Finally!!!

Well after what seemed like an eternity, I finally got to fly again. Let's see...about 2 weeks, huh? Yeah, and I wanted to fly 3 or 4 times a week. The best laid plans, right? Anyway, it looked like they were going to bring in the other -172 from the other school but low and behold they got the broke one fixed this morning. You know what REALLY sucks? They didn't even need a part, it had simply come loose. Well, I can see the advantage of having an A&P now...I would have had that fixed LONG ago. Anyway, after a small snafu during preflight which was a non-event, I was back in the air. Oh man, I think the C-5 has spoiled me with it's great air conditioning. The -172's A/C? Yeah, nonexistent. So even though it is only April, it is Texas and it was a nice cool 93 degrees with about 2000% humidity! Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, but between the heat, the crosswinds (8G16 knots and variable through 180 degrees!!!) and fighting my tendency to make the approach high, I was sweating my ass off by the time we were done. Anyway, as for the flight...

Well, we took off and went straight into the foggles. We did unusual attitudes which was fun and I hammered right on. Then, did some steep turns under the hood which also was fun and I did very well. Attitude was +/- about 2 feet!!! HA!!! OK, maybe not quite THAT good, but definitely to the standards required. After a little work on ground reference stuff, we came back for some pattern work. We did 5 touch and goes and they were OK. I wasn't really impressed, but by the last one, I finally had the approach picture down pretty good and the high C-5 flare wasn't as bad. I am still fighting the crosswinds, so a couple touch and bounces, but nothing really bad.

So, as it stands now, I fly again Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I am hoping against hope that I will get to solo on Saturday. Next week is my last week for flying before a long break and vacation, so I REALLY want to have the solo under my belt before I head out. I hate the idea of going on vacation and thinking about nothing but trying to get the solo down.

OK, so total time now is: 9.8 hours in 7 flights. Cost so far: 1574.50...man this ain't a cheap endeavor!!!