@Nick, thanks. Yeah, that was definitely definitely a VFR flight judging from the PEAWARE map
I'll bet you had a lovely view of the Hollywood sign. And lucky you were high enough not to nick the top of the Griffith Observatory -lol. I'll put listening to your call (and following it along the route map) on my to do list - cheers.
@Keith, I'm on it. I've been like a sponge the last few days. Trying to pace myself though. I really only have about an hour or two in the evenings once the kids are in bed before I start nodding off in front of my PC. The PE service holiday tonight and tomorrow will probably be a good thing for my health! (and well deserved for you guys). In the meantime, I've got another couple of hours of your 3hr VFR workshop to watch (loving it!), some training to do/study, and "Say Again, Please" to read… if it arrives today (please, UPS!). One thing that I'm looking forward to is learning and practicing the written ATC shorthand, and I see from the Amazon book preview the book has this covered. By the end of a session, I've got a desk full of post it note scribbles and I'm not consistent in how I copy down instructions/info. I think this is a top priority for me, since most of my mistakes in this, my first week, have been due to not being able to understand what I wrote down. A classic example was my IFR ride from KSMO to KONT last night (my first IFR plan!): You gave me instructions to depart SMO rwy 31, turn R once I cross the LA 315R (yes, not “intercept” – doh!), and then ???? So I "filled in the blank" by thinking you said turn back to the SMO VOR... but obviously you were indicating that I should expect to be vectored back to the SMO VOR at some point; but [now I realize] that this is obviously not something that can be planned in advance due to the complex and dynamic neighboring class B airspace. So when I turned right too early (i.e. before being told to) your other controller (sorry, don't know his name - probably as it should be
) gave me some much needed and appreciated tough love. I also love that he said pretty much the same you said in the VFR workshop; that you basically do ONLY what ATC tells you (with regards to heading and altitude, at least) when flying IFR. With hindsight, it all makes perfect sense... I just had to make the connection first. But was very happy to be corrected – don’t get me wrong. The advantage of PE is that you can make a mistake like this without taking any real risks (other than embarrassment and the self-disappointment – which, believe me, is lesson enough!). Obviously, it’s not a mistake one would want to learn in the real world on the edge of a class bravo.
Incidentally, I've always found that this "immersion" approach is the best way to learn. All-theory/book learning kinda sucks; I can't relate until I can put my hands on something. On the other hand, just "getting out there and doing it" is not very efficient either. So having PE as a realistic sandbox *AND* being able to learn and review (PEAWARE, the audio recordings, books, YouTube videos, Workshops, etc.) is a perfect combination - and it's why I'll hopefully stick with this... because the learning curve is much more reasonable/realistic *and* yields sweeter fruit.
What I'm really trying to say is that I'll be on the training circuit soon.... once I get my *bearings* straight and make it through the next few days.
Must. Have. Sleep.
