Thursday, August 25, 2016

Summer Summary Pt. 1: Travel & Toys

     There has been a lot going on this summer, and it's time to get the blog up to speed.  There's a lot to tell, and I want to get it done before returning to aircraft construction, so I'm going to do it in several chapters.
     A few days after my last post, Amy and I took a trip to California for two weeks.  We rented a Mustang convertible and spent time in the San Francisco Bay Area, the East Bay, Pollock Pines, Lake Tahoe, Folsom, Redding and returned to the Bay Area before departing.  It was probably the best vacation we've ever had so far, revisiting our favorite places and seeing many friends and relatives... just an excellent time overall.
     After our return, we made some new vehicle purchases that will hopefully last the rest of our lives.  We discussed whether or not our next fun vehicle would be another Mustang or a motorcycle.  We chose a new Honda Gold Wing f6b, and I also got a Ford F-250 pickup truck to meet a wide range of future requirements, including heavy-duty towing.  We had gotten Amy's new Outback earlier in the year when I had to trade in my old Forester because of recurrent transmission problems.  After getting the bike & truck, we transferred the hand controls from her old Outback to the new one, and sold the old one.   There was a lot of work involved in getting all these vehicles set up the way we wanted them, and it took quite a while to get them ready for daily use.  Stressful at times... but worth it.
     I jumped back into flight training in July.  In the interim, my previous instructor had gotten an airline job, so I had to start new with another instructor.  Getting recurrent seems to be much more daunting than I expected.  So many circumstances are completely different from my initial training more than 30 years ago, so it really feels like I'm starting all over again.  As a result, the process is taking a lot longer, and I haven't gained much confidence yet.  I know it will come, and I will continue to work on it.  This is just the hard part, that's all.
     ... and then, at the end of July... there was Oshkosh...  (to be continued)

No comments:

Post a Comment