Two flights this weekend. Great weather for both. These were also my first flights with a new instructor. I think he will work out well. He's 180 degrees different from my last CFI. My last CFI was reserved and very military-like. It was a good way to get started--more strict to make sure I did everything right. This guy is a bit of a frat-jock type. I don't usually get along with those types of people, but he's really cool so far.
On my first flight this weekend, he wanted to teach me applicable "pilotage" skills. That basically means flying by looking at the sectional map. (vs. the GPS or VOR nagivation)
The big bonus of the flight was that I got to do my first soft-field landing. I landed on a grass strip named--and I'm not kidding here--"Happy Landings". That's the official airstrip name.
It was awesome. I had to clear some trees at one end of the runway, land with a crosswind, take off again and make sure to clear the fence at the other end of the runway. Fun as hell.
Today's flight was quite different. Today was what's called "hood work". That means that once I took off and got up to altitude, I had to put on a hood that blocked me from seeing outside of the airplane. It's meant to simulate flying in the clouds. FAA regulations require that I spent a few hours in simulated IFR conditions, so this was a chunk of it.
Tough stuff. My eyes hurt and I feel exhausted. When you can't see outside the plane, you have no idea what is going on. No idea. None. You just can't imagine how disorienting it is. So you have to trust your instruments. That wasn't too tough for me to do, but to just fly straight and level, I have 6 instruments I have to continuously scan and adjust for. And when I mean continuously, I mean it. Whenever I'd stare at one instrument for 10 seconds (which I shouldn't do), one of the others went way off. (i.e. if I stared at my direction for 10 seconds to do a precise 5 degree correction, I'd look up and we would suddenly be decending at 300 feet per minute)
By the end of the flight, I got to the point where I could scan all 6 of those instruments in about 3 seconds. (that's probably about average) But, of course, when I started to get comfortable flying like that, my CFI added some additional work. He pointed at the map and said "we are here--now get me back home". No looking outside. No GPS. Now I had to do some planning and start using 2 more instruments. With some guidance from my instructor, I successfully got us within 3 miles of my airport. (at that point I had to take off the hood to enter the traffic pattern) Tough but awesome.
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