A quick update

Yikes, it's been awhile since I've posted so here's a quick update just to keep things rolling.

• My instrument student who pinked his first check ride aced his retest and is now an official instrument-rated pilot.
• Another instrument student passed his check ride without much difficulty the first time out, which is outstanding.
• I've started working with another instrument student who has a bunch of instrument dual already, went through a series of instructors at two different flight schools before finding me. Traditional flight schools, with a high-degree of instructor turnover, are my best advertising. Seriously. Why anyone would go there, suffer through lousy customer service, a rotating door of instructors and high-prices is simply beyond me.
• I've started with a new primary student, which is always a ton of work but also a total blast. I talked him through the takeoff on our first flight and as we were climbing out he looked over to see if I was flying the airplane. I wasn't and the look on his face when he realized he was doing the actual flying was priceless. This is a great job.
• I've been spending a bunch of time in a very nice Bonanza getting a pilot back up to speed on instrument flying. It's a huge challenge, both because the airplane is so fast and relatively sophisticated and because he's pretty darn rusty. It's starting to come together for him, which is great to see.
• Flew down to St. Louis for the day with a buddy and stumbled across a real gem, the Creve Cour airport (1H0). It's a wonderful little airport snuggled between Lambert to the East and Spirit to the West. I knew something was special when I started noticing a bunch of very neat, very old airplanes in a dozen or so open hangars as we were taxiing in. Turns out there's a very nice museum on the field, a bunch of guys who are into restoring and flying neat old airplanes and a very mellow airport dog. The place is nirvana. One of the locals took the time to show us around a bit and we couldn't have felt more welcomed than if we'd been based there for 50 years. It was also a treat to do some flying on my own and not have to teach, although I did spend a fair bit of time explaining things to my passenger.
  

There's more, I'm sure. It's been a busy several weeks but that's a good thing.

Thankfully, with two students moving on after their check rides my schedule is slightly more open. That will be more than offset by taking on a new primary student, a new instrument student plus starting to fly again with a couple of students who hadn't been flying much during the summer months.

I'm a few hours away from 800 hours (way over that if you include the 60-some hours of sim time I have logged) and I've given about 425 hours of dual so far. It's amazing how quickly the time accumulates but equally amazing how much I have to learn. I'm super-comfortable teaching but know there are things I could do better.

And I have to admit, it would be nice to start mixing in some different types of flying. I love what I do, but even a few trips a month flying right seat for another pilot would keep things mixed up enough to keep things interesting. Some work flying left-seat would be even better.

I do like actually flying and I miss not getting to do it as often as I'd like. I've logged eight landings in the past two months, while flying 100 hours. Five of those eight were "saves," where I took over after a student's landing attempt went exceptionally badly.

The three landings that were my own from start to finish were, well, not that great.

So, I need to get up and just go do some pattern work. Sounds funny for a guy who flies 50-60 hours a month but it's the truth.

You're always a student pilot in this game.