My husband still lives with me…I think. You see, these days it’s hard to tell. Sometimes I’ll catch a glimpse of him as he inhales his dinner or brushes his teeth. Otherwise, he’s mostly invisible.
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| The Invisible Man |
To make up for the inclement weather last month, the students are working non-stop this month. This means long hours and weekend flying. They are double- and triple-turning (flights and sims back to back) most days, leading to late nights studying and overwhelming exhaustion.
The good news is, as of this Monday, C’s flight is on “informal release”. As previously mentioned, “formal release” means that they didn’t get to leave the flight room during the day. Now, if they are not scheduled for an event (flight, sim, class, etc.), they have the freedom to leave, as long as they are in the flight room at the beginning of each “step” (each round of flights – 3 per day, typically) and for the formal brief in the morning. While the jam-packed schedule doesn’t leave a lot of time to pursue that freedom at present, it’s nice to know that sometime soon we might get to have lunch together or he can study at home instead of in the flight room, putting us at least in the same room together.
Of course, all this hard work means that C is progressing through pilot training at lightning speed. In the past two weeks he has had (and passed) his final contact checkride, gotten about 90% of the way through instrument training (checkride next week), and completed his cross country flight and night flight requirements.
C’s cross country flight was this past weekend. It’s typically one of the highlights of the T-6 program, 1) because it’s something different, and 2) because usually they go some place fun. C and his instructor, along with a small group of other students and instructors, flew to Phoenix for the first night and Denver for the second. The flights went well, minus a small electrical problem, and C came home to begin another busy week.
I’d love to report that calmer waters are on the horizon, but with spring weather taking hold, it looks like our winter reprieve is over for now.
