A week with a Sub

I was excited to finally get back into the swing of things.  I went in to the operations center to check the list to make sure I was in a sim. My  instructor was suppose to change the lesson so I could practice, before going back up for the actual lesson.  Most instructors are pretty good about helping you save money.  Of course a flight compared to a sim is much more expensive. So if you don’t get it right the first or second try in the plane, they usually have you practice again in the sim before trying again.  The schedule however showed a flight.  I met my substitute instructor whose was Arabic but from Scotland.  Quite an interesting mix when you see and hear a Glasgow accent for the first time.  I told him the mix up but he decided to do a mock stage check flight with me, to give me an idea of where I was with my lessons.  I was all for it.

 All was going well.  I came in for an approach under the hood to practice a missed approach to a holding pattern at Leesburg Airport, and went direct to the holding area.  This is when I felt like I was on a completely different planet.  The procedures from my instructor from this one were different.  Where with mine I was able to do the pattern my way, my sub had me go through a list process everytime I made a turn.  5 steps that had to be verbalized as I did them.  In a holding pattern there are two headings to use.  The outbound heading and inbound.  They are reciprocals of each other. For example if your outbound leg is on a heading of 360 degrees your inbound is 180.  There is a marker I can place on the instruments called a bug that I use to remind me of any heading whether its given from ATC or for whatever reason.  Normally I would keep one heading in my head and the second heading under the bug.  This eliminated the need to keep twisting the dial for the bug to jump between both headings.  This wasn’t liked by my sub.  I was to start my time clock (a holding pattern is one minute for the leg) make your turn while twisting the bug to the next heading then call Approach to let them know I’m established in the pattern.  I felt in total chaos with this new order of procedures.

On the ground my sub said he would put incomplete on my lesson so that I could get back with my instructor and go over the lesson more. 

The next day came and went with no lesson.  As it turns out quite a few instructors took time off for the holidays which put them in a shortage of instructors for students.  I also found out  my instructor was sick and stuck in Canada.  So I would be in a sim with the same sub I had.  Which… I was really looking forward to.  He is strict but fun.  He’s the kind of guy you don’t want to disappoint.  Where I felt my instructor was s good guy, but way too laid back.  I was considering talking to someone about switching instructors.  Unfortunately the right people were no longer in their offices and it would have to wait.

That night I got the email that my instructor was back and I had a sim with him in the evening the next night.  Ok… lets give it another shot.  Something happened.  I’m not sure what.  My instructor was taking a completely different approach with me.  Was it the Canadian beer?  As I controlled the plane in the sim any time I made a mistake or forgot to do something he started me over from the beginning until I got the whole thing right. DAMN! This is frustrating… but… EFFECTIVE!  Lets stick with this guy for a little bit longer to see what happens.