Study...Study....and Study

I did it. I went ahead and called up Lazer Grade to schedule my Instrument Rating written test (which is only one test out of three that I have to take), and it looks like March 12th @ 12PM will be my moment to shine. I'm ready for it. I've been studying for hours everyday, just finished the Gleim book which is composed of 11 chapters and 900 questions. On the test however, only 60 questions are generated at random from those 900 questions that I studied. So far, I'm scoring 90% on the practice exams which I am very satisfied with. I am going to study my weaker areas, and hopefully pull that percent up into the mid to upper 90's. I will have the results to post March 12th, so stay tuned!

My flight training is going great. I'm getting a lot better at flying approaches, and holding my altitudes, etc... within PTS. If it all works out, this coming Wednesday, I'm going to do my 250NM cross-country to satisfy that requirement for my IR. It should be a great experience. So far the wx is calling for partly cloudy skies, but that could change at a moments notice. I am hoping to get some good IFR conditions to really get a feel for that. Overall, I'm excited at the progress I am making. I should hopefully be taking my checkride by the end of March...who knows, I might even be Instrument Rated just in time for my 24th Birthday on March 31st.

Well, it looks like I will be finding a second job to pay for flight training. I got a career training loan through SLM, but when I applied for the 2nd half, they denied me and my co-signer. They really had no specific reason, and honestly, the crap I had to go through and deal with just to get that first loan was insane. So, I'll take the 20K in loans now as far as debt, and pay for the rest using cash. It's going to slow me down more than I wanted, but everything happens for a reason. Airlines will still be around, and I'll just be happy that I'm only 20K in debt from this rather than 40-50K. That's without calculating the interest.

Alright, thanks for reading. Sorry for the post delay. Have a great day and I will post my score on the written exam when I find out my results. Thanks!

IR Training

Well, my Instrument training has commenced! I am really enjoying the training. It's tough compared to the PPL rating, but when you're caught flying in the clouds with no visual reference to the horizon, tough training doesn't sound so bad. My instructor says that I'm progressing very well, and that my ILS approaches are very good. I just got back from my training flight, and we worked on VOR Tracking / Radial Intercepts / DME Arcs / DME Holds. I really enjoyed it, but I have to refresh on VOR's. There were a few times where my situational awarness was poor, but at other times, I was doing well. So, basically I just need a little more time to catch up with VOR's and this lesson should be completed to standards.

So far, I'm up to lesson 9 which introduces NDB's. This will not be possible in the Archer, because we don't have an ADF. We will still cover the material, but as far as putting the material to use in the air...not going to happen.

I had my first experience flying in Actual IFR conditions the other day. Where most people would have been scared, I had the biggest smile on my face. My instructor probably thought I was crazy, but I love flying, and I love the challenges. We took off and there was some haze, then we entered right into overcast conditions. At about 5,000 we came out on top of the overcast and we were between layers of broken clouds. About 20 NM into the flight, we were in some more clouds with rain. We ended up getting vectors for the ILS at N. Wilksboro and made a low level ILS approach to go missed. We then headed back to Concord, and basically did the same thing, only this time we were cleared for the ILS with a full-stop landing. It was a great learning experience, and one that foggles can't teach you.

Well, I have to get going. I got work tonight from 2200-0600. Not looking forward to it, but I don't have a choice. Thanks for reading!!