I showed up for Instrument groundschool today. Someone should have told me that it was starting on Monday, I would have showed up then. It might have made things simpler. Oh well.

Instrument flying is a pretty weird thing when you think about. Staring at a bunch of needles that are supposed to tell you where you are and where you’re going.

Stage 1 of instrument training is basic attitudes. This is where I learn basic flying all over again. Flying straight and level, turns, climbs and descents. Only this time I can stare at the instruments all I want, but I can’t look outside the plane. There are perfect Instrument Meteorological Conditions out there today, but oddly enough I have to learn to Basic Attitudes in VFR conditions. The basic idea being when I get all screwed up, it’s a lot easier for me or the instructor to recover when looking outside is an option. Otherwise you can crash and burn pretty quickly flying around in nothing but clouds. Or so they tell me– I have yet to see what’s so hard about it after the 3 hours of simulated instrument time I had to get for my private.

I requested Rob as an instrument instructor. Although he’s only been instructing for a month, I’ve heard only good things about him. Unfortunately, he’s currently teaching instrument ground school and already has 8 students. He doesn’t think he can take another. Basically, I’m trying avoid a specific instructor whose known for laziness and poor instructing. (None of his students have passed their checkrides first time around). Since it’s not nice to say, “I don’t want person X for an instructor,” I thought I would go about it by saying, “I want person Y.” But it turns out that Zack, who was teaching private, is now teaching instrument and doesn’t have too many students. So, hopefully, I’ll get him instead. He’s nice and seems rather methodical.

So, I can go back to studying, which at least gives me something to do while I’m waiting around to fly.