Saturday, March 31, 2012

PPL

Ticking along with my PPL.
Found a local instructor and we're brushing off the dust and rust.

BTW JK... you'll be very proud.
I was very much dreading having to re-learn the E6B. I just knew I'd forgotten everything. But it was time to knuckle down and get back to it. My CFI even had a cross country for me to plan... a real one. We need to fly over to see the examiner. Oh how spoiled we are in Queenstown! I miss having a towered airport with an aeroclub (run by my mates) in my back yard. So nice.

Anyway.
Out comes the rulers and E6B... and... WTF?... hang on... I know how to do this!
I dug up an online flight planner helper site and checked my work... somehow I'd even gotten it right.

Crazy.

Hi JK

I don't update this much, but I know my friend JK checks it here and there, so I'm going to slug up something from time to time for her and the other non-FaceBook people out there.

Back in the States.
Melatonin by the way is some AMAZING stuff!
It usually takes me 2 weeks to get over the jetlag when coming to the States. When heading to NZ for contrast, it takes a few days for the big bits and before the week's out, I'm totally over it.

When I come here.
The first three days are nothing short of Hell. I've done this for seven years, so I'm well familiar with the process. No matter what I do, I'm going to bolt up wide the hell awake in the middle of the night. This isn't just waking up mind you... I mean wide awake. I can even tell that my blood pressure is higher. I'm up, and there is no chance what so ever of getting back to sleep. So I suffer through that for a few hours... then the rest of the world wakes up. I'm starting to "feel it" a little by then... but the sun bolts me back up. I'm in "zombiland" for the next bunch of hours as my body is both exhausted and awake at the same time. The exhaustion eventually, and thankfully, takes over and I pass out again in the early afternoon. I'll wake up in the early evening from this... ARRRRG!!!! So I'm nice and rested and can't get to sleep at a normal hour... thus the "double sleep" cycle continues.

I absolutely HATE the first three days back.
After that, things slowly start to fix themselves and I can almost sleep through the night by the end of the first week. It's one of the very few things that has made me not like travelling. Some years I'd find ways to break up my trip and visit friends along the way. This helped a bit and I enjoyed the hell out of seeing my friends.

This year however, I had no choice.
Time wouldn't allow for stopovers. I had to be back for my doctor's appointment so I can keep my pilot medical. No if ans or buts.

I'd heard of melatonin before. It was said to really help with jetlag. But there's a million things out there that are supposed to help.

Then, my cousin Devin who was having sleep problems posted up that he had tried melatonin and it really helped.

So when I got back. I went straight to the drug store and picked some up.
WHOLLY HELL!!!!!!!

It's no magic bullet that kicks the jetlag, but damn if it doesn't take the sting out of it!
And I mean it works bigtime.
The first night, I still woke up... but it was a drowsy wakeup, unlike the bolt up stuff I'm used to. After an hour or so of emails, I went back to sleep.
The second night, I don't think I woke up.
By the third, I was sleeping easily through the night.
Night four and I stopped the melatonin and slept easily through the night.

I've been back for a bit over a week and I'm well past the jetlag.
Happy times.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

In VA

Back flying planes. Woot.
Didn't bother with pics, sorry. I'll get to that next time.
1 hr in a Piper Cherokee with the local CFI Charlie Simanski.
Not too shabby having an airport 5 minutes away.

Jim