Turning 1000

You know, I remember 1000 hours, and I remember the way things changed
from 500 to 1000. In a lot of ways, there's a lot less change from
1000 to 2000 than there is from 500 to 1000.

I used to do a lot of just flying around the local area, doing t &
g's, etc. Now, 95% of my flying is IFR cross country for business,
pleasure and Angel Flights.

Buzzing around and doing touch&goes gets old quick. My flight profile
is a lot like yours, except that I also do a fair amount of instruction
and I don't actually file IFR unless weather or airspace makes it
advantageous.

Angel Flight has become an important part of my flying and my life,
even though it makes up only about 20% of my hours these days.

Pretty much the same here.

Now, I've got XM weather and I haven't canceled a trip for
t'storms since I first started the system up in September of '03.

Since I got my Stormscope, I have cancelled exactly one trip for
weather - it would have required me to land in the eye of tropical
storm Charlie. It was an Angel Flight, and I offered to buy the guy an
airline ticket, but it turned out the airlines had pulled out and
wouldn't fly in there either.

Complacency is more difficult than ever to resist.

That is indeed the big fight. I find that the only practical way to
fight it is to get out of my comfort zone. It was an issue at 1000
hours, and it's more of an issue at 2000+, and from what I've seen it
only gets worse. I still take recurrent training on a regular basis,
but it's getting harder and harder to find a challenge. So I make it a
point to fly something different whenever I can, and to do something
different in the airplane when I can, but it's only marginally
effective.

The big thing that keeps me from getting too complacent, though, is
flying with students. What has changed most for me from 1000 to 2000
hours is this - close to half my time in the air is spent instructing.
Students don't let you get complacent - they keep finding new and
exciting ways to try and kill you, or at least wreck the airplane. As
much IFR as you fly - have you considered getting your instrument
instructor ticket? You will find that all the recurrent training in
the world isn't a match for sitting in the right seat of a Bonanza in
IMC, watching the attitude indicator coming up on 60 degrees of bank as
a student tries to enter the hold, waiting for him to go too far.

I'm still nuts about flying; doing more of it now than ever.

Amen.

Michael