It begins, slowly

After five weeks of taking care of stuff I'd been neglecting during training, it's time to start instructing.

I hadn't flown in over a month, which was fine, but I was really starting to get the itch to get going on the whole instruction thing. Luckily for me I managed to land some business.

I started with a primary student on Monday, which was a blast. We'd flown together a fair bit before I got my CFI so I had a good idea where to begin. He handled the takeoff, we went out and did some slow flight, which he flew plus/minus about six feet then worked on some stalls.

We're scheduled to fly twice a week, so it will be a good, consistent training program.

I also picked up an instrument student, which is slightly bizarre since I haven't finished my CFII yet.

We talked about it and I explained that I needed to finish up the CFII first and I'd totally understand if he decided to work with a different instructor who had done a few instrument ratings before. Turns out, he's happy to work with me and I'm thrilled to have an instrument student.

So I spent all week working up lesson plans and studying then it's down to southern Minnesota to hammer away at the CFII.

There's some time pressure in play since I'm scheduled to start flying with my instrument guy twice a week starting in two weeks. Gonna be a stressful week or so.

I also did my first Flight Review today, which was interesting. We spent a fair amount of the ground portion talking about personal minimums and aeronautical decision making, which was a good use of the time.

My flight review guy was very current and had been flying frequently so the regulatory review went quickly.

The weather was ugly by the time we finished up our ground (700-900 foot ceilings and some convection around) so we postponed the flight portion until later in the day. Even then, the weather wasn't great but it was good enough and he was eager to fly a few approaches so we headed up to Cambridge for an NDB approach then back to Crystal for the VOR-A that I know by heart since I've flown it at least 20 times.

After that I gave him a gear emergency, we did a short-field landing and short-field takeoff and it was clear that he was safe and proficient so I signed him off for another two years.

I would have liked to have done the more traditional slow-flight, stalls, steep turns for airwork but the ceilings just weren't working out. It's interesting how much you can learn about a pilot's skill level after even a few minutes.

This guy did a fine job, especially managing the 182RG. Flying a complex, high performance airplane precisely IFR is about as good as it gets for us GA types and it was fun to watch.

As it turned out, we really worked on the things that were the most valuable to him so I hope it was a valuable session.

I now have a whopping 2.8 hours of instruction given, which is 2.8 hours more than I had at the start of the week.

Signing other pilot's logbooks is a bit strange but I at least have my certificate number memorized so I don't need to fumble through my wallet and look like the total amateur I am.

Now I need to pick up a few more students, flight reviews and aircraft checkouts. The CFII is going to be a good thing, because I love flying instruments and the chance to teach it is really exciting.