Redemption

Today was a good day. Temperature: 36F. Humidity: almost non-existent. The 172 climbed like it thought it was a Mooney. Two approaches, an ILS and a VOR, went beautifully. There just isn't a whole lot more to say. We're definitely in that phase of training where we're mostly polishing for the checkride. Realistically, I have one week and a long cross-country left before we do a few intense checkride-prep flights and then it's "here we go." That's actually an old song (by Pat Green) that tends to stick in my mind during those "I can't believe I'm doing this/I can't believe I'm finally doing this" moments, and it's been on repeat lately. It kind of became my anthem in college.

Anyway, I ramble. Today, I finish my IFR prep videos and do my first practice written. I'll update here how I did---good, bad, or ugly. And, just in time, my Commercial pilot kit from Gleim came in yesterday. Gotta stay ahead.

Since I'm not as long-winded today, I want to take a minute before I close to say something about Flight 3407, the Colgan flight lost in Buffalo last week. There's a lot of "probable cause" opinions/theories/stupid guesses out there in the media right now. I want to encourage my friends to take these theories with a grain of salt, or just plain ignore them in the best-case scenario. These NTSB investigations take time for a reason, and it will no-kidding be a year before a probable-cause report comes out.

In the mean time, remember that the flight crew, not just the passengers, left behind families and friends. Remember, also that aviation is really an incredibly small world and you have no idea who around you may be personally impacted by something like this. If you're a non-pilot, keep flying. If you're a pilot, fly those numbers tighter when you're IFR and take that extra few minutes for a thorough preflight. And refrain from furthering all the opinions that are out there right now. I think that's all I have to say on that topic.

On to studying for the written. Keep the shiny side up.