Finally Back in the Air

Wow. It's been a long time -- almost six months to be exact -- but I'm officially back in the air. I was going to go on April 7th, but alas there was some confusion over the scheduling system at the FBO. They're in the process of transitioning to a new and much better system, complete with electronic billing, but unknown to me, the old system was still in use. Of course, I made my aircraft and CFI reservation with the new system... The result? A scheduling conflict! I show up at the airport, even 15 minutes early so we could start right at 2pm, and there's someone else waiting for my airplane. And it turns out the CFI I booked had the day off.

Ouch -- what a mess. I go next door, to a different FBO that I fly with, but all of their airplanes are out flying. Plus, they seem to have a shortage of instructors, so even if there was an aircraft, there would not be a CFI to fly with me. Call me too cautious, but I was not about to go into an airplane by myself after a six month hiatus.

But, this past Saturday and Sunday, the Gods of Airplane Scheduling were kind, and I did get a chance to log some flight time! 1.2 hours on Saturday and 2.3 hours on Sunday. I was pleasantly surprised at my first landing in the Arrow on Saturday -- while my airspeed in the pattern was, well, "all over the place", the landing itself was not so bad. I floated a bit down the runway, but I did land the plane rather nicely. The subsequent landings got better, and by Sunday, I was doing just fine.

I'm really going to finish my commercial this time, I promise. :-) I've found a new instructor who is more available than my old one -- so I've scheduled the plane after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, together with some weekends. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be a commercial pilot! (Of course, I've said that before, but this time I'm more determined...)