01/07/02 Too Sick to Fly - I got an unwanted gift to welcome the New Year: some kind of cold. I've been sick for four days now. Didn't work Friday or today. Basically slept all day yesterday. It's annoying me because the weather has been beautiful for flying the past few days, but I can't fly because I'm sick. I was planning to ask for a ride in a certain Husky on the field ;-) , but knowing how long it usually takes me to get rid of all symptoms, I can probably kiss flying goodbye this week. I go back to school this weekend.

01/12/02 Returning to School - Tomorrow I will make the 4-1/2 hour drive back to school. Classes start Monday. I'm not excited about saying hello to homework, but I can't wait to fly new 172s again (and often!). I have only flown twice here during my month off because I had no money. I probably would have flown in the Husky yesterday but I was still too congested. Today I feel much better and my cold is basically gone. I should be ready to fly by Monday. Dubuque Airport, here I come! Even though I didn't fly much, I had a great semester break and will return to school recharged.

01/18/02 First Flight After Semester Break, Review - I was rewarded for surviving my first week of classes by getting to fly this afternoon. I spent 1.6 hours reviewing all the instrument training I've done so far. I practiced lots of VOR and NDB intercepting and tracking. Then I did a DME hold and an NDB approach. I was a little rusty on navigation skills at first. I'm going to have one more review lesson, some oral questioning on the ground, then my first instrument syllabus stage check.

01/20/02 Skiplane Fly-In - Yesterday I drove to Oshkosh for the annual skiplane fly-in at Pioneer Airport. I got a quick ride in EAA's GlaStar on skis. Fun, as always. We have almost no snow here in Dubuque, but Mother Nature was kind to the Pioneer runway, and there was enough snow to attract at least 20 skiplanes.

01/23/02 First approach in instrument conditions - I had a 1.5-hour flight lesson today. The weather was okay this morning, but by the time I flew at 4:00, haze reduced the visibility to seven miles and clouds were on the horizon. The clouds moved in very quickly. I couldn't get high enough to practice stalls and unusual attitudes because the clouds were in the way. But I did do VOR orientation, steep turns, slow flight, timed turns, and a DME hold. Meanwhile, my ever-competent flight instructor kept an eye on the weather while I was unable to see outside, and he decided we were going to need to file an instrument flight plan in order to get back into Dubuque. I called flight service, then center, and we picked up an IFR flight plan. We filed just in time, too, because I soon flew straight into the clouds. I got to take the foggles off while I flew in the clouds, and I watched clear sky appear as I climbed through. On top, I got a peek but then had to fly with the foggles on again. Center vectored me into an ILS approach for runway 36 (which the whole world seemed to be doing all of a sudden - I think there were at least three of our school's planes lining up). For the first time, I had to do an ILS approach on an instrument flight plan, descending through clouds and haze. It was actually pretty easy because it was no different than what I've practiced over and over. The hardest part was talking on the radio.

01/26/02 Safety Pilot - On this very unseasonably warm day, I rode along as the required safety pilot for fellow student Casey as he regained IFR currency. In the left seat, wearing foggles, he flew an NDB approach followed by a localizer back course approach. Meanwhile, I kept a watchful eye out for traffic and enjoyed the smooth ride. I did some of the radio work. I got to log a nice free seven-tenths of an hour of pilot-in-command time. Regulations allow safety pilots to log their time even when they aren't controlling the aircraft because when one pilot is under the hood (unable to see outside), the other pilot is considered a required crewmember. Sweet deal!

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