I need to find cheaper hobbies. The next logical step after getting a private pilot license is either to get a bunch of endorsements (taildragger, high performance, complex, etc.) or an instrument rating. High performance around here means a T-41 or a 182RG. The T41 is a 172 with a huge engine and not that interesting. It goes slower and uses more gas than the RV-7. The 182RG is high performance and complex, but really expensive and anyone who rents one would want lots of hours before they’d let me go alone. The only taildragger for rent in all of central New Mexico is a Pitts at Bode, but it’s ungodly expensive and not a fun plane to fly straight and level. It is, however, an awesome plane to fly acro. It’s also $300+ an hour, so not in my price range. That left instrument training. Today was my first lesson. I’m training in a Cessna 172 with a Garmin G1000 glass panel.

We went up for about 1.2 hours, about 1.0 of which was under the hood (wearing one of these things, so all you can see is the panel, not the outside world). We worked on level flight, turns, climbing, descending, and turning to a heading. While I can do all this from muscle memory when I can see out the window, even in something as “quick” as an RV. But when the outside world goes bye-bye, all the normal clues to what is going on are gone. The scan for the G1000 is definitely easier than the scan in with steam gauges (we have to do 3 hours of instrument training for the private pilot), as everything is much closer. On the other hand, the G1000 requires a lot more focus than steam gauges for setup. It’s not just dial in a VOR and hope for the best, it’s add a flight plan, blah, blah, blah. Thankfully, most of the interaction is very similar to the GNS430 in 813T, so it wasn’t too bad. But I definitely need a couple more hours before I feel comfortable.

Next weekend, I have my second lesson. More getting the flow down and possibly a couple of ILS approaches at KAEG. So sometime this week I need to read up on ILS approaches. Hopefully, I can get Galen to safety pilot for me for a couple of flights this week to further practice. Even 0.1 or 0.2 hours of instrument flying will really help keeping me in shape. I hope :).