Had a bit of a winter storm come through the area yesterday and last night. Yesterday's flying was all canceled due to the clouds being so low and the wind gusts being too high. Last night, around dinner, it started raining. Then the rain turned into snow:
Out past the fence in the above picture is where our planes are usually parked during the day (they always put them in the hangars at night). So, with the rain turned into ice and snow on top, this morning was slow going and over half of today's flights were canceled again. I was 90% certain my flight was going to get canceled, as well. All up until about a half hour before my flight time, that is. My flight wasn't schedule to take off until about 3 in the afternoon, so it gave the snow and ice a chance to melt. So last minute scrambling to get ready to fly ensued and I was off. Physically, I was prepared. I had all my paperwork filled out and pre-planning stuff done, but mentally, I was already convinced I wasn't going to fly. So, it wasn't my best flight. Did good on some things, botched up some other things. Overall, it was still a "good" overall and I'm still tracking above average. So now I'm 7 flights in, one more than anybody else in my flight. On track to do my first (of two) checkride next week (think of it as a mid-term exam), followed by my first solo on (hopefully) Friday. (A solo is where I go up and fly by myself, with nobody else in the plane)
To top things off, I get to fly pretty much the same route tomorrow that I did today. That just means I have a heck of a lot less stuff to study and memorize tonight, since I just did it all today. I haven't gotten that since I started. It's always been something completely new and requires about 2-3 hours of studying and memorizing routes, altitude requirements, radio calls, runway info, etc.
Half of my flight is still on that Commander's Awareness Program, though. Pretty much all of them but one is showing improvements and I'm not really worried about if they'll make it through. One is still struggling hardcore. Everyone else is trying their best to help that person out, but it's just not sinking in. We'll see if they make it, I guess. We may be down to a flight of 7 people by this weekend, though.
That's about it, as far as news goes. Nothing much is going to change until next week when we all start our checkrides and solos. After those, we start learning how to navigate longer distances and specific routes by visual identification of landmarks and time/distance calculations. Can't wait! (<---sarcasm)
