BFR and PIC Again – 1.9 Hrs

My flying club requires an annual flight review for insurance purposes so I do a flight review every year, this year it coincides with the FAA-required BFR. It has been a while since I flew and was not real sure how well it would go. Last time I had taken a break the flying went well, and today it went better than it ever has. Go figure.

It was a clear sunny day, with mostly calm winds, just perfect for flying. We did a whole bunch of the usual maneuvers, ending up with landing practice at Ramona. My landings were mostly greasers but the approaches were far from perfect so we are going to go up again next week to work on getting those stabilised (I bet my landings will then go awry!). Since the review went so well, I got signed off today and we’ll take the 172RG next week to get my complex skills repolished.

All in all, a very good morning and I am enthused about flying again.

Getting Back Into Things

The next few weeks should see me back in the saddle. I have two sessions booked with my CFI for a combined BFR and annual flying club review. We will do (at least) one approach under the hood so by the end of that I will be fully current, except for the night flying. I’m tempted to go up this evening and take care of that but we’ll see how I feel by then: sunset is 7.59.

My medical expires at the end of August. Now that I am over 40, I will be on the two year renewal schedule. Not sure who to see this time. My last AME was in Palm Springs, an old guy who was hugely popular for medicals, a conveyor belt of people going in and out. My recollection of the exam was chatting about places we had flown to and the colour eye-sight test that is required for the 2nd class cert. The previous guy was very different, did a bunch of tests including a urine test which I assume was for diabetes. None of what he did was required and I assume was just a way to charge me more than he needed to. Now I’m working in San Diego again I don’t want to travel to Palm Springs but at the same time don’t want another expensive, and over the top, exam.

A Flying Funk

So right now I’m not current for anything and I’m beginning to ask myself whether I am going to fly again at all. I can’t quite put my finger on why I’m not flying. I’m booking planes but then cancelling them, always with some excuse such as the wind, or a sqawk in the plane that I don’t much like. Mostly I think there are two issues combining with each other. First, is money. The almost three months I was without a job hurt my pocket and I didn’t fly hardly at all during that time, and the new job pays less and I still struggle to commit dollars to flying. Second, is confidence. I find that when I don’t fly for a time I get less confident about getting back in the plane. Its not a fear, I know I can do all the things I need to do without harming anyone but somehow when I get near the plane something in the back of my mind tells me to find an excuse.

Its been over 90 days since my last flight and I am definitely in that “don’t make me go up there” frame of mind. The antidote is to just get in the plane, fly around and come back. Then the money side kicks in and says if all I can afford right now is currency flights, never any “pleasure” flights, then whats the point? And as I go back and forth on the arguments, more days tick by making me more unwilling to get back in a plane etc etc

I’d like to think this isn’t the end of my flying as I do love to fly but it sure seems like I’m going to wake up one day and discover its been a year or more since I last sat in the left seat.

300 Hours

I passed a milestone of sorts this evening – 300 hours total time in flight. Sad to say I didn’t do any of the flying, I was safety pilot again, so there’s no great feeling about it like there could otherwise be. My currencies are being stretched again as I struggle to juggle time and money with my new job: the Playstation 3 launches in November and there is a lot to do to make sure that happens! But I have planes booked over the next couple of weeks to extend my PIC and to (by then) renew my Instrument currency – I only need one approach for another 4 months.

No Wonder I Couldn’t Sleep Last Night….

KIPL 221053Z AUTO 28020G28KT 10SM CLR 21/08 A2961 RMK AO2 PK WND 29028/1044 SLP028 T02110083

KIPL 221153Z AUTO 27027G38KT 6SM HZ CLR 21/08 A2961 RMK AO2 PK WND 27039/1130 SLP028 T02060078 10256 20206 51015

KIPL 221253Z AUTO 26030G39KT 6SM HZ CLR 19/05 A2966 RMK AO2 PK WND 26041/1232 SLP043 T01940050

KIPL 221353Z AUTO 26028G35KT 9SM -RA BKN070 OVC095 17/08 A2971 RMK AO2 PK WND 27037/1311 RAB45 SLP060 P0000 T01670078

Instrument Current Again

With the new job starting soon I wanted to get my instrument currency back and scheduled some simulator time with my favourite CFI. It didn’t go too well on the simulator last time as the controls were very sensitive but this time I got the light touch just right most of the time. We set the clouds to a solid overcast so that each approach would end up going missed.

We started by taking off from MYF, vectors to the VOR approach at SDM, missed approach. Once on the missed, we zapped over to SEE and did vectors to the LOC approach there followed by a missed again. From there we shifted to OKB and did some holds in the published turn, the VOR approach once again to the missed. After that, I was positioned for vectors to the ILS at CRQ, this time I did break out for a landing but did the missed anyway with vectors back to a landing at MYF.

For those of you counting thats only 5 approaches, we didn’t fit the 6th one in. However, when I updated my online logbook it said I was now current until the end of May; I had overlooked 3 approaches at the end of the last year so 5 was just perfect. Its good to be ifr current again.