I reckon it's time to update. I flew my long IFR cross-country this morning. It went great! As I tend to base my worth as a pilot on however my most recent flight went, I'm feeling about 10 feet tall right now. The purpose of the flight was to make sure I could fly according to an IFR (instrument flight rules) flight plan, if the weather was ever bad enough that I couldn't fly visually. To that end, I had to wear the hood (a view-limiting device) from a few minutes after takeoff until just a few minutes before touchdown at the college. What that ultimately means is that I flew from CC to Casa Grande (south of Phoenix) to Tucson and back to Douglas without being able to see outside the airplane. My instructor was with me, acting as my safety pilot; she was my eyes outside the plane. Like I said, everything went great. In fact, the whole thing came off far better than I had expected it to. It really did wonders for my confidence level, both regarding my IFR skills as well as my piloting skills in general. This all just might work out, after all.

Thanks to those who prayed for me. Your efforts made the difference.


Oh! I almost forgot to mention this. I received my logbook endorsements last week, for both complex and high performance airplanes. In order to fly high performance airplanes (each engine on the plane being over 200 horsepower) or complex airplanes (the plane has retractable landing gear, an adjustable pitch propeller, and cowl flaps), a pilot has to receive instruction in the appropriate type of airplane and then get a written endorsement in his logbook from a qualified instructor. Since the school uses Cessna 182s for instrument training, and since our 182s are complex and high performance, I got endorsed for both types last week. So now, if I ever get the chance to rent one type or the other (or both), I'll be able to. Exciting stuff!