Well, well. It's been a while!

I've put in about 8 hours since the last entry, and all in all have been pretty pleased with my progress. I've made numerous landings and they've mostly been OK...practicing slipping to a landing is challenging. I've also been working on my stalls and ground reference, navigation (day and night), some crosswind practice, steep turns and 45-degree ones.

All to prepare for a checkride sometime in my future.

Things I need to work on? Slips to a landing, short finals, power-off landings, full-flap landings. My understanding of airspace leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm hoping that Comm1 will help in that area. I also still need my solo cross-country (after our dual cross-country this Friday) day and night.

I've ordered a GPS and AnywhereMap software to go with my Jornada 525. That promises to help me navigate accurately over distance, though I like the challenge of VOR practice as well.

Our trip this Friday is CLL to ERV (Kerrville) to Hunt to Lake Jackson and back to CLL. I'm hoping it takes about 8 hours, 5 in the air. We've got the C-172/180 (N5452D) reserved, so I hope the airspeed will be around 135 KIAH.

If it sounds like lots is going on, well, it is! As my skills improve, my enthusiasm is getting hard to contain...just got to keep it harnessed for another month or so...