Oh, You Again

After a week of life in slow motion, everything has to pick up, huh?

My instrument check ride is finally scheduled for Thursday morning. I'm pretty excited, but worried about proficiency. I haven't had an instrument flight, other than the short GPS redo for my end of course flight last Wednesday. I guess we'll see how it goes.

As far as the ground goes, I'm going to get my stuff together over the next few days; brush up on damn acronyms, instruments and service volumes. I'm pretty sure I'll have the same DE as last time, which helps with my comfort level. He really makes you feel comfortable, but still knows what to look for in a good pilot. His pass/fail rate is no higher than any other DE, but I really think highly of him.

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To add to the stress factor this week, I have the stage one commercial exam tomorrow. I'm not too worried about it, though. Most of the stuff in stage one is either review from private and instrument with some common sense regs added. After the test, I have to go on an overnight business trip through Wednesday afternoon. Hopefully, I can spend Tuesday night in the hotel studying and get home early enough Wednesday to do my flight plan and study a bit more.

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Friday, my wife and I are going an a little cross-country to Orange County (KSNA) to enjoy a relaxing weekend in Newport Beach. The good part is killing two birds with one stone. I'll use my IFR flight plan from Stellar (P19) to John Wayne (KSNA) for my Instrument practical test.

I was hoping to take my wife to Avalon airport on Catalina Island, but she's not too hip about flying over the ocean in a small plane. Oh well, with my commercial cross countries coming up, I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to get there.

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There's been some wacky tropical weather in Phoenix the last several days and it's expected to continue through the end of the week. My confidence level with crosswinds in a 172 has not been that great so I took advantage of the winds today and went flying with a CFI at Angel Air to brush up my 172 crosswind skills in the 172.
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We did 14 crosswind touch and go's at 3 different airports (Chandler, Falcon and Phoenix Regional). We did 10, 20 & 30 degree flap landings and they were all picture perfect. I don't get it. The weight difference between flying solo and with a passenger is the only thing I can figure. Most of my confidence issues were during solo flights. I guess I'll find out next time I solo in the 172.