Moving on along....

So today was supposed to the second supervised solo, but the winds were quite erratic so we changed up the plan a little bit. The only "new" thing today was VOR navigation and simulated radar vectors while in the weather. I think it all went fairly well and the VOR stuff is pretty simple. I guess I thought there would be more to it, but not really. Of course, there is wind corrections, but you learn early on that there is wind corrections of some sort during all phases of flight...so it all is relative (to the wind, of course...HA!!!). I did about half an hour of simulated IFR and that went well too including slow flight and the stalls. The crosswind landings still need a little work, but that comes with time. I couldn't help but laugh at one thing, though. When my first landing was "not picture perfect", my CFI took it around the pattern to "illustrate" what I should do. HA!!!! is landing was just as bad as mine!!! So, he gave it back to me and the next few landings got progressively better. The next couple of days are also supposed to be gusty, so we are going to do more instrument work and getting ready for the cross-country. So, the way I *think* it might go is like this: Friday and Saturday will be instrument work and some pattern work. Then hopefully next week we will get the night stuff done and then onto the cross country. The CFI has given me route that we will fly, so this weekend I will start to "pre-plan" the pre-planning plan. Things are progressing very quickly now, much faster than I thought it would. The first month seemed like I wouldn't ever finish, now I am starting to figure out when the checkride will be scheduled. I still think mid-July will be the time frame, but we will see.

Oh yeah, the rental rate went up $10 an hour today. I knew it was just a matter of time.

Well, it's about time for me to go to work and fly big airplanes now. I gotta say...my life is pretty good. Got up, flew a little plane for a little over an hour, came home, had lunch, and now I get to go to my "job" and fly a big plane. I watched a show last night about coal miners in West Virgina. Those folks work and work HARD!!! I told Kelly that if I EVER complain about my job, just remind me about the folks in the mines.