Long Time, No Flight

Chicago is very cold right now. But the weather has been great for flying… I’m guessing. The sky has usually been clear blue when I’ve had occasion to look up. But mostly I’ve been working and preparing for the holidays. I haven’t flown at all since the Sporty’s trip.

Another factor I hadn’t counted on is the difficulty of planning for flying somewhere. I don’t mean the maps and the lines and the W&B calculations. I mean trying to make plans to go somewhere with my wife to visit people or see a sight—maybe stay overnight—when the weather might ground me as often as it doesn’t. And getting there is only half the equation. My wife’s bigger concern is getting home. Flying to a “distant” destination like Duluth is out of the question if there is a small chance weather might ground us there or on the return trip. This still leaves $100 hamburgers to be had nearby—Valpo, Champaign, and other locations from which renting a car and driving home “in time for work on Monday” is easy.

But, mostly, I just haven’t made flying the priority it needs to be if I want to remain a pilot. A safe pilot.

So I’ve scheduled four lessons with Alex around New Year’s—ostensibly to get my G1000 transition training, but also to just get back into flying again. I’m expecting some G1000 training material for Christmas (specifically, the G1000 book and the training CD from the same company) to get a jump start on the G1000 before my lessons.

Speaking of Garmin, they have opened a store in Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. I’d like to make it over there sometime to see if they’ve included aviation equipment in their displays. Maybe this weekend…