So after like 5-6 months...

I finally got my instrument! It was very easy for the end of course. I was very very prepared for it. the flight was good, the oral was good. the only thing I got confused was on was the precipitable chart or something. it tells you how much rain would come down, if all the clouds condensed and ti rained.

I started commercial finally, and the 1st 15 lessons are in the Cirrus. I'm done with the Cirrus and start the Seminole at lesson 15. I can't fly for few more days (June 10th) however because I'm out of money 'til then

well thats about it! I don't update this as much as I should, but i'm close to done!

:)

IFR is close to done

No update in a while. I know....

I changed CFIIs, and i'm happy with the one I got now. I got holds down pretty good (after like a whole week) and same with approaches. In fact I have been doing them so much (and enjoy them) that I dream about them haha.... I have like 1,500 left in my account, and unfortunetly I might have to put it on hold for a bit until dad can get some more money, it will not be enough to finish. Cross countries alone will be like close to a grand if not more. and the stage checks probably about 400 each :( IFR is very expenisve due to the fact that you have to go airport to airport and shoot approaches, and at close to 150 bux an hour, it gets kind of pricey. I also did my 1st actual few days ago, its weird, but cool... if you look out, you really get disoriented within seconds.

if I get the money quick, I should def be done by end of month, at most... We'll see if the old man can send another 2 or 3 grand :(

Stage Check I is complete...

Stage Check I is complete. It went all, even though I did it with one of the check instructors that I don't like very much. His body seems to write egos that his body can't cash. I had a friend come up with me backseating, and he noticed that the check instructor was being too harsh on me too. But oh well, he did give me some slack on altitude because I deviated from it more than few times, so that was nice of him.

I also had an incident with my instructor that I didn't like... we have to fill out these take off data cards before every flight, and well if its the same plane, withthe same load out, I have already premade ones that I have done previously so, I just copy those. It's not that I don't know how to do them, its just time consuming and nobody says I can't copy them... he ended up taking them from me and ripped them all apart. I really didn't appreciate that.... I want to change instructors but don't want to be the one student that changes instructors.... he is tough, and I like that, but he makes me feel stupid alot if I can't get it, and that really pisses me off...

oh, and I got this new roommmate who is late on rent, and giving me the 'looks' I don't know what the fuck is up with her either, thats pissing me off too....

andddd i'm about to run out of money again, i only have about 1300 left. not good.... prolly good for like 4 more flights if that, I hope I can get to like lesson 20 with it. 1 sim is usually about 50 bux (35 an hour or something) and 1 flight is about 140 an hour... IRC is made of 1 sim, and 1 flight

Little update

Really not much else going on... I've been running out of money lately, and also broke up with my girl friend, so I took a week off to get myself back on track etc etc. out of 34 lessons i've been sort of stopped at 13 due to money/personal life. This weekend I am taking her truck back to TX, and will start flying on wedn. I will do a review flight, and after that, I will have my check flight which will include IFR naviation via ADF/VOR, and BAI stuff... after that, holds start :o

Also today I finally have passed the 100 hour mark at 100.4 :) Did a flight to Key west from Ft lauderdale exec. was 4 hours long. went upto 10,500. and shockingly my phone worked!!! OVER THE OCEAN!!!!

I will check back later on to say how i'm doing with Holds, and how the check flight went. I was having some trouble with VORs, hopefully all will be good now.

Started IFR!

Today was 1st day for IFR. We didn't do any flying, but just quick overview of what to expect, the new plane (152 to 172) and talked about CIA (Cross check - Interpret - Aircraft control) and things like that. What kind of scans there are ( T scan, V scan etc.) Tomorrow I will start the flying portion. The way Delta Conn Academy designed it is 1 sim, and 1 flight. You get to learn it in the sim pretty much, and put it to use on the flight. If you got it figured out in the sim, you'll have no trouble in the plane and should go through them quick hopefully. I really hope I'll stay under 7 grand for this course. I got 3400 to start off with, and with today's ground that leaves me with like 3366 or something. I will be flying 5 days a week, and most likely if time permits I will do 1 sim, then go fly the same day. I should go through this course like crazy. if everything goes to plan and I can find some more money when the 3300 I have runs out I might be done with this course in a month or two! (I was saying the same thing for private, it ended up taking 5 months!). Anyways, I'm excited, time for some hood flying :)

Got the PPL!

yup yup, finally got it... Nothing else to say really other then i am BROKE so I don't really have money to get a checkout ride at any airport to rent something... I need to get on top of that because I'd like to fly at least once a week and at worst once every other week to keep myself current so I don't forget how to fly since my IFR stuff won't start until fall for me.. We had some problems with the IACRA but we figured it all out and I just got my temporary pilot's license which is a piece of paper. My plastic one should come upto 3 months, so we'll see... FAA is very slow

Cliff notes: no cliff notes this time dude! I got my PPL! read the damn thing! :D

Long needed update

Haven't been updating as reguarly but things have somewhat calmed down so far.... I finished all the lessons and when my stage check for end of course came up, I pretty much stalled.... I failed the oral portion twice (What got me was that my I hadn't come prepared and also didn't know a few things such as what happens to Vy/Vx when you go up and also stall speeds) and on the second one, I messed up on something real stupid reading the POH... During the flying portion it was pretty bad... 1st attempt I failed on the landing part along with the ground manuevers... I went up again, finished EVERYTHING except I messed up on the landings... that got me REAL upset, but what can ya do... went up 1 more time to finish the landings, and guess what... messed up again... I did a GA way too close to the ground and it just ended up being a stupid landing that was sideloaded... so what does this mean? HAVE TO REDO THE WHOLE DAMN FLYING PORTION AGAIN which takes roughly 3 hours, which you can't really complete on 1 run... This obviously really f'ed up my morale and this is starting become something that I just want to get over with, not something that i'm looking forward to... I believe this is happening because my insturctor is just not adequate... It feels like he is not good enough, hard to explain, he doesn't 'explain enough' maybe it is because I'm his 1st student, or maybe because english is not his 1st language. Also I'm getting VERY nervous up there being watched like that, thats not good either... I have to fight that... I went up with another instructor to kind of go over some things and have his perspective of my flying and he and I decided I go up 1 last time with my inst. to clean up a few things... I also want to practice more landings... my landings are fine, its my crosswind technique that I'm not happy with, I keep landing sideloaded... its something I just have to practice. Tuesday I will go for my last 'review' flight and then do the WHOLE fucking thing flying stage check again, i'm really not looking forward to it... School said they need 'consistency' from me.... I still can't see the relevance of landing and doing lost procedures, but whatever floats their boat... I know this school isn't after my money, our chief inst. is an awesome person, but I'm still confused about doing the whole thing... I know the DPE can retest whatever they want, but that doesn't still show me the relevance of all the other crap with landing... Anyways, I just want to get this damn PPL and get it over with... This is not the attitude I was hoping to have at the end of the course. I believe it's the school's and my inst's fault as much as mine.

Cliff notes: Up to lesson 26 which is end of course... I failed the flying portion 3 times in a row due to crappy landings (and once on ground maneuvers) so now I have to do the whole thing again... if you want more details, read above. I know I'm one of the 'better' if not best students in the PPL program in my class, so that makes me REAL curious how the other guys will do.... I blame my messing up not only on myself but also on my inst. I don't want to change him, because I'm pretty much done with the course, I fly with him one last time and thats it (I hope) I need to work on my crosswind landing technique, and thats just practice.... not CFI time imo.