Went To The Airport Today

On arriving at the hangar, there was a small issue with the Archer that I quickly picked up on during the preflight:

 

Yep, the initial preflight showed that it was clear the Archer was not going to be flying today.

Of course, I knew this before going to the airport, and the aircraft has already been scheduled as out of service.  

As Flying Club Secretary, the first of the month is when I need to go to the hangars and collect and record the flying times for the prior month and do some other duties to keep the club flying along.

We're doing the overhaul/replacement of the engine, as the replacement engine finally arrived from Lycoming after a wait time of over two years from date of initial order.

Yep, Covid delays have continued and really set back engine delivery dates, and painfully doubled the prices of engines as well.

So, the old engine has been removed from the air frame,and is currently still attached to the hoist.

It has done yeoman service, being rock solid and reliable, but it is over TBO. It is time for the overhaul to get the Archer equipped with a zero-time engine. This awesome engine's most excellent engine core will go back to Lycoming to be rebuilt and will likely make its next owner extremely happy.

But, the new engine sure looks all nice and shiny:

The install will take awhile, and we also need to replace the intake manifold as we've found a crack in it when the engine was removed, so that's a nice extra unexpected expense that needs to be done. 

Putting it all back together by the book will also take some time, and no shortcuts will be taken. Then the plane will get fully checked out and after that go back into service with the club after everything is back in tip-top shape.

Looking forward to getting this easy-handling and reliable bird back in the air. 

That Is Not Going To Buff Out

On April 30, quite a storm rolled through Oakland County.

While the winds were gusting heavily, the flight school successor to Flight 101 that currently owns N73455, a Cessna 172M, was apparently trying to move it to shelter with a tug.

Unfortunately they had decided to get it to shelter, and then tried to do so, but too late.

 

It flipped and was damaged.

A recent photo taken by a friend who saw it this week, shows it was even more substantially damaged after that first photo was taken, with the damage possibly occurring when they went to flip it back over afterwards. 

A sad end to the plane I did my first solo in.

N73455 was, verily, a flying aluminum beer bucket of bolts (with non-essential pieces of the interior consistently falling off).  

So much so, that at least one local DPE had consistently refused to ever do a checkride in it (and all the other aircraft in that flight school) because of its condition.

But for all that, it was still a great and smooth flying aircraft.  When you were a student and didn't know any better about what condition an aircraft should be in, it was great. 

So farewell to N73455, she had a rough life, and wasn't cared for as she should have been, and her life was ended due to the same neglect she suffered all her life as a flight school aircraft.  

For all that, she always flew true, and gave many a student pilot their first thrilling gateway to a future of flying.  

The Most Dangerous Part Of Yesterday

The time Mr. B. and I were in the most danger yesterday did not take place while we were in the air.

Instead, it took place when I drove towards a solid green at the T-intersection from the south side of the airport to turn left onto the M-59 Highway.

I was in the left turn lane and starting the turn on the already solid green when Mr. B. said "look out!" I had seen it as well, and was hitting the brakes as he said it, and we came to a sharp halt.

An idiot in a Jeep had decided decided to whip through the already very, very, solid red without looking to see if anyone was coming out of the airport drive. It's not like he was running a yellow, this had already been a solid red before he got near the intersection.

This led to some incredulous looks by both Mr. B. and myself, as well as some language not appropriate for a general audience -- much of which concerned the dubious parentage and proclivities of the Jeep driver.

Had I been moving faster to make that turn, it would have been rather bad.  I then finished the turn on the green, well behind the speeding Jeep and no one else tried to bash through the light like that. The Jeep then came to a stop at the very next red light as there were already cars stopped in front of it, and the idiot driver really hadn't saved himself any time, so there's that at least. 

It was far more dangerous on the ground than in the air yesterday.

Not Flying But Did Some Driving And Approaches Anyways

So today was the day we would finally fly the Archer and Dakota down to Adrian, leave the Archer to get the new autopilot installed and all fly back in the Dakota.

Weather forecast last night was favorable and I would fly the Archer, E. in the Dakota, and he was bringing as buddy along as well. 

Should be simple, about a 55 nautical mile flight, and we would finally have the Archer getting thew work done after waiting over a year since we ordered the autopilot.

Easy, right?

It was not to be.

So we got up early, and the weather basically sucked.

IFR conditions with light snow and icing over Pontiac airport, with another large cell in between Adrian and Pontiac, and Adrian also going IFR at times.

We went to the airport anyways, hoping for a break in the weather and there never really was one where Pontiac, Adrian, and the space between were all not IFR.

That kinda sucked. So we all got a chance to drive E.'s Chevy EV Equinox and drove to get some breakfast. 

E. works for GM and he has a pre-release of the 2025 Electric Equinox RS to test drive and it is rather interesting to drive.

Overall, it's a nice-looking EV SUV, and nicely trimmed out.

It does have very weird flush door handles that come out of the doors when you approach, but open towards the rear of the car.  While it looks aerodynamic, the feel when using them is that your hand is going to slip off the handle as you open the door. They really should have had them facing the other way.  Also, if you leave your car outdoors in freezing rain, these flush fit handles may give you issues.

Features on the Equinox EV include an interesting one-pedal mode, where if you're not applying force to the accelerator it begins to slow down and even stop the vehicle - that's quite a weird feeling. It is an option you can switch on and off while driving.

Handling was absolutely superb even in snow, and the traction control was really spot on in preventing slipping on snow-covered roads and made driving in the snow very easy even on turns. Acceleration is effortless,  the vehicle is rather nice and responsive and road noise is minimal. 

However, driving it is not completely intuitive. The shifter is on a stalk on the right side of the steering wheel and is really not intuitive to use at all. Wiper controls are rotating dials on the left stalk and again not exactly intuitive to find.

It has a great and large touchscreen but lacks tactile buttons for most selections, and, for whatever reason, the icons are small and close together which makes selections more complicated while driving, requiring you to take your eyes off the road to find the selection you want.  Most cars with touchscreens are like this and the loss of tactile buttons where you don't need to move your eyes from outside the car but can find your options by feel is a personal pet peeve.

Downside on the Equinox is the claimed 300 mile range on the battery isn't, especially in winter conditions.

If you're not doing road trips and just using it for an in-city trips and you can regularly charge it, it would make a lot of sense.  Taking long trips may turn your voyage to Chicago into a 14-hour trip rather than the 5 in a normal car.

If they made this model as a hybrid, I believe it would sell like hotcakes as that would solve the range problem by having a generator on board to recharge the batteries, but hybrids aren't, for whatever reason, the fashionable vehicle these days with the current crop of auto execs and politicians pushing EVs over everything.  

After driving the EV, we then used the simulator at DCT as it was available and  E. is a part-time instructor, so  each of the three of us logged two ILS approaches at "Flint" down to minimums in the sim.  The sim is as sensitive as I remember it, and flying an approach in it is indeed harder than in an actual airplane.  E.  made the scenario a bit challenging with some crosswinds, cumulus clouds to bounce one around,  and cloud cover opening right at minimums.

Good practice, and now I need 4 more approaches to get current, which I need to do, and soon.

The weather never lifted so we called it off and we will see if we get a break tomorrow.

Not Flying This Weekend

Well this weekend on Sunday I was set for my first international flight ever in the Archer.

Was going to fly to Toronto Island Airport, CYTZ. Being a slightly less than 2-hour flight, it would knock the pants of the typically 5+ hour drive time to get there.

Weather was great, finally.  

The night before I had filed electronically with US CBP as required a minimum of two hours before the fight, and called Canada Customs in the morning, also as required with no issues.

Filed an IFR flight plan direct to Toronto Island Airport, got the plane topped up with fuel and was ready to go.

Got my clearance direct, initial altitude 3,000 expect 7,000 in 10 minutes and good to go, headed to the run up area and started the run up.

All instruments good, all systems functioning, get to the flight plan portion and enter the flight plan enter CYTZ and:

Waypoint not found.

Blink.

Try again:

Waypoint not found.

Tried again, same result, tried other Canadian waypoints and nothing.

Well, so much for flying direct, and that hosed the trip as I would have had to cancel IFR, refile VFR, and then gotten routed around Toronto International's airspace which would have messed up the flying time considerably and would have required redoing the USBP clearance with a two hour minimum as VFR instead of IFR.

Turns out the maintenance guy for the club, without telling anyone, did not renew the subscription for Canadian maps for the club's GPSs.  To say I am not happy about that is an understatement.

Well, definite first world problem that, but quite annoying and it sure messed up the plans for the weekend.

Not Flying - All Fogged Out

Was going to do some flying today and while the weather by the house had cleared up nicely by the time I left, at the airport it was a different story.

 Fog and zero-zero visibility.  About as Low IFR as you can get.

That's looking south from the north hangars along taxiway Delta.   Runway 27R/9L at the end of taxiway Kilo is not visible, nor is the parallel runway, nor is the tower on the south end.

Under Part 61, which is the rules I fly under, I could legally takeoff in these conditions.

Legal, but dumb.

Dumb, because you can't legally land in zero/zero and if you have an issue at or shortly after takeoff your options are rather limited.

While I both want and need to get some IFR practice in, this was not the day to do it.

Zero/Zero is substantially below by personal minimums for IFR, so, no flying for me this morning.

Flying IFR - Not Exactly The Checkride

So this morning, bright and early, I got up and did all the calculations -- by hand --for a pretend route of flight from KPTK to KMDW via the CCOBB2 Departure and PANGG3 Arrival. That's the preferred route from Pontiac to Chicago Midway per the Chart Supplement, so I could easily defend that choice of route.

Why did I do that route?  Because I was assigned that as the test route for my checkride and today was the day.

That took about a bit over an hour and a half to get all the wind correction, heading adjustment, speed, flight time and fuel burn calculations in for the 2 pages worth of the Nav Log for the flight .  I also calculated time and fuel burn to my selected alternate, KDPA. An eraser and choice language was used quite a bit.

I also drew the route in pencil on the paper Low-Altitude IFR map.

Note that in the real world, you do this in Foreflight or another flight planner application in about a minute, and it will be more accurate.

I had previously done the weight and balance by hand this weekend in preparation for the "flight" and had that all written out and ready to go. Again Foreflight makes that a lot quicker.

I also ran and pulled a full flight brief and downloaded that as well.

Then I had a couple eggs for breakfast and headed to the airport and checked in at DCT and set myself up in the test room at 9.  The test begins at 10, but DCT wants you there an hour early.

Looked like a nice sunny day but with a fair bit of wind. 

Unfortunately DCT didn't have the airplane logbook all tabbed out for the test so that was a major PITA finding everything, especially as it didn't arrive before 10 am.  Very fun and off to a great start.

So I got logged into IACRA, produced all my documentation proving who I was, and that I was qualified to take the IFR checkride and the oral portion of the checkride then began. 

I correctly answered question on what I need to be able to legally fly, what the airplane needs to legally fly, weather, lots of IFR related questions, IFR chart questions, how an altimeter works (it has aneroid wafers inside which is the key answer there) etc.

We went over my flight plan and he ran it and the numbers worked, so I passed my flight planning.

But, I still had a couple brain fades and got stumped on some questions, including this one:

"What is the white D in the black square in the airport diagram at the bottom of the approach plate?"  

I actually knew the answer to this question back in January, but it apparently left my mind in the meantime and never registered that it was gone and needed to be re-memorized. So with all attempts at mind data retrieval failing, I had concede that I had to look it up. 

Yep the D at the top of this diagram:

I proceeded to tell him everything else that was on that entire approach plate not, just this small diagram that was a part of it, but could not remember for the life of me what the fargin' D was for

That D means that declared runway lengths are available to look up for the airport.   So now you know too.  This will clearly make your life better.

As a GA pilot I will never actually use nor need to use declared runway lengths and you don't need them to fly GA IFR, so this is all part of the mind-f___k that is the oral portion of a checkride. They keep asking you stuff until you can't answer it, regardless of its actual utility to show you that you don't know it all. 

I already know rather well that I don't know it all, thank you very much. The stuff I don't know can and does fill volumes.

So, after that bit of demoralization, I then learned I had passed the oral.

I then went out to preflight the plane, and noticed the winds were getting pretty gusty, as I was doing so got a text from my instructor whoi was up flying with another instrument student that the wind gusts were pretty bad, it was very bouncy and turbulent along the route and hard to maintain altitude, and that I should probably discontinue the test at this point.

After all, if turbulence drops or lifts you beyond the 100 foot above, zero below the set altitude you still fail regardles that it was turbulence rather than you that did it.

So what to do?  I had the feeling of get this checkride-over-with-already- warring with the feeling do -not-screw-this up  and I chatted with Mr. B for some advise.  After all, when in doubt, consult a friend.

I also called Flight Service to see what they had and they reported rather gusty at ground level and no sign of it letting up.

I did end up deciding to discontinue as it would have been dumb to go up on a checkride with conditions stacked against me.

Unfortunately, the examiner's next availability is not until July 15, even as tomorrow's weather is forecast to be perfect.  So I will be hoping that July 15 offers better weather. 

So, yet again, this is not over. It's going to take yet more time, require more lessons to maintain proficiency, and as usual take much longer than I would like which seems to be a recurring pattern with my flying instruction.

There's 60 days available in a discontinuance and after that I have to do the whole thing again and pay a whole 'nother full fee for it, so I'm hoping I get an opening and decent weather at the same time in the next 60 days, which is gonna be hard as he's booked solid.

There may be an end to this, but it sure ain't here yet.

Drat - Not Flying Today

Today, I had planned to head out to KBTL, Battle Creek, for the first time with Leah to go to the Waco Kitchen and meet up with Mr. B and Midwest Chick.

Was really looking forward to it, as I had never been there, was looking forward to meeting up with them, and they currently only have their large 10,000 foot runway open so it would have been neat to land on it.

Winds were potentially going to be a bit sporty coming back with an Airmet for turbulence and with a direct 20-knot crosswind but doable, pretty comparable to what I dealt with yesterday so I wasn't too concerned overall, and the weather seems to have matched the forecast pretty much.

So, we headed out to Pontiac Airport, got to the hangar, and found there was no power at all.

It turns out that all of the hangars were out of power and DTE (our local power utility) had no estimate on restoration.  So we couldn't get the hangar door open.

The airport did have a generator on a truck to open the hangar but it was a long wait for it indeed.  I did the preflight in hangar with the personnel door propped open so we had some light and got ready to go if the truck showed up. But, after waiting a couple hours for it, we decided to pack it in as Leah was starting to get a tad hangry, and justifiably so.

So we headed to Copperstone's, a local diner close to Pontiac Airport for a very late breakfast instead.  I had never been there before but it turns out to be quite busy and popular local place. 

On the upside the service was great, the food arrived quickly, was insanely plentiful for the price - The Country Fried Steak came with three over-easy eggs, hash browns, and toast for all of $10 so yes, the food was impressively amazing and tasty, and it fixed hangry quite nicely. 

On the downside, we didn't get to head out and meet up with friends as planned.

 There will be a next time for that though.

The Pre-Checkride Oral Exam

So this morning I met up with Alec to go over the oral component of the IFR checkride as a prerequisite to taking the checkride.

Went very well, I apparently have at least some idea what I'm talking about and got some good tips on wha tthe examiner is looking for.

First important tip:  The examiner was paper and lots of it - paper IFR charts and Paper chart supplements.  Never mind that all of this is available on Foreflight, I now need to go out and buy paper copies for the exam.  Blech.

Second:  You need to really know your paper chart symbology.  I was fine with that as I had studied expecting that to be the case.

Third:  Need to know how to explain how the Garmin G5s actually work - solid state gyroscopes, accelerators and air data computer.  We apparently don't need to know how to disassemble and replace the internals so there's that. 

Fourth:  Everything is fair game and there is a heckuva lot of it

Upside:  I passed and now have the checkride booked.

I do now have yet another pre-checkride requirement: a required pre-checkride flight with Alec to do this Friday, so I better not mess that up.

There may just be a light at the end of the tunnel, but it may very well be an oncoming train.

No Flying This Morning

The weather this morning was rather iffy for flying.  Had to head to the doc first for a checkup on the hip - some good news there, more on that later.

Forecast was for MVFR and forecasts of thunderstorms.

Cloud heights would have likely put me in the base of the clouds at 3,000-3,500 feet which would not have been good.

Sadly, an IFR-rated friend who was going to be a safety pilot couldn't make it so I would have been up solo.

Since the weather was forecast rather iffy and getting up and driving around I saw low clouds out the window I decided to call it off.

Overall, I think these times going out by myself has been helpful.

I figure I'll do a lesson Tuesday, and we will see if I get the nod for the pre-checkride-checkride.  If not back to more solo practice and a safety pilot if I can nab one.

Open The Hangar Bay Door HAL

So this morning I was set for a nice solo flight to Jackson.

Just me and the plane and a cross-country for breakfast with a couple practice instrument approaches done VFR (and since not hooded  and no safety pilot they would not have been logged as approaches). Just a relaxing VFR trip.

It was not to be,

Got to the airport, got in the Hangar, did an initial walk around, went to open the Hangar door and:

Yep, a whole lot of nothing.  The Hangar motor did not turn.  After over 20 tries there was one moment with a kiss of power but it stil wouldn't open.  None of the breakers in the hangar were tripped, but I tried resettign them anyways. Nada.

Well, that didn't work out too well.  I called ouR head of maintenance for the club and got a call back from him.  The breakers - they do nothing,  The hangar door electric feed is controlled by the airport authority on a separate breaker for which we don't have access.  Could be the entire row is out, could be our motor, could be a limited switch (per Mr. B), who knows.

So, no flying for me today.

Not Flying - Sim Flight

As I predicted, it was a simulator flight and glad I insisted on it.  

They did offer a flight in 88J, as they thought it wouldn't be too bad, but I could already see the wind picking up. Sure enough it went to 19-35 knots at 230 making for a 22.5 crosswind factor plus rain and low clouds.  No thank you.

So simulator it was.

Controlling the simulator sucks.  Made even harder as I got to simulate an iPad failure as I had left it plugged in at home.  Ooops.

So I used my phone for the charts.  Good fail-over practice anyways.

Did the Troy RNAV 9 circle to 28 and did it well enough for a simulator.  Could not trim it level at all, was bobbing around like a porpoise even not touching the yoke.

Then I did the Pontiac Backcourse 27L and that went ok.

Then on to the RNAV 27 and Rocky failed the Attitude Indicator and HSI without telling me.  In the sim they remain on the screen frozen and since he did it when I was straight and level and everything was going well, it rapidly started not going well.  Much hillarity ensued and I messed that up big time.

Then did it again and handled it much better, and he also failed the turn coordinator.  Quick tip if you lose your Attitude Indicator; HSI; and Turn Coordinator all at the same time in IMC, someone up there really doesn't like you.

Turns out you can do a standard rate turn by watching the GPS track change in degrees, and can know you're level when it stops changing, which was an interesting lesson to find out.  Did manage to make the runway on that one.

Overall I'm not exactly thrilled with my performance and just hope it will translate to more precise real aircraft control and better instrument scan.

That's 1.5 simulated instrument; 3 holds; 3 approaches; and feeling like this is going pretty much nowhere.  If the weather improves this weekend or next week, I think I'm just going up by myself to clear my head and just do some practice approaches and work on just having the plane completely under control.

Probably Not Flying Today

Yesterday a front moved in with winds gusting well over 45 kts.  Windy as all get out, trees whipping around etc.  Buddy of mine that is a lot more experienced than I am who had a flight planned to Boston yesterday wisely cancelled and drove his family instead.  Very good call.

Today, when I'm scheduled to be flying, winds are forecast at 23-35 kts at 240 with rain, making for a 17.5 crosswind factor at a minimum.  

Winds are currently going 12-22 kts at 220 and if it stayed at 220 and then increases to the forecast 35kts it would make for a 26.8 crosswind factor. That's a lot, and while I've done that before with an instructor, it's really not a lot of fun at all.

The book gives the Piper Archer a maximum demonstrated crosswind factor of 17.

Would I personally fly in these current and forecast conditions?  NO.  They are beyond my personal limits.

Does that make me a tad too cautious and conservative?  Perhaps.

Do I care?:  Also, NO.

After all, whose tail is going to be in the plane?  Mine.

In short,  unless we get a dramatic change in the opposite of forecast directions, this is going to be a Simulator lesson.

Not Flying - Flight Review Ground

Did the first part of the flight review today.

Met up with Alec at DCT.  We get along well, and we got right into the Flight Review.

Covered the VFR stuff quickly and turned it into a flight planning session with emphasis on weather and go/no-go decision making. Did that well.

Then onto a refresher on doing all the performance calcilations, route planning, and W&B by hand without using Foreflight - the same way I'll be stuck doing them for my IFR checkride.  Good practice for the test anyways.

Then went into some more esoteric stuff and some fun specific questions I've had about some weird situations and we worked through those which were quite helpful.

So I successfully passed the Ground Portion of the Flight Review.

Flying And Not Flying - No Checkride Today

This morning I got up at 6 and got the weather brief.

I then also got a weather brief for my exercise planned IFR flight that will not actually be flown, but is required as part of the oral portion of the test.  

Did the wind correction and times by hand as required and got that done, which took quite some time.  Got the weight and balance done and printed out.  Filled out by hand an IFR ICAO flight plan, because again, ground portion.  All this took time and all could be done automatically by Foreflight and in real life you'd use Foreflight but for the checkride suffering is required.

Got to the airport.

Did the preflight, fired up the plane, did the run-up by the numbers and checklist.

Arranged for and got flight following to KADG.

Held short of Runway 27R and was told to head to Runway 27L for departure.  Slid along taxiway Hotel as it had a fair bit of ice between the runways and took off from 27L at Hotel, fair bit of ice on the runway which made it a tad interesting.

Plane performance is outstanding, density altitude is over -1000 feet, plane flies itself into the air like a homesick angel, all is great.

Headed southwest to KADG.

Almost immediately hit a fully overcast mist-ladden layer at 2,000 feet into the start of IFR conditions.

I'm not IFR certified yet, that's what this ride is for after all.

Duck under 2,000 immediately to get out of the start of IFR conditions and take a moment to assess the situation.  

Not legal for me to go IFR, nor particularly safe in this rather misty conditions with high icing potential.

Not smart to scud-run below 2,000 feet all the way to KADG, and if it comes down more, I will be truly screwed. Since you're supposed to be 500 feet below the clouds in Class E and D Airspace, I'd have to be at 1,500 with the ground at around 980 feet in order to be legal - that's not a lot of room and it's giving yourself a complete lack of options in an emergency.

Assessment - the flight is not within my personal safety limits so I'm cancelling.

Screw the Get-There-Itis and Want-To-Get-The-Checkride-Done impulses.  It's just not happening.

Cancelled with Detroit Approach and returned to Pontiac.

Of course, I did an absolutely perfect, and I mean absolutely perfect landing, because no one was watching.

Slid past taxiway Whiskey due to icing on 27R and got off on the next taxiway.

Back to DCT.

Now there's no chance for a checkride for another 2-3 months minimum and likely I will be out of flight review status as that expires at the end of March. 

So, I will have to take and pay for a flight review beforehand to be current - the IFR checkride would have counted as one but since that's not happening it doesn't.

I'll also have to take more lessons because the rules require three hours of instrument flight training within two calendar months before the check ride.

In short this cancellation just cost well over a couple grand easily.  FML.

.4 and 1 absolutely perfect landing.

Not Flying Today Either

It was the correct decision not to proceed yesterday as the weather was indeed unsatisfactory to say the least.

Today was a possible alternate for the test and the forecast said no, not today, and it was right.

Now have January 12 set as the date and if anything favorable comes up before then I'm jumping on it.  Long range forecast looks hopeful.  Talk about down to the wire.

We will see what happens.

Frack - Not Flying Tomorrow

Know how I mentioned the weather doesn't look favorable for tomorrow?

Well, forecast is for winds gusting 30-40 kts, and that's the "good" part (just so you know 30-40 knots in a small aircraft is bad m'kay?).  But wait, there's more:

Marginal VFR and IFR Conditions;

Airmet Tango for moderate turbulence;

 

Airmet Zulu for icing;

 

Wind shear; and

 

Likely snow showers.

 

My assessment: Not a good day for a checkride, nor particularly even legal for me to fly down to do it.

Called a briefer to confirm what I was seeing and he said the magic words: "VFR not recommended." We chatted and both agreed tomorrow is not a good day for a checkride.

Called my instructor - assessment is the same.

Called Examiner - He appreciated my thoroughness and agreed that it would be a bad day to do a checkride tomorrow.

He was in the middle of some stuff, so we will be talking to examiner tonight about rescheduling.

Well, I May Just Get An IFR Flight Test After All

Just found an examiner that has an opening, but not at Pontiac.  Would need to fly to him first.

Lots to arrange but this may just happen.

Scrod - Not Getting An IFR Examination Done Anytime Soon

There once was a man who flew in to Boston and wanted to have some of their famous tasty small cod, oft referred to as scrod.

So, leaving the airport he got in a taxi and asked the driver:

"Can you take me to where I can get scrod around here?"

The driver replied:   "Sure," said the cabdriver. "I know a few places and get asked that a lot... but I can tell you it's not often I hear someone use the past pluperfect subjunctive anymore!"

In short, I am now scrod. 

Hadn't heard from my primary instructor since December 10.  He's off doing charters for the company and apparently doesn't get or respond to texts etc while doing so as they oft go international this time of year.

All other instructors were stating I'm ready, but they couldn't and can't sign me off.

Finally still not hearing from my primary, I call the school today and talk to the head instructor after not hearing back from mine and she says I can book it now, but their preferred examiner is now not available until January 19 and others similarly won't be available given the time of year.

Well, great.  

Problem is, I have surgery set for January 13 (more on that upcoming fun later and the fun I've been having leading up to it) that will knock me off flying for at least 8 weeks at best and possibly longer.

Oh, and my flight review is due in March 2022, too.

So I'm ready now,  but will now have to spend a lot more time and money to retrain, and then get back up to proficiency after not flying for a few months to do the test. 

I'll have to keep studying ground stuff at the same intensity for even more months, including remembering the really important stuff like how the inside of an altimeter works and how to explain the electrical system of the plane down to the last resistor (yes, their preferred examiner really gets off on you having to explain the entire electrical diagram in the POH and correctly identifying all the unmarked electrical symbols on the diagram - for your IFR exam no less), and of course how to do the paper Nav performance and wind correction heading calculations that no one uses in real flying anymore.

I also now have to pay for and do a flight review (would have been automatic with a new rating, now I need to hire an instructor to get that done - potentially post-haste as it expires in March), and all that due to people not doing what they are supposed to do.  Really hate that.

Should simply tell myself there's no rush and I'll do it when I do it, and what's another additional unnecessary kilobuck, or two, or three, down the drain when dealing with flying, which is exactly what is now going to happen. 

But, I was sure as heck primed and ready now for both the ground and air portions. Drat.

Not Flying - IFR Sim Ride

Met up tonight with Paul as my instructor.

Snow was coming down pretty good with low clouds so just as well that Kevin had arranged for it to be a simulator flight.

For relaxation time in Georgia, I had purchased and brought along and read the book Performance Pilot, a book mainly about the mental preparation game for flying with a heavy emphasis on chair flying and visualization. I had tried that out each night before going to sleep or before a nap, visualizing a perfect pre-flight; a perfect instrument scan;  a perfect approach; a perfect checkride flight sequence, etc.

It may very well have helped.

I did very well in the simulator, about the best I've ever done, as sensitive as it is.  Much more in control, with really good altitude and heading control even as sensitive as the simulator is.

First we did the Flint VOR 36 circle to 27 and I handled it well; then the Flint ILS 27, and the Flint RNAV 18.  Then Pontiac's RNAV 9, and then off to Troy for the RNAV 9 circle to 27, and back to Pontiac for the RNAV 27L.

Didn't screw up any sequences, settings, etc, and was ahead of the game on each approach.

Did them all well, even nailed the landing on the Flint VOR 36 circle to 27 and had everything under control nicely.

Felt pretty good,

Just need final clearance from Kevin and I can book the actual checkride.  We will see if I get it in time or not.

That's 1.9, 1.9 simulated instrument, 2 holds and 5 approaches