After many delays (got sick, bad weather, bad weather+bad plane) and mucho $$$ I finally got to take my instrument check ride. I am now a fully qualified instrument rated pilot. Whoo.

This damn well better make my insurance rates go down!

But that’s not completely true. Just earlier this year (after the Spring semester at Metro) I took it upon myself to find a new school in order to complete my instrument rating and commercial license .. McAir is just too focused on primary students that I figured getting training somewhere else (and in something other than a Cessna 172) would be a good idea. (Not to mention that the little animated guy on the McAir website is freakin’ annoying).

First, I ended up at Journey’s Aviation to check out their Diamond DA40. Since it’s a low-wing, tip-up canopy, side-by-side, stick controlled, free castering nosewheel airplane, I figured it would be a good way to get training in a certified airplane that was at least somewhat like the airplane I’m building (the Van’s RV-7A). My instructor for the flight (Joe) was great, and the flight was fun. Since it had been, what, 8 months? since I last flew a real airplane (vs 20 some hours in a flight simulator at Metro) we just tooled around and let me get a feel for the airplane. I will say I think the visibility is awesome out of the bubble canopy – much much better than what you get from a high wing Cessna. Having a G1000 didn’t hurt either (what a crappy website for such as sweet avionics system).
I wanted to try something a bit more .. upscale? .. than your standard training planes (the Diamond is a step up for sure, but still pretty cramped).

I headed over to Daedalus Aviation over at Front Range Airport and did a flight in their Piper Arrow. I really liked the plane, as it’s a bit nicer and has more room. I need retractable gear time anyways to get my commerical license, so having some extra time in this plane isn’t a bad idea. This particular plane has the Avidyne glass avionics suite, which is pretty nice (though not as big or capable as the G1000), so I still get the glass cockpit experience which a lot of airlines apparently like to see – not that I’m looking for an airline job, yuck. I liked that fact that FTG is a towered airport but really doesn’t have a lot of traffic; it’s also where all the other RV guys I know have their airplanes. I’ve talked to the chief instructor at the school and expressed my interest in doing Scenario Based Training, which he is also looking to do. Scenario Based Training is what the airlines use for all of their training and usually entails an actual flight (usually for 4 hours or more) that incorporate all training objectives as part of the flight – rather than planned “let’s do X, ok now Y, now Z” that you typically find for non-airline training. Because of that and the Arrow, Daedalus is my first choice to get my secondary training done.

Now I’m just waiting for the VA to approve my flight training funding request .. it’s only been 2 months, how much longer can they take? (not holding my breath!)

Jeremy and I are heading to Oshkosh, WI this coming Wednesday to partake in the Air Venture thingy that goes down every year. Should be fun (and hot), I’m looking forward to talking with some of the vendors (like the guys at Aerotronics and SteinAir who might be putting together my avionics for me).

I’ll need to fix my now-broken photo gallery when we get back so I can upload any pictures or video.