Fly-By-Night Operation

After three days in a row of double-pumping through the Basic Instruments simulator flights, I finally got a little break! Yesterday I didn't have to fly until sunset, which gave me a chance to sleep in. I made out all right in the sims, though. My last flight got me all 4s.

Things went pretty well in the airplane last night, too. Taking off at sunset was beautiful, and the air at 13,000 feet was cool and smooth. The plane handled (surprise!) a lot like the simulator, and there weren't really any surprises on my maneuvers.

The big surprise came in the form of how much my vestibular (and digestive) system didn't like the unusual attitude recoveries we did. After an extreme nose high (nose 35 degrees up, airspeed below 100 knots), for which the recovery is to bank the plane over 90 degrees, then use the rudder to slice the nose down below the horizon, level the wings, and gently pull up, we did another one kind of like it. I flew them both well and by-the-books, but after that I started feeling a little woozy. So we had to knock it off and head home. I made it most of the way back all right, but suddenly as we were lining up to land, well, you can guess what happened. If you still can't, I'll just say that the first thing I wanted to do when I got home was brush my teeth.

It's about par for the course, though, and it doesn't stop me from flying two more flights tomorrow (Saturday). The good part about flying on the weekend is I fly from the civilian airport right by where I live instead of driving all the way up to Whiting. We're gonna fly out somewhere on the first flight, grab some lunch, and fly back. Should be an interesting day. And best of all, I get Monday off!