Instrument Progress One

Let's see... so far I have an instructor I really like. Our temperaments are a good match and she rides a pretty good line between telling me what to do and letting me make my own mistakes. I CAN get pretty confused... and she seems to enjoy saying "I don't know..." when I ask "where are we?" a little sadistically if the truth be told, lol.

She's not the anal checklist type, but IS very professional and so far seems more 'learn-by-doing' than lecture which suits me fine too.

My steep turns under the hood were so bad I made myself sick, but I got them semi-tamed finally. We only have a little over 6 simulated hours and our last flight was partial panel radial intercepts... which REALLY confused me, but I'll get it :-) It's hard to imagine that visualizing ones position relative to a NDB or VOR (now which side is that radial on exactly?) becomes intuitive but I'm sure it'll come. My MS Flight Simulator is a big help actually.

It's going slower, is harder and will end up costing more than I thought it would be, and I have to lay off a few weeks because of work, but I can still have it wrapped up this summer. I'm beginning to doubt I can finish the commercial this summer too, though.

I passed the written by studying with the Sportys DVD course and the online 'Study Buddy' to get the endorsement thinking it would save me money, but now I'm not so sure... I'm in a 141 program so I have to log 30 hours of ground time regardless. I also took the written a little too early I think - If I'd have waited longer more of it would makes sense. Oh well... it's out of the way at least.