stress from my pending divorce is bothering me more than I'd care to admit which is not helping. Additionally the days I'm taking off to deal with the divorce lawyer and the Navy Reserves, are getting me behind with school and in hot water with ATP.  So if I can't wrap things up soon, I've been told I'll need to go to the self paced program (vs the 90 day program I'm currently in), which may be better for me, but it costs another five thousand dollars so that creates a little problem, I'll need to find the cash before I can go that route.

Just a glimpse of the items affecting my training with a little venting!!!   Overall I'm loving it, and can't wait to be a professional pilot, but I need to get past the instrument rating monster, a skill that is tougher then I expected, but not insurmountably, very useful and important!     Well enough for now, time to get ready for my Navy duties with weekend.

Simulator and Mental Gymnastics

Today was another day filled with the simulator and ground work. We keep moving forward covering some new subjects, some old ones, just a little deeper then during the VFR training.  All of the information is alot but I'm trying to get as much as I can during the first look. And make good notes to go back and study those I'm still fuzzy about.   Today's lessons were basically centered around the theory of intercepting headings and holding at a fixed point while waiting for air traffic control's instructions to land.  The challenge is to keep flying while mentally thinking about which direction to turn, at specific rates, and time the turns to make them consistent.   I was warned that the instrument rating is the toughest to get, but now I'm really understanding the warnings.  It's all good though..

The best part of the day was that I was able to tame the simulator and my pesky altitude control issues.  I didn't master it, but there were many more times were I had the altitude holding steady then they were out of control.  Better but it still needs practice.  So with the altitude under control, I was able to concentrate on the task of learning the new holding and intercepting procedures.   I'm loving it all, it is a huge challenge leaving me pretty mentally tired at the end of the day. But I must keep going my test is only two and half weeks away. Yikes...   Matt promised we will actually go flying tomorrow after the morning simulator, so that will be a blast.  It'll be early though.. class starts at 7...   With that thought  I'm headed to bed.