The Century Mark

I logged my 100^th hour of dual given somewhere near the Gopher VOR today. It's not a lot of time, but I've learned a bunch about instructing, about people and about flying in those 100 hours.

To celebrate I treated myself to a beer and I'm going out to see a movie with my wife. Do I know how to party like a wild man or what?

Instructing is starting to feel natural and I'm getting a feel for what works and what doesn't.

The amazing thing is the variety in each day.

Yesterday I flew four different airplanes with a pre-solo student, a student getting ready to take their private check ride, a brand-new primary student and an instrument student. They're all very different and at different places in terms of their experience, which made each flight more fun.

I think I'd be bored stiff teaching at an academy where every student wanted to be an airline pilot and the lessons were strictly laid out under part 141.

I also celebrated a couple of anniversaries this month: The one-year mark since leaving my 'real job' to concentrate on flying full time and the one-year mark since my instrument check ride. January, it turns out, will also be a personal record for flying: 37 hours this month so far with at least three more flights scheduled early next week.

My goal was to fly 40 hours in January and it looks like that will happen. I could probably fly 60 to 70 hours a month comfortably. Beyond that, well, it would be tough. Four lessons in one day is a lot of instruction and I'm mentally worn out at the end of it.

It's a delicate balance between instructing enough to stay sharp, give good service and make reasonable money and instructing so much that you get burned out and don't do a good job. If I was in it just for the hours I wouldn't care, but I'm not so I keep an eye on things.

It's a difficult process, building a business as an independent instructor, but it's fun and starting to pan out. I'm busy, which is perfect, and I could be busier which I hope to be.

To top it all off I picked up another instrument student, which makes four instrument ratings in progress now, so February is going to be pretty busy as long as the weather cooperates.

Speaking of weather, so far this winter I've only had to scrub two flights due to weather but I'm sure that good luck won't hold.

Here's hoping it does because I can't wait to see what the next 100 hours holds.