Who Thought Columbus Day could be this good

So another week has gone by, and things are pretty much the same as last week. We basically did the same kind of flying with just a few more expectations of our skill level. In this block of training we are expected to really know how to handle the plane and we are just fine tuning our skills to get ready for our initial solo. We should all be getting ready to solo towards the end of this week and the beginning of next week. It is going to be pretty cool. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had some pretty nasty flying weather (the ceilings were around 700 ft and that is pretty tough to fly in when you are just learning how to fly on clear days). I got to do some instrument flying, it was pretty rough seeing as I had never had to rely solely on the instruments in the plane before. Once we got on top of the clouds it was just like every other sunny day except that we couldn't see the ground. We had a lot of extra time in the area so we did some cloud chasing, and that was a lot of fun. I also got to work on some aerobatics that we will be doing in the next phase of training. On the other side of training, we took our instrument test on Thursday and now we have moved on to the second phase of instruments. This stuff is all really new to most of us, because we have never really had to think about flying IFR.
On the personal side, Rachael and I are really happy that the government thinks Columbus Day is an important day. This three day weekend is really nice for us because it gives us two days to spend together before I have to get back into the books. On Saturday we went up to Tupelo and shopped all day. Rachael got some new clothes, and then we looked at stuff for the house the rest of the day. She was really excited because she got to go to hobby lobby and TJ MAXX. I am just looking forward to relaxing on Sunday. I have every intention of getting in a round of Frisbee golf and some serious hammock time. Other than that we'll see.

First Block

So my first week is officially over and we just started our second week of flight line training. It is absolutely the most fun I have ever had in my entire life (to be read: it is the most challenging, hardest thing I have ever done). 4 years of college cannot begin to compare to one week on the flight line (at least for bio majors). I am getting pretty proficient at the basics (straight and level, turns, etc) but I still make a lot of little mistakes. The IPs say that that is normal, but I usually have an unfairly high standard for myself. This first group of rides was basically to introduce us to the handling characteristics of the aircraft. We did things like stalls, and handling demonstrations just so we could get a feel for the wide range of usable airspeeds and maneuvers. Today, I had my first double-turn. That is where they schedule you for two events in the same day, like a flight-sim or a flight-flight. That is really brain numbing. There is so much information in your head at the end of the flying period that I have a hard time going into academic mode and trying to learn how to fly instruments. The way they schedule our academics actually amazes me. We are doing the academics for a portion of the syllabus that we are not even opted to see until about a month from now. We will be done with instruments and on to Navigation and formation before we even get done with the first section. I guess that is why they say the course is extremely front loaded. It is pretty hard to imagine that we have been training for almost two months now. Things are moving pretty fast. Well, that's all for now.