Day 98 ( 153.3 TT, 78.4 MET )

My visit to Colorado was awesome! It snowed right when we landed in Denver international. Had a wonderful Christmas with my family, ate a LOT of food. Came back to Florida before new years, which I now regret, there was nobody here at school, so we didn't do much flying. This was the first time I celebrated new years alone, just me and Times Square on a small TV :(

I'm now flying off my commercial maturation hours (18 hrs with an instructor before you start time building with another student). The planes brake down a lot, and during the last week alone we squawked 3 different planes in 2 days. On a flight from Key West on Friday night, I had to use my flashlight to light up the instruments because all but two bulbs were burnt out. And by the end of the flight I couldn't feel my fingers because the heaters don't work in any of the planes (I heard a rumor that the 100 hour inspections are cheaper and faster without having to maintain the heaters).

I got a kneeboard for the iPad on Christmas, and I've started to use it on long flights. It is a better tool than I expected. Not only does it replace a TON of paper maps, plates and diagrams, it's also extremely easy to change flight routing on the go. For example I filed an IFR route from Jacksonville that was changed by the flight center and was given a different route. I just found the new fix and dragged the course over it and thats it. My instructor wants an iPad now too.

Below is a quick shot of a twisting river on the way to Savannah, Georgia. Also I've attached a screen shot from ForeFlight with my recent x-country flights.