Well, I was a little concerned because I've only flown twice in the last two weeks (today being the 2nd time). Fortunately, it went very well. I was pretty tired after a bit over an hour, but I did pretty good on keeping my speed and alt (at least for the first half of the lesson). I'm still h aving a bit of a problem keeping my speed at 60 KIAS on the final but, I'm getting there. I get slow on the turn and then I fight speeding up and down which throws off my approaches.

Steep approaches are pretty good for me now. However, I did so many in a row over the last two lessons that normal approaches feel like I'm zooming into the hover after the ultra-slow approach for the steep angle. However, on both I'm doing much better on looking outside the cockpit instead of chasing the gauges. Now, if I can get to that point on the final leg, it'll be much easier to hit the approaches since I will be entering the maneuver at the right speed.

Hovers were solid and my radio calls were much improved. It still throws me a bit (especially on final for some reason) but, I'm getting there and it was much better than last time.

Flight Planning

We covered flight planning in the ground school. It was a blast. I really enjoyed going over the various calculations and route planning and will be doing some "what if" planning during the week. I have to submit a flight plan for a 150nm flight for my PPL course at UVSC so, I'll be working on that this week as well with the intent of finalizing it and turning it in 2 weeks from now.

Because tonight was over the planning, I purchased the sectional for this area (Charlotte) and an A/FD. I've been studying the airspace for a week or so now but, having the full sectional (versus the insets in the Jeppesen book) make a huge difference in understanding the symbols.

On another front, I'm waiting on some pedals and have simulator software and a collective and joystick. Once the pedals come in, I'm hoping the sim will help me work out some of the consistency I'm missing with only flying once a week right now. Not sure if it's going to work but we'll see.

Until next week, safe flying.

Kelly