Thank goodness there's only 1 day left! This week and this pace is killing me. I've double-turned every day, and I'm doing it again tomorrow. And I'm not complaining like I'm the one bearing an exceptional burden or anything, everyone is double turning including the IPs, many of which even triple-turned today. I don't know how they do it; and right now we're down to only 3 IPs plus whatever guest IPs they can scrounge up. We're supposed to have 6! This pace can't keep up forever, though, I have to keep telling myself. At this rate we'll run out of sorties way before we run out of days; which I think is actually the plan so that we can get as far ahead right now as possible.
The only thing that's really hurt me with this schedule is my instrument sims. Like yesterday I double-turned I-sims and I came in not really knowing what to expect and how to prep for the first one. So, of course, it didn't go all that great. Then I had 5 whole minutes from the end of the first to the start of the brief for the second one of the day. So I barely had enough time to digest the first sortie let alone even start preparing for the next one, so it seemed like a waste of time. Not to say I didn't learn anything, but I could have done a lot better given a day between the two to really get the most out of the next one. Then of course today I had another one, and again I have another tomorrow morning and I'm flying contact sorties at the same time. As of the 2 sims yesterday I am now the farthest one in our flight on I-sims, and I'm now opted for my instrument dollar ride even. Though, I should be finishing contact first since I only have 2 more rides before checking and I'm getting one of those done tomorrow. It's just a ludicrous pace right now and pretty tough to keep up. Today we put in exactly a 12 hour day and left just in time to have 12 hours of crew rest for tomorrow...awesome. Even though Friday is off we're going to be there really late tomorrow as well; my flight doesn't even take off until after 1800.
Anyways, today even though it's been 4 weeks since I've flown I actually had a great ride. In fact it was good enough to get only my 2nd overall grade of Excellent on a sortie! So I was pretty happy about that. I think right now I've just got a whole lot of confidence after passing the first check ride and having 2 good solos afterwards as well; and that confidence makes a huge difference in my flying since I'm no longer second-guessing myself for the most of the ride and am able to just relax and fly the plane.
My sim-instructor today was from his testimony another fellow-believer. It's been pretty neat that every now and then I've been running into other Christians mixed in with all the instructors I've had. I think the Lord's used it as a way to show me "see, you're not the only one here trying to live for me!"
This weekend I'm heading out to AL on Friday, which reminds me I need to give Luke and Michelle a call tomorrow letting them know I won't be getting in tomorrow night. I could certainly drive it, but that would mean not getting in until after midnight, which isn't fair to them; and also it would just be stupid on my part because these days take everything out of my and I would be pushing it to stay focused and awake on the drive there. So, I'm going to get a good night's rest and then leave sometime Friday morning. i'm looking forward to just relaxing a bit this weekend and then I'll get back here on Monday and get a good bit of studying in before starting back at full steam on Tuesday with my final contact checkride expected for next week.
Tonight we all pitched in $5 each and a couple of the wives brought in 2 huge lasagnas and a bunch of cookies and some 2-liters that we all ate together in the flight room after every one got back from the 3rd and last go of flying. That was really nice and I know we all really appreciated them doing that for us; it put a nice ending onto a really long day. Boy am I glad for this upcoming 4-day weekend...I need the recharge! I'm sure all my classmates feel the same way!!
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