The Long Road That Seemingly Never Ends

Here is how I picture the finish line for instrument training:

Remember the movie Poltergeist? Of course you do. Well, the scene where JoBeth Williams is running down the hallway and it keeps getting longer and longer reminds me of my instrument training. I keep seeing the end get further and further away. I'm also afraid there might be a poltergeist waiting for me at the end too. Poltergeists freighten me.

Other things the movie Poltergeist did for me (Actually, my wife is the same way):

1. We don't like to leave the closet light on at night.
2. We don't like to eat cold chicken (maggot scene).
3. Program over=TV OFF.
4. No trees near the windows of our house.
5. Our house is a clown free zone.



Actually, Poltergeist is one of my favorite horror films. I think I'll watch it in 2019 when I finally have 2 hours to spare. But I digress...

Today, after and hours worth of pre-flight/clearances/briefings, we took off and were instructed to fly runway heading. After ATC vectored us for a few minutes, Rex instructed me to intercept the 18DME on the 180 radial from IWA Vortac. I tune and ident. No problem. Then I twist the OBS selector on NAV1, the CDI starts swinging full from left to right. Crap. Tune and ident NAV2. Turn the OBS and it centers just fine. I tried another VOR just in case. Same thing.

End of course requires a precision approach. I don't feel like flying twice to do end of course and decide to end the flight. CRAP! 90 minutes wasted. I get ATIS and call up KIWA. Check instructors get to log time, but never actually fly so I let Rex bring us in. Since it was a maintenance issue, I wasn't going to be charged for the flight anyway. I played FO for him. We had about a moderate right crosswind and he set it down smooth as glass on the 1000' aiming point. Nicely done Rex.

OK...I know that some people take a year or longer to get their instrument rating. Technically I've only been working on mine for about 12 weeks. However, if I had not been delayed so many times due to maintenance issues, I would have earned the rating by August 1st. I am starting my second week of commercial ground school Monday and would really like to be doing my single engine maneuvers and cross countries now. When everyone else is working on their multi, I'll be doing single still. Oh well.

The good news is that I finished the ground/oral portion with no real problems. I need to brush up on AIM recommended reporting points.

We're going to try and finish up Sunday evening from 6-9. Will there be an operational IFR equipped Cadet? I bet even money.