Flight School: Day 4

I no longer think "swampass" describes what I experience after an hour and a half in the cockpit after my instructor scares the daylights out of me and nearly forces my lunch of a pizza hot pocket and a Jose Ole microwave burrito out of me. This morning I had a progress check with the head flight instructor of the school, and it went very well. We took off, did some stalls, and then did my first instrument only flight. Basically, he put a pair of lab goggles on my eyes that were mostly opaque except for a small rectangle at the bottom of both lenses so I could see the instrument panel. I imagine if I had any random person off the street in the plane they would go nuts with this, but it was actually not bad. I fly by instrument most of the time anyways because I don't like using cockpit/horizon intersection points as attitude markers. I also had a very nice landing, but that was because we were perfectly upwind for the landing. The next flight was with my regular instructor and we went to Winter Haven Airfield to do touch and gos at an uncontrolled airport. This means airplanes need to work together to ensure they don't crash into each other since there's no ATC isn't directing traffic. It also means planes without radios can cross into your whole flight pattern. For instance, on our initial approach, we announced an upwind approach (same direction as the runway, just off to the side), and a hydroplane got into out flightpath. Luckily I saw him and dodged him. Helpful hint: Hydroplanes suck and have no respect for traffic patterns around an airport. Just because there are five lakes around the airfield does not mean you own the airspace (well, it kinda means no one does and therefore it's perfectly legal to be an imbecile, but have some respect). After four ungraceful landings and an aborted takeoff, we headed back up. I practiced my steep 360 turn, the one thing I could not pass in Microsoft Flight Simulator and get my virtual pilot's license. Today I nailed it on my second try. However, before I completed my second attempt at the double 360 manuever, I screwed up a little by adding the wrong rudder, so my instructor showed me what happens when you screw it up. We went into a diving spin, lost about a 1000 feet in a matter of seconds, and I had a headache and was sweating much more profusely than before. He also messed up my throttle on one of my ascents because I didn't have my hand on it (he told me he would if I didn't keep my hand there, so it's my fault, but why do you have to screw with the power setting? I mean, come on). After another not-so-graceful landing, we were done, although I had to walk around to dry my pants out. I have flights at 9, 2, and 5 tomorrow, and my parents and aunt and uncle are coming up to see me. Remember, Mother's Day is Sunday.