#multi-ifr

Last year was a rough year. MIFR has taken a lot longer than I planned on it taking, and on the one hand I tend to be the first one to blame myself, but in truth, there’s been a lot of shit thrown in my way this year. I’d been waiting for call volumes to go down and scheduling to be more flexible forever. At the beginning of the year I finally decided that I couldn’t keep waiting and hoping…

My instructor changed his mind about starting me on the multi-engine aeroplane next week. Instead, we hopped in last wednesday, and I’ve had a couple flights now. The plane they train on is a Piper Seminole, which is a nice plane, fairly easy to handle. The first thing you notice taking off is the power. Bigger engines, more power on each one. The idea is not only to have more power with the two…

Had my first official IFR lesson today. I have enough knowledge to have passed the commercial test so far, but IFR is the thing I’ve always struggled the most with. 

IFR, for those following who aren’t pilots, stands for instrument flight rules. Basically, flying when you can’t see the ground. Often when you can’t see anything at all out the window to even keep the wings level. 

The concept of navigation was always something I thought of as kind of romantic. Not like, love romance, I mean the old school, mystical sort of romance, the way the rolling hills of scotland, or a Belgian castle is romantic. The idea that you could sail a ship across the ocean and not be able to see any land for reference, but be able to figure out where you are, to me, that was something mysterious and complex that I did not understand.

Now I’ve learned more about it, and I mean, GPS makes things super simple so that anyone could do it, but to be able to fly IFR, you have to also be able to use the land based radio beacons - VORs and NDBs - and figuring those out, that’s fuckin’ witchcraft man. Like, I’ve got it figured out, but I still need to develop more proficiency in it, and be able to fly and figure out where I am and where to turn to get where I’m going at the same time, but once I’m there, once I have mastery over that, I’m going to be a fucking wizard. 

It is a fact universally acknowledged, that a pilot in possession of a CPL must be in want of a job.

So, job search. Fact is, and I knew this going in, that there are not a lot of jobs out there that a pilot with a CPL and no other ratings aside from that is qualified for. Certainly very few that would pay enough for my husband and I to love off of. Even if I were to go up north, employers typically expect pilots to work the ramp (non-flying position, loading and fueling planes, etc) for a year…