A Flying Lesson In Which I Kick Ass, Sorta

So, I finally had a flying lesson in which my true brilliance as a pilot was recognized -- my instructor said he hadn't had a student so well-prepared for years! Unfortunately, this was a ground lesson on flight planning. :-)

I had arrived all set to make a tour of LA-area airports, having looked up the airports on-line, figured out where they were, and even spotted landmarks on Google satellite maps. The air was crystal clear -- I could see snow covered mountains 50 miles away -- and everything looked great. Except for the moderate to severe turbulence all over the LA basin, bouncing around large and small planes alike. No flying for me, especially after the nasty turbulence Monday!

C'est la vie. We sat down for our flight planning session (previously scheduled for Monday), and buzzed through a scenario, calculating true headings, magnetic headings, wind offsets, and time in transit. My instructor really did tell me that I was the most prepared student he'd had in awhile -- this was particularly satisfying, as I'd been planning to review my stuff over the weekend, and was doing everything based on stuff I'd read a couple months before.

Hopefully we'll make our circuit of airports tomorrow, doing Brackett, Fullerton, and Riverside. And maybe even Ontario, our local class C airport. I'm not totally pinning my hopes on similar compliments tomorrow, though! :-)