NFC Champs

Obviously I'm a Bills fan all the way but I didn't have much of a choice this post season given my circumstances. Not having a preference either way as to who wins, it wasn't hard to root for the Cardinals today. It's a bit tough not to root for them when you're surrounded by fans. Anyway, I ended up watching the game with some of Jeff's friends at one of their houses on the biggest flat screen TV I've ever seen in a home. The game was pretty intense during the second half but it turned out well for the Cardinals so I'm sure the Superbowl will be huge around here. I'll be sure to schedule my flights for the afternoon on Monday. After the game, I came home where I grilled some chicken wearing shorts and a t-shirt! I'm sorry to rub it in for all of you northern folks but it's just so nice here I can't help it!

Yesterday's flight went pretty well. The main focus was hovering which I'll add is by far the hardest thing I've had to do thus far. It may very well be the hardest thing I'll ever have to do but from what I'm told, it takes a lot of practice. I don't know if I can explain why it's so hard but I'll try to give you a description of what's going on as a pilot while you're hovering. First you start by choosing a stationary object somewhere a good distance in front of you and then you concentrate on keeping that in the same spot all the time as best you can all while staying about 3 feet off the ground. In order to this you have your anti-torque pedals that keep that object from moving left and right which are controlled by your feet. You also have the cyclic or a joystick like device between your legs that you have to constantly keep moving with your right hand in the necessary direction to keep the ship level. These movements are very minute and should be no more than the radius of a quarter or so. The trick is to rest the cyclic on your leg and not think about what which way it needs to move but to just do it. All while you're doing this your left hand is on a lever that you pull up or push down to keep the ship at a constant distance from the ground. To complicate the whole process you sometimes have to compensate for winds and other things like when you pull up on the collective you have to give a little left pedal. That probably doesn't even come close to describing how difficult it really is but hopefully it gives you a better idea.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to fly 4 hours. Two 2 hour blocks with a break in between. Our focus tomorrow will be a bit of review, loss of tail rotor effectiveness and autorotations. Should make for a very exciting day! I'll keep you posted.

On a side note, my computer is slowly dying. Last summer the buttons stopped working that changed the volume and paused music. Also, I had to disable one of the fans inside because it was dying and making a horrible noise that was driving me nuts. Last November a mysterious vertical green line appeared on the right side of my screen. Just before I left for AZ all of my USB ports stopped working and finally today I now have a vertical blue line on the left side of my screen! It's only a matter of time but hopefully it lasts me until I'm an instructor and have a job because I won't have the money to buy a new one until at least then. Wish me luck!