*blink*

I'm just coming back from a three day trip which ended up being pretty fun. I have to say that flying is still definitely exciting and fun especially when you have a great captain. Three day trips I find are a lot better than being out for four. I found that on my last roundtrip yesterday (ATL-AVL-ATL) I started to actually deteriorate a little bit in terms of preciseness and accuracy. It wasn't anything to make the flight bad, but my expectations of myself and those from my captain just seemed to be getting lost. I was missing a couple of call outs and I guess I could feel myself slacking off even though I was trying to stay on top of the ball. It was getting annoying, but I'm just glad that I'm resting it up.

The last roundtrip to Ashville, North Carolina was pretty fun. It was a short flight so I thought that I could handfly the whole thing. It ended up being quite a lot of work and afterwards, I found my right hand a little blistery from gripping the control yolk too hard and that I was sweating a little bit more than normal. There was some good weather and build up along the way making things a little bumpy and the fact that the airport was a little hidden away in the mountains, etc., made it feel like even more of a challenge. I'm still in the learning phase, but I was definitely more comfortable than ever before. I'm no 100% confident pilot ready for an upgrade, but I got some good words from the captain and that made me feel a little better about the whole thing. I even got some of those words on paper for the May Evaluation worksheet. =)

I've been thinking a lot lately about the Guard / Reserve and it seems like right when its out of view, something just brings me back into it. This time around, I'm going for an honest effort here to get myself back into shape for the interview in December as well as mentally prepare for all the various tests that I'll be doing. I have a good schedule in front of me today: work out, buy a study guide book and begin at least 50-100 pages of it, finish up the book that Justin is letting me read ("blink" the power of thinking without thinking) and getting ready for what might be another exciting night in Lithia Springs.