since the pre-pre-test...

I know it's been a long time since I last updated the blog, but generally the weather has been abysmal and hence there's been next to no flying, but also cos I couldn't be arsed...

The day after the pre-pre-test I flew with an instructor to polish up on the items the CFI had highlighted:

• Steep Turns
• Fully Developed Stall

Without the pressure of flying with a CFI and (relatively) relaxed in the knowledge that I was more or less there as regards the required standard, all the practice in this flight went much better. I was much less fixated on the instruments in the steep turns and looked out much more. The stalls were also generally much better though I still need work on the clean (aka fully developed) stall as I'm still not pitching down enough or holding it there long enough to properly unstall and get a nice recovery. But I'm getting it better each time. And the unusual attitudes under partial panel instrument flying were more precise.

Then the weather and CFI availability stuck a honking great big spanner in the works. The weather on the next day (Thu 30th Nov) when I was due to have my 170A was marginal and forecast to worsen which it in fact did, getting upt0 20 knots gusting 32 by 12:00 (was only forecast to be a tempo of 15 gusting 25) so this put paid to any 170A that day. On the 31st the CFI was away and he also doesn't fly on the weekends which meant that the next day to try for the 170A would be Mon 4th Nov.

But of course the British weather, and especially Leeds flicked me the bird and said, "uh-uh". The airport was pretty much fogged in for four to five days on the trot (including the weekend), and even the IR pilots who were lining up for their 170A and tests couldn't fly. Totally frustrating!!!

When the weather finally cleared up on the Friday, as luck would have it, the CFI was again unavailable. However, in order to keep some semblance of currency I did do a short flight that day to brush up on steep turns & stalls and to try to boost my instrument flying time which I'm, a little short on. Everything went pretty well and Brian (who is probably the most critical of the instructors [but in a good, tell it like it is way]) was pretty happy with all the flying I did that day. So I was quite pleased considering my concern about things especially with my lack of recent flying.

But of course the weather intervened yet again and after the weekend both Mon 10th and Tue 11th were scratched because of being blustery showery days.

And this brings us up to the present!