Doo doo doo, lookin' out my front door...

Here's a couple pics I took last week, of the view from our front door. (If you click on them, you can see the bigger versions.) They're not anything you probably haven't already seen, but I was feeling particularly awestruck by the mountains that day. I'm hoping to head back to the airport park this weekend, so I can take a few pictures of the mountains up close. I also want to get a picture of the D. You'll just have to wait and see.

Tucson, Part II

Today was my second flight to Tucson (to make up for my first flight to Tucson), and I had a back seat passenger this time. Selena (the girl with the photos from my last post) rode along with us, since we used her flight time in addition to my flight time. Unfortunately for Selena, Erin's comm box wasn't working properly, so Selena's headset didn't work. Apart from that, I'm very glad to say that this trip went much better than the last one. I got to talk to ATC and make my own landings. And, amazingly, my landings (we did a couple touch-and-go's) were pretty smooth. A problem student pilots sometimes have is flaring too high on wide runways, which causes them to drop down pretty hard on the landing gear. The reason is that we subconsciously memorize our perspective on roundout and defer to that perspective any time we land. Obviously, if we're landing on a wider-than-normal runway, it's going to seem like we're lower than we actually are, causing a premature roundout. Today, though, I really concentrated and managed to make 3 decent landings.

The trip back to Cochise from Tucson was really smooth. In fact, Selena fell asleep for a while. I remember someone once saying to me that one of the best compliments you can get on your flying is to have a passenger fall asleep. Mission accomplished, I guess.

Tomorrow, I'll probably find out which day I'll be flying my cross-country stage check. I've still got pretty good odds of finishing my private before the semester ends. Please, God, enable me to finish my private before the semester ends.

Disgusted...

I walked into class today, sat in my usual seat, and was almost instantly handed a stack of photographs by one of my just-out-of-high-school classmates (coincidentally, it's the girl who will be riding back seat on my X-C tomorrow). The photos were of a party she had at her friend's house this past weekend, and starred 5 or 6 of the students in the Cochise College aviation program. And every single person in every single picture was heavily intoxicated. In fact, several of the photos were of one of my under-aged classmates passed out with his head resting on a toilet seat. Apparently, puking took so much out of him that he had to cuddle with the porcelain for a nap.

This absolutely disgusts me. After all the emphasis our instructors have put on being responsible and acting professional, and how important those qualities are, here are half a dozen of my fellow student pilots drinking themselves stupid at a party. And they weren't all private students, just starting out, either; one of them is almost done with the program, and another one is working on his commercial. How very pathetic.

Another Long Flight

I flew with Erin again this morning. We went up and practiced a couple in-flight diversions. Basically, it's preparation in case we're ever faced with a situation where we're not able to go to the airport we'd planned on landing at. For instance, if a squall line moves in over our destination, we're not going to be able to land there. And, assuming our trip has been longer than a simple local flight, we're not going to want to go all the way back to where we started from, so we divert to an alternate airport. There are some calculations that have to be made and some figures to jot down, while still flying the plane, and the point is to make sure we know where we're going, make sure we know how to get there, and make sure we've got enough altitude and enough fuel to make it.

We did two diversions today. Erin said I did fairly well, in that I maintained some control over the plane while doing my calculations. Some students just let go of the yoke and focus solely on their paperwork, which can spell disaster if they ever do that on a solo. I tried to split my attention between the plane, the paper, and my flight computer. It wasn't necessarily pretty; there was alot of turbulence today, so everytime I let go of the yoke for any amount of time at all, the plane would bounce all over the place. But I got the diversions done and would have been able to get to an alternate airport had it been the real deal, so I'm happy.

Unfortunately, the turbulence made for some ugly traffic patterns on my part, which makes Erin hesitant to let me solo again. She wants to see that I can make pretty patterns and put the plane on the ground in a competent manner before she'll let me go it alone again, even though I have Joshua's endorsements and Belinda's approval. It's probably just my pride that makes me chafe at that a bit. Erin is just trying to make sure I'm safe and that I'm doing my very best, and with the right measure of humility, I'm grateful to her for that. She did tell me, though, that if I can show her good patterns on Monday morning, she'll step out and let me go up alone again.

We're still going to shoot for Tuesday as our Tucson day. Erin is going to try to rearrange things a bit so her 9:45 and her 8:15 switch times. Her 9:45 is a very light little twig of a girl, so having her in the back seat will most likely not overload us. And that's the goal, baby! Here's praying it pans out right.

Speaking of light little twigs, Joshua (former flight instructor) came over for dinner and card games last night. It was really alot of fun. (We had worried that we wouldn't be able to watch game 4 of the Series, but it was called on rain anyhow, so no loss there.) Jen and I tag-teamed on a crockpot of turkey chili, and Jen made a loaf of wheat bread, since she knew Joshua prefers wheat to white. And we had some frozen brownies for dessert. If you've never eaten a frozen brownie, you really should. They're amazing. After dinner we sat and talked and joked around for awhile, then we played a brutal game of Phase 10 (brutal because I lost, hard). After Joshua schooled us in that game, we moved on to Quitch (thank you, Phil and Cathy, for giving that to us) which was a hilariously good time. Then we had a short time of prayer and sent Joshua on his way. It was a really good evening.

Long Flight

That title is sort of a pun, since Erin's last name is Long. Get it? Like, I flew with Erin Long today, so it was a Long flight? No. *sigh* Never mind.

So I flew with Erin for the first time today. And I feel like the time was well spent. She's not as nitpicky as Joshua, but she also didn't micromanage my flight or take the controls away from me, either. We went up and she basically put me through my paces. I did slow flight, turns in slow flight, power-off stalls, and steep turns. We simulated an engine failure and made a power-off landing at the college, then did a short-field takeoff, a normal landing, a normal takeoff, and one more normal landing. She gave me some feedback on my performance, and everything was great. And we're (very) tentatively shooting for Tuesday for my X-C redo. We talked a bit more about it, and I guess it won't truly be a redo. We're going to fly to Tucson, do some touch-and-go's, and come back here. We're cutting the Safford leg right out, since there's no benefit to going back there. That's fine by me. I just need to get it done so I can fly my stage check. The sooner the better.

I just can't resist these ridiculous things

The cans:
Can you blow a bubble? Yup!
Can you do a cart wheel? Nope!
Can you tie a cherry stem with your tongue? Yes. In fact, I can tie two together with my tongue. I'm not kidding.
Can you touch your toes? With what? A yard stick? Then yes. Yes I can.
Can you whistle? Not very well, but yes.
Can you wiggle your ears? Yep.
Can you wiggle your nose? Yes. Unaided by my finger? No.

The dids:
Did you ever get in a fight at school? Several, but none of them lasted more than one punch. Seriously.
Did you ever run away from home? Not really, no.
Did you ever want to be a doctor?: Yes. In fact, I was still considering becoming the PhD version as recently as three years ago.
Did you ever want to be a fire fighter?: Yes. But I was one of those kids who wanted to be everything.

The do's:
Do you believe in God?: Definitely.
Do you know how to swim?: I can keep myself from sinking and/or drowning. My "technique" would probably make a real swimmer laugh, though.
Do you like roller coasters?: I've never been on one. I don't intend to ever change that.
Do you own a bike? Unless my parents have sold mine in a yard sale.
Do you like summer or winter more? Summer.

The does:
Does hair loss run in your family at all?: No. The men in my family just develop very stately foreheads.
Does your car get good gas mileage?: Not too bad at all.
Does your family have family picnics?: We have before.

The haves:
Have you ever been on a plane?: Oh, once or twice.
Have you ever asked someone out?: Of course.
Have you ever been asked out by someone? Yes.
Have you ever been to the ocean?: Saw the Atlantic once.
Have you ever gone fishing?: Yep!

The hows:
How much money do you have on you right now?: Not a penny.

The lasts:
Last person you hung out with?: My lovely bride.
Last thing you said out loud?: I was singing along to Andrea Bocelli's Romanza. Does that count?
Last thing someone said to you?: I'm not sure. Jen said something to me as she was walking out the door to go back to work, but I can't remember what it was.
Last person you met? A fellow flight student named Gabriel.

The whats:
What are you listening to?: Andrea Bocelli's Romanza.
What is the temperature outside?: I'm not sure. It's kinda cool out today. AZ cool, not MI cool.
What radio station do you listen to?: The three english stations we get here are all kinda lame, so I usually stick to Napster or CDs.
What was the last restaurant you ate: Huh. I don't think I've ever eaten a restaurant. I came pretty close once. See, there was this seafood restaurant in Mackinaw City, and they were serving all-you-can-eat crab legs. Well, I tend to like a good crab leg, and I sort of went on a bit of a feeding frenzy... y'know what? It doesn't matter. I'll just say "none" and move on.
What was the last thing you had to drink? Diet Coke w/lime.
What was the last thing you bought? groceries, I think.

The whos:
Who was the last person who imed you? A former coworker from MI.
Who you talked to on the phone with last?: <--- Horrendous grammar. Anyhow, the answer to the poorly-worded question is Jenny.
Who was the last person you took pictures with? I took a pic of/with myself earlier. Does that count?

New pics

I decided to post a few new pics. One is me grilling. One is me being snuggly in a blue blanket. One is me playing with the digital camera again. Enjoy!

Breakfeast. Wow!

I love that commercial.

Anyhow, you're probably waiting with bated breath for another update about my instructor situation (yes, Helen, I'm talking to you). I had my first flight period with Erin today. We didn't go up; we just sat in her office and practiced diversions and ATC communications, but I already like her way better than Darren. She's very knowledgeable and she communicates clearly. The only downside is that she may not be able to fly my X-C redo until next weekend (Nov. 3-4). If that's the case, it's going to mean I only have a little over a month to finish my private certificate. Is that enough time? Yeah, probably. But I liked it alot better when it seemed certain I'd have my certificate by the first week of November. Plus, when I talked to Belinda yesterday, she told me she wanted me to get my X-C stage check done sometime in the next week. That's not going to be possible if I'm not flying the Tucson X-C for another almost two weeks.

But, on the plus side, Erin and I are going to fly a dual local tomorrow, to practice diversions in the air and knock some of the rust off me. Like I said in my last post, I haven't landed a plane myself in over a week. I need to get back up to speed. And Erin said she would at least try to figure out a schedule change that would enable her to fly the X-C with me sometime this week. She's willing to work me into the schedule, and she knows where I'm at in the syllabus. Two more reasons to prefer her to Darren. Things are really looking up!

In other news, I got an e-mail yesterday, informing me that there's been a schedule change for our December trip to Michigan. Now we're going to have an almost 3-hour layover in Chicago on the way to Flint. And on the way back to AZ, our Chicago layover is only going to be 60 minutes. Guess Jen and I had better figure out how to navigate O'Hare during the long layover, so we'll be able to survive the short one. I'm sure it'll help when we finally get our gate information. No reason to worry.

Pyrrhic victory...

This morning, I got up, got ready, and made my way to the aviation building to fly the local solo flight I had cleared with Darren on Friday. When I got there, Darren was in his office with a student, so I just went to the briefing room and checked the computerized weather info. Then I grabbed some keys and started to head out to preflight my plane. I actually made it outside before I stopped and turned back. I haven't made a landing on my own in about 10 days, so I'm a bit nervous about doing it again on my own until I've had a chance to do it dual. And there was some wind that had me a little uncomfortable. So I hung up my keys, took my name off the board, and went to tell Darren I'd reconsidered. Only Darren wasn't in his office. I hung out for maybe 15 minutes to see if he'd come back, but he didn't. I think he went flying with the student who was in his office when I first got there. If that's the case, then he obviously forgot about dispatching me, which means I wouldn't have been able to fly today, anyhow.

On that note, I got my chance to talk to Belinda today. I told her about my experiences in Darren's class and how those experiences had left me without much faith in Darren's ability to instruct. Then I told her about the X-C on Friday, and how my lack of faith in him had only been reinforced. She just sat listening and shaking her head for a considerable portion of my monologue. At the end, she asked me if I'd noticed her sitting in the back of the room during class on Thursday. I told her I had noticed, and she told me she'd finally had to leave the room because she just couldn't take it anymore. She thanked me for bringing all this to her, because most students would have just tried to muddle through. Muddling through, though, doesn't make the higher-ups aware of problems that need to be dealt with, so she was glad I let her know about Darren. She told me I'd never fly with him again, that she was going to have a talk with him this afternoon, that I was going to go back to being Erin's student, and that I should try to get with Erin later to work out a schedule.

Just as I was about to leave, though, Erin came knocking on Belinda's door, so Belinda let her in and we decided I would just be in Erin's office at 6:45 tomorrow morning. Turns out that Erin's original 6:45 student had decided to switch instructors to free up Erin's schedule a bit, and she'd never bothered to fill the time slot. So not only did I get a new instructor and manage to hold onto the time slot I'm used to, but I'm also Erin's only student at that time, so she'll be able to focus solely on me. Before my chat with Belinda, I couldn't imagine how God would make it all work out, and now I'm completely in awe of how He did work it out.

The only grey spot in all of this (and the reason for the title of this post) is that Darren probably got in some form of trouble for what I told Belinda today. Maybe she gave him a verbal smack-down. More likely, she probably just let him know how unhappy I was and how unhappy she was. I think Darren is a really nice guy. I've probably said that before. He's friendly and funny and personable, and I'd love to be his friend. I don't like thinking I got him in trouble. In fact, it makes me pretty sad. But it had to be done. I don't regret going to Belinda. I tried to be as mature and objective as I could about it. In fact, she commented on how kind I was being, considering the circumstances. But I do regret that it had to come to that, and that an otherwise great guy had to be "talked to" by his boss. As Belinda told me, "Sometimes God uses us to be the fire." And as I told her in reply, "I just hate being the fire."

The dilemma continues to grow

I finally got to fly my cross-country to Tucson with Darren today. Oh, how I wish I could tell you it went well. How I wish I could just chuckle and say, "Boy, was I silly to worry so much about flying with Darren." Instead, I'm forced to sit here and confess that today is the first day since moving to Arizona, that I've seriously wondered if I misunderstood God's will.

I should start by saying that an hour of dual instruction costs me a little over a hundred dollars total. The cross-country took 3.3 hours. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of $350-$400. And I've got a very strong suspicion that that money was wasted and I'm going to have to redo the flight with another instructor. See, I'm at a point in my training where I can get in a plane, fly around to pretty much wherever I want to go, and land it again, all safely. I've already learned how to do just about all I need to know for my private pilot certificate. All I'm really missing is 3 hours of night flight, some experience with Air Traffic Control communications, and a handful of day flight hours. My point is that I don't really need to be taught anything on a dual day cross-country flight, except for ATC communications. I know how to take off. I know how to taxi. I know how to land. I know how to fly the traffic pattern. I know how to determine pattern altitudes. I've already spent the time and money learning how to do those things. On the flight today, Darren insisted on teaching me everything EXCEPT ATC communications. He treated me like I was a first-hour student. Everytime I was just about to land, he took over the controls and landed for me. He tried to tell me I didn't know how to fly the traffic pattern. He made all my frequency changes and all the little things I'm supposed to be learning to do myself, in order to learn to manage my workload. And he made all my ATC radio calls for me. I did not say a single word to Air Traffic Control today. Not one word.

So I finish up with Darren, and I come back home, and I open up my syllabus to see what the completion requirements were for this flight, and it turns out that the big completion standard is being able to operate in Class C airspace and communicate with ATC WITHOUT ASSISTANCE!!! So basically, I just spent $350 on a flight that meant very little regarding my training and failed to meet the completion standards of the lesson. And what does that mean? (Everybody now!) JOSH IS GOING TO HAVE TO REDO THE FLIGHT IN ORDER TO COMPLETE THIS LESSON! On top of that, I'm not eligible to fly the cross-country stage check with Belinda until I've completed the standards set for this cross-country flight.

So now I have to wait til Monday and try to catch Belinda in her office so I can let her know what's going on. I don't want to get Darren in trouble, but this is all much too serious to have him airheading his way through my training. The icing on the cake was when I was sitting in Darren's office and he asked me, "Now, you already have your private certificate, right?"

I'm so afraid, right now, that I'm not going to be able to finish my training here. That I wasted mine and Jen's lives by moving us here. That I misunderstood God's will and brought us across the country for nothing. That we're going to have to move to another flight school to complete my training. That I've failed.

Frustration

As the title implies, I'm getting very frustrated with my education. I haven't flown in a week, despite two scheduled night duals this week, thanks to weather and availability of planes. Class continues to be a lesson in exasperation. We took a test today. Darren told us to study printed weather reports, so I did. And 10 out of the 11 test questions were actually about decoding weather reports. But the very first question was one involving a formula we hadn't previously discussed in class and had no way of knowing. Maybe you see it as nitpicking, complaining about 1 question out of 11, but that's the way this whole class has been so far. I feel like I'm constantly getting caught unprepared, despite my best efforts to stay up to speed. Thank God this is only a one-credit course, and that it's only 16 lecture hours total. If I can just hang on for a couple more weeks, it'll be over and I can get on with my life.

My frustration with the class is causing me to rapidly lose faith in Darren's abilities as an instructor. I'm supposed to fly a cross-country with him tomorrow, and I'm getting really nervous. I dread the thought of trying to learn what I need to know for the practical exam, from a guy who's having trouble teaching a one-credit weather theory course. I've already begun to try and come up with a really sly way to switch back to being Erin's student, just in case tomorrow's flight leaves me wanting to beat my head against the plane. I'm so worried I'm not going to be able to meet the exam requirements and learn all I need to know, before the end of the semester. Granted, if worse comes to worst I can continue with my lessons next semester without much difficulty, but I can't help seeing that as a failure on my part. I'm way ahead of almost all the other private students. I was moving along at a really good clip before Joshua took ill, and now I'm not even able to average one flight per week. It would be like walking a mile, only to die of thirst five steps away from the drinking fountain.

I realized, a few days ago, that if my attitude is right then all my studying and flying and X-C planning can be acts of worship to God. And it seems like since I first realized that, Satan has been working hard to drive me to despair and make my attitude anything but God-honoring. I really need to keep in mind that not only can I worship God with the things I do in school, but I can also be a missionary here and now, reflecting Jesus to Darren. After all, being a missionary is the point of all this. It's not flying the plane or getting good grades. The plane is just a tool. The classroom is just a tool. Sharing the Gospel is all that matters.

Please pray.

I'm almost at a point where I don't want to post updates anymore, because things are so unstable here. For instance, yesterday I was excited about being Darren's student. But today, I sat through one of his lectures in class, and now I'm wondering how this guy ever got hired as a teacher. It's not that he doesn't know his stuff; it's that he gets nervous or excited or anxious or something, and he talks a mile a minute without composing this thoughts. So half of what he says is wrong until he realizes it five minutes later and tries to correct himself. I've got the almost-photographic memory thing going for me, so it's not too big a deal for me, but I'm kinda starting to feel sorry for the other people in my class. And if he's like that standing in front of a mylar board in a nice, steady classroom, what's he going to be like in a moving airplane? I'm hoping that he was hired because he's an excellent flight instructor, and that teaching class just makes him a wreck.

I'm supposed to fly with him tonight, but it's really windy here and I'm not sure I believe the winds forecast that says it'll die down to manageable levels within the next 90 minutes. I might have to reschedule for tomorrow. All I really want, right now, is to get a chance to fly local with him before Friday morning, when I have to fly a decent-length cross-country flight with him. If he's not up to snuff on flight instruction, I'd like to know about it now instead of when I'm halfway to Tucson. *sigh*

Jumanji!

Hey! Here's the pics I told you about earlier. Enjoy!

Yup. Blogger did it again.

Well, figs. Blogger's not letting post pics again. I guess I'll try again later. Sorry.

... And now some more updating

Here's the latest on what's going on with my edumacation. (Yeah, I know.) I took the FAA written test today, which is one of the three tests I need to pass in order to obtain my private pilot certificate. Actually "written test" is a bit of a misnomer, since it's all computerized. In reality, I sat in a little room in front of a computer (with 4 cameras watching me from different angles), and clicked on the answers to 60 multiple choice questions. I only missed 3, earning me a 95%. Sweet! One test down, 2 to go.

After the test, I was fortunate enough to catch Darren in his office. He told me he'd been talking to Erin about my training, and he seems to have a better understanding of exactly what I was asking of him last week. He's booked solid during weekdays, but he's got nights and weekends open, and is basically willing to give me his free time to finish my training. We're going to fly local dual tomorrow night, sort of my intro to night flying. Then, probably sometime this week, we'll fly a dual night cross-country to Tucson and do some landings there. Then, at some point this weekend, we'll fly a dual day cross-country to Tucson, Safford, and back here. I had feared that whichever instructor I wound up with would just say something like, "I'll be here at this time; be ready to go," and not really give me any ground instruction or anything. What I really appreciate about Darren is that he's cool with sitting down after class this afternoon to answer some of my cross-country planning questions and make sure I'm confident planning a cross-country flight. He's also going to teach me some more about ATC and hopefully give me some confidence in flying into and out of towered airports. Thank God!

Jen and I have been married 2 years today. Go us!

We're officially heading back to Michigan for Christmas. In fact, we're heading to Michigan for about 13 days in December (16th - 29th). I bought our airline tickets yesterday. Anyone who might want to bask in the radiant glow of our presence during that 13-day period should leave a comment on this blog post, and we'll try to work out a day/time. Also, if anyone should want to take us out to dinner during that period, we've formulated a pretty extensive list of restaurants we really miss and want to eat at. List available upon request. Note: requests for the list will be considered invitations to dinner, at the expense of the requestee.

I'm kinda geeked by the fact that Weird Al's new album is called "Straight Outta Lynwood". Granted, my hometown is spelling Linwood, but still. It's only one letter.

Oh, and finally, I took a couple pictures of the campus while I was flying a local solo last week. They were taken from the downwind leg of my traffic pattern, at about 900 feet above the ground. I blew one of them up a bit for greater detail. And you can see the leading edge of my left wing in the other one. That's kinda cool for the ground-bound, I guess. Enjoy!

Orphan

I flew a local solo today, staying in the traffic pattern and working on some takeoffs and landings. After I got back on the ground, I sat down with Erin (my new instructor) and talked to her a little bit about where I'm at in my training. Since Darren is going to be flying my dual cross-countries with me, Erin is only really my instructor for dual local flight. But to finish my private certificate, I only have about 6 hours of dual instruction left. I still have a couple dual cross-countries and a couple stage checks, but my X-Cs are with Darren, and my stage checks are with Belinda or Mr. Perry (chief flight instructor here). When it comes down to it, there's not much for Erin to do, in regards to my training. So she suggested I just ask Darren to try to work me into his schedule, instead of splitting my time between the two of them. And soo, in the course of a week, I seem to be on my third instructor since we moved to AZ (my eighth since I started flying). I went and talked to Darren about it, and he seemed a little confused about what I was asking of him. Erin was planning to talk to Belinda about it, and we're going to compare notes this afternoon before my class. All I want is some kind of set schedule and one instructor. For what I'm paying to be in this program, I don't think that's too much to ask.

Update

I left for my 3:15 final exam at 2:30 today, so I'd have time to go talk to Belinda about the instructor situation. And before that, I got a chance to talk to Darren about cross-countries. As it stands, I'll be doing my dual X-Cs with Darren, and my local stuff with Erin Long, who was actually in my short list of instructors I wouldn't mind working with. Turns out all of Joshua's students got split between Erin and a guy named Jorge Sosa (who was in my list of instructors I didn't want to work with), and I got Erin. And even before Joshua's collapsed lung, all the instructors were overbooked with students. So basically, all of the Erin and Sosa flight times are now double-booked, which equals maybe 2 flight periods per week for students who haven't soloed. Since I and Erin's other 6:45 student (Brandon) have both soloed, we're hoping it works as follows: On any given day, at least one of us will be able to solo, which frees Erin up to fly with the other one, should they need dual instruction. If this works as well in real-life as it does in theory, both Brandon and myself will still be able to get our normal number of flight periods per week. Which, in turn, would mean that we'd stay on track and I'll still be able to finish my private certificate before the end of the semester. I feel sorry for those students who haven't soloed yet. This may well result in alot of them getting Incompletes for the semester.

Unexpected twist

Joshua called me last night to tell me he's had a medical issue come up, making him unable to fly for at least the next 2 months. In practical terms, this means he's no longer my flight instructor, and that I don't even have a flight instructor for the time being. So I didn't fly this morning, even though I'm supposed to fly my first solo cross-country tomorrow morning. Joshua suggested I find Darren (the flight instructor who lives downstairs from me) and ask him to do my dual cross-countries with me. He also suggested I go talk to Belinda sometime today to find out what to do about the fact that I no longer have a flight instructor.

This really really sucks, but God knows it's happening and will no doubt use it for my good and His glory. I'll admit, I'm mighty curious to see how He pulls it off. And, to be fair, I was going to have to get a new flight instructor next semester, anyhow, since Joshua hasn't met the currency requirements for instrument instruction. I just thought I'd be able to finish my private certificate before then.