David B. Cole wrote:

Posted this one somewhere else, but wanted to share with the gang on
the newsgroups.

Dave

Well, after one year, two instructors, 9 hours actual, and nearly 70
hours of training I passed the instrument checkride. It was
originally scheduled for Tuesday, but if you read my other post you
know that it was IMC followed by t'storms, so we did the oral. I
didn't realize how well it went until yesterday when I decided to fly
one last practice session before the big day. My instructor and a few
other people that worked at the school told me that the DE, who is
also the manager of the flight school and FBO, said something along
the lines that I was one of the best prepared applicants he had ever
seen. That was great to hear and I hoped it would have a halo effect
today.

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Thanks to all that have read this far and those on this board that
provided encouragement. And best of luck to others working on your
ratings, instrument or otherwise.

Dave

Congrats! From what I hear, the instrument is one of the toughest
ratings. I don't have an ATP so I can't compare it to that, however.

Now the rest is a matter of getting out and using the rating to really
hone your skills and gain experience in a wide range of weather and
circumstances.

I'm just finishing up an BFR & ICC after four years of no flying. The
BFR was trivial as the basic flying skills came back almost immediately.
The instrument skills were about at the level of when I was 80%
through my initial training. You know, the point where you know what to
do, but just can't get it to all come together. Well, last night was my
third flight, second on the ICC, and things are starting to click again
and the old habits are coming back. Hopefully, one more flight will get
the rust off. I still don't have the confidence I had 5 years ago when
I was flying IFR in IMC pretty regularly in the northeast weather and
traffic. That will take a few more months of flying to regain, I suspect.

Enjoy the new found capability!


Matt