If you....

want to learn a little bit about yourself, learn to fly. My CFI told me that I put very high expectations on myself and tend to beat myself up when I don't meet them. That I need to relax, shake off the failures, and move on. I never thought that I put high expectations on myself. I am not very competetive, haven't pushed to be at the top of the corporate ladder. I just did my job and that's it--or so I thought. I have spent a lot of time one on one with him, and he has taught a lot of folks to fly, so it interests me that he thinks that. I do stress out when things don't go right, but I never analyzed it at all. The point of all this is that I guess you can learn things about yourself that you had not thought about from unexpected sources. Amen.

Milestone?

We did pattern work in at KBOI yesterday. I pulled off the first landing where my CFI said "excellent." I also pulled off my first landing where he neither touched the controls nor said a word. He just sat there. No, it wasn't the one he called "excellent." He assured me that the first without coaching is a milestone... that I proved that I have the skills and abilities to be a pilot. I have a feeling that he overstated its importance to build my confidence, but I am taking it! Next milestone, solo. Then written test, solo cross country, solo night cross country, and check ride. Time to hit the books again and get ready for the written.

Catch Up

Well, Mexico was wonderful. Highs in the 80s, sun, sand, and great service. I am having a tough time getting my mind right after that. I returned last week and flew Monday and today. Monday was not a good thing. I didn't do well, was tight, and got pretty discouraged. I though that a couple weeks off would magically turn me into Mr. Landing... it just made me rusty. Today, at my CFI's insistence, I calmed the hell down and did much better. I am landing on my own all the time, but some are pretty ugly. Today, because of visibility issues in Nampa, we stayed in the Boise traffic pattern and I did very well (or at least better). I am not a "fluid" sort of guy and it shows. I had the same fluidity issue learning to ride the motorcycle, so it's not a surprise. We pretty much used one runway today (10R) while the other traffic used 10L. At one point however, they switched me over to 10L which put my traffic pattern over the city. Take off to the east, turn left and cross the freeway and the NY Canal, turn left paralleling the runway and the 2 more lefts to land. During one of those cycles they wanted me out of the pattern to work in a couple other aircraft and he told me to do a right 360 for spacing. I did a nice wide turn and flew over my office on the way back. Very cool. Nice view of the city.

On a separate note, I heard some great "flying in Mexico" tales from my CFI from back in his corporate jet days. Funny stuff.