Flying today went well, though at least part of that was that the instructor went
easier on me than I think he should have. My airspeeds were off a few times and
I'd rather he got on me about them (after waiting for me to see and fix the
problem myself) than just say, "Well, but you corrected in the right direction and
that's the important thing." He did have me do some VOR work as well as steep
turns under the hood and we did about 5 landings, all of which went relatively
smoothly. He also pulled the power out on me to make me simulate an emergency
landing -- I think it may be a rule that every instructor flying with a new
student has to pull out the power to see if you freak.
Someday this
year I might even pass 100 hours in my log book. I got my private pilot rating
somewhere around 1997 - can you tell I hadn't flown much after my check ride??
Pathetic.
Next time I should do some slow flight and stalls. It would
also be good to do a cross-coutry trip (technically, that's anything over 50 miles
from the starting point). Rudder keeps nagging me to fly up to the property. I'd
want to do that with an instructor anyway -- the runway is sloped so the landing
gets a bit tricky. And we're stuck flying with an instructor unless we change to
renting from a more expensive place. The 9/11 attacks savaged private flying and
one result is new insurance policies that have made lots of places inclding the
one we rent from rent planes only with an instructor or as part of a formal flying
course. One of these days we're just going to have to brake down and buy a damn
plane ourselves.