Ok, so this morning I had the EP sim and it actually went really well! I had a really nice instructor, I could really tell he had a passion for teaching and really just cared about me knowing the material. However, he was also one of those guys who completely confuses me. I don't know if any one else has ever had this problem, but every now and then I found people who for some reason I have the hardest time understanding their train of thought and following what they're gettting at. He was definately one of those guys. He would ask me a question in plain english, and then I would proceed to give him the 1000 yard stare followed by "what?" I mean, I understood the words, I understood the form of the sentence and everything, it's not that he wasn't articulate or had a bad accent or anything, and it wasn't that I didn't know the answers. I just couldn't understand what exactly he was trying to get out of me when he asked his questions! I think it worked the other way around as well because I would answer some things completely correctly, and then he'd 'elaborate' on my answer by explaining back exactly the same thing I just said! So anyways, he was one of those few people I've found in this world where our brains must emit some sort of frequencies that really just scramble each other when in close proximity. Anyways, besides the slight communication barrier the sim went really well. He gave me an excellen grade overall and marked me up on quite a few items, so I was really happy with it. Sadly it seems like most of my sim rides go a lot better than my actual flights...not sure why...
We had our first guy solo today too! I actually got to follow him down the runway after his last landing, because my flight was canceled! First I stood around for 20 minutes, literally, just waiting to see if we'd actually get the jet we were waiting on. Then I stood for 5 minutes in the baking midday sun here for the shuttle to take us to our plane (who's driver drives like a girl! No offense intended, my readers of the female persuasion). Then, we got out to the plane, in a rush to make our takeoff time, and we proceeded to sweat all over ourselves getting it started up (as usual). Then, we made it only 2 minutes away taxiing to the runway when I got a warning light for our OBOGS (the on-board oxygen generating system). My IP ran the checklist while I continued to taxi, and we did every we could to get the light out. Finally it did, but then a few minutes later it came on again as we were in the hammerhead about to request clearance to take the active and takeoff. So, we ended up being forced to abort the ride since we were going out to the areas for spins and such and would be too high to go without reliable oxygen. So, we had to take the runway all the way back to then taxi and park (which is where we got to follow the solo from).
Those are the worst rides, where you are so close to actually taking off, you're mentally prepared and ready to do it, and then you have to taxi back and park without having accomplished squat! Oh well, I'm on the board again for tomorrow morning, weather permitting, and hopefully I won't break anything in the jet tomorrow.
It's nice tonight I'll be able to make it to church (and then straight home to bed) as there is a visiting quartet Higher Calling singing tonight that I wanted to be there for. I'll be getting to bed a little later than I like but it's doable at least. EP test again tomorrow...getting up for it. I failed the last one but then suddenly had a passing grade when on of the answers was wrong, so I passed it by the skin of my teeth! So far though staying off any 'bad boy' lists, so I want to keep that up!
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