Did You Say 12 to 15?

I had spent so much time in the Learning Center, and with my new instructor, with my nose in a stack of books as high as my waist, I think you can all imagine how much I was anticipating my flight on Monday.  My instructor didn't really give me a heads up as to where he wanted to go.  I knew he would want to shoot a couple different approaches and possibly fly a hold somewhere but I hadn't spoken to him at all during the weekend.  Monday came, and I was in the Operations building submitting my ticket for my assigned plane.  I began with calculating the weight and balance as I always do before a flight to make sure we are within center of gravity and weight requirements for takeoff and landing.  Everything looked good.  The only thing I needed to do now was file my IFR flight plan and go.  But... I don't know where we are going. About a half hour before our scheduled time my instructor found me.  He went over my numbers, runway lengths for Sanford as well as the weather.  Weather was gorgeous.  10 statute miles visibility and no clouds. Ok...  "file for Leesburg, Kissimmee, Orlando Executive, and back to Sanford."  I cant remember which types of approaches we did but I know we did 2 VOR, an ILS, and a GPS coupled with autopilot.  

As we leveled off from takeoff, I was asked to put on my foggles to blind me of outside visual cues to rely solely on the instruments.  At first I wasn't able to maintain my altitude but quickly reacquainted myself with the sensitivity of the yoke and I did pretty well the rest of the day.

About halfway to Leesburg, my instructor grabbed the controls and calmly said "Oh Shit!" before saying "My controls."  As we descended I looked up to see a green hang glider, just above us.  Any closer and I guarantee I could have told you what brand of sunglasses he was wearing.  I replied to my instructors reaction with a calm "Oh wow... a hang glider." to which he replied " did you see them all?"

"Ummm... all?"

"Yeah... about 12 to 15 of them"

"What?.... no... I only saw a green one"

A few moments later we called ATC asking if there were any hang gliders in the area.  The answer was about 10 nautical miles away from us. We joked that our perception of 10 miles and ATC's 10 miles were WAY different!  When we reported having flown through a swarm of about 12 to 15 gliders there was a long pause on the radio followed by a baffled voice asking "Did you say 12 to 15?"  

We came into Leesburg with no problem.  Nice quick touch and go.  On our way out of Leesburg to Kissimmee we were vectored over Disney and Epcot which is always quite fun to see from above.  From Kissimmee we flew to Orlando Executive.  The winds had us doing the back course approach which meant ATC had us fly directly over Orlando International Airport (MCO) at about 2 or 3 thousand feet to Orlando Executive.  What a SIGHT that was.  to our left were the incoming airplanes on final and to our right were the planes that had just taken off.  We could spot 737s, 767s, and one Virgin 747.  Both my instructor and I were having such a blast checking out all the activity.  As we came around to land at Executive I had my foggles on once again.  At the decision altitude my instructor hadn't stated to me that he could see any of the visual queues that would allow me to continue visually to land.  So I throttled up to go missed... As soon as I did he startled me with a loud "AWESOME! Good Job" and he took the controls so I could take my foggles off.  As soon as they were off Down Town Orlando was to our right as we climbed and were asked to fly directly over down town.  HA! THIS IS GREAT!  Orlando just below us... It felt like we were only 1000 to 1500 feet above the buildings.  WHAT A VIEW!!  

On the way back my instructor said he was impressed at how well I was flying for someone who hadn't been up in about 2 weeks.  Which made me feel great.  I couldn't wait to get up again.

Ive been studying and doing more groundwork and flew one more time during the week with my instructor. We are scheduled to go back up on Monday.  I cant tell you how much having the right instructor can mean for your flying.  Ive found a great match and am very disappointed to say that on Friday I was told he as an instructor is being moved out of my group to teach the international students.  Though my instructor wasn't sure if they would keep us together in spite of that,  I, of course, had to speak up and went straight to the managers.  The head instructor whom I have met with quite a few times including to tell him my new instructor and I were doing really well, had one of those damn it he is one of the instructors moving isn't he look on his face.  We had to talk to his boss.  I explained my case, stating my last instructor compared to my new one were worlds different and how I feel that it had been a waste of time and money. I explained that now my new instructor has brought me up to speed, I'm almost ready for my next stage, and am very confident in taking the exams, and that if I cant keep him as my instructor because hes going to the international students group, I would claim my French citizenship.  They both had a good chuckle saying they had never heard that one before but they would do everything they could to keep us together. However, if it was not possible, what was it about this instructor that I liked?  "Its much more structured as far as what he wants me to study.  He celebrates my achievements. And he seems MUCH more knowledgeable than my last experience."  I was then partially appeased with the offer to match me based on personality traits.  I'll take that, however... My guy is top of the list... then find someone similar.  They agreed, and I was half satisfied.  I was promised to at least keep him through the upcoming stage check which will be this week or next.  So at least I will have that confidence instead of trying to learn someone new again before the oral and check ride.

All in all Id have to say it was a great week that ended on a slightly off key note.  I can't wait to hear how the note gets tuned next.