Woke up at 8:40 A.M. Had my alarm set for 9:00! This isn't good! But I was awake and ready for the day!

Spent the morning watching several lessons from the King IFR course. I find King to be so much more helpful and easy to understand than ASA. As a matter of fact, I really find ASA worthless so far! After I watch their video, I try to answer questions that were never addressed in the video! With King, I not only answer the questions right, but I understand them, too!

I spent all my time studying approach plates for IFR flight. I took a nice lil' break when Jarryd popped his head in and asked if I wanted a free McBurrito. Um, yes, friend! It was 10:19, and the deal was off at 10:30. We had to scoot! But we made it with a few minutes to spare.

Around noon, Van and I headed up in N98014. We were going to spend the time practicing approaches today. We flew up to Emporia, and I was under the hood the entire time. I set up the Garmin GPS for the approach, and we practiced the VOR-A approach. After "coming out of the clouds," I learned a quick lesson! I expected to be right on line with Runway 1, but we were just about to fly over the runway from the side! Hmm...quite surprising. It turns out that the VOR-A approach only brings you to the airport but doesn't put you in line with the runway right away! I had to fly an arc to get in line with the runway. That wasn't too bad, but again, since it was the first time, I had that "learning curve."

We stopped there as Van had to pee. Really bad. True story! I have never seen such a quick taxi or shut-down! The man had to go!

The FBO at Emporia is quite nice. I was rather surprised! You never know what you are going to get each time you go to a different airport, but this place had its act together!

From Emporia, we departed Runway 1 and headed to Burlington, Kansas. I was again under the hood. We did the GPS approach to Runway 36, but we didn't land. Again, I did OK on the approach part (the beginning of it anyway!), but I have this thing where I tend to get off-line the closer I get to the runway! I mean, all I have to do is keep that needle centered, and it will take me right in!

(Well, that, and monitor my airspeed, correct for wind, watch my descent, talk on the radio, keep the plane level, put down flaps, and all that nice stuff...).

From Burlington, we flew back to Chanute and practiced a couple of other approaches. This time we did the VOR-DME/GPS-A approach to the airport (and I again learned that this just put us over the airport), and then we practiced a course reversal with the GPS approach to Runway 36.

And I'm not goin' to lie...by this time, I felt like I was just doin' what Van was tellin' me to do. I was reachin' the point of saturation, and I would look down at the approach plates and not even be sure what was comin' next! I was just listenin' to what Van was tellin' me to do, but I was confused as to where we were even located on the course! That's not good!

On a bright note, though, I had a couple beautiful landings today! It's about time! Of course, the winds were a bit nicer today (310 at 9 knots at Emporia, and 330 at 4 knots at Chanute), but I'll still take 'em! All together, I flew 2.4 hours.

After landing, Van and I went over the approach plates some more. I had several questions regarding my confusion with course reversals, how to do 'em, where to do 'em, when to do 'em, etc. The haze was lifted just a bit.

I think it will all come together the more time I spend workin' with the approaches. I just don't have the knowledge base or experience base right now to glance at an approach plate and know what to do. I almost have to study it a bit, and even then, I don't have the confidence quite yet! Each one is so different!

But as any pilot probably should do anyway, I'm goin' to study the approach plates to where we're goin' next time. I found myself tryin' to decipher these papers up in the airplane, all while tryin' to maintain coordinated flight, or while tryin' to stay on courses, and it was just a bit much!

But we'll get there! Jarryd even told me earlier this morning that understanding them comes with time. The more you look at one, the more you'll get it. He can glance at one now and know what to look for and what to do. It just comes from experience. Well, good, cuz I am not so clear on 'em right now!

After we returned, I had to do something, anything outside! Kansas finally smiled upon us, and we were enjoying 55-degree weather! It was fantastic! So I threw on some shorts and went for a run! It has been months since I have been able to run (I think the last time was August), and I was a bit nervous goin' into it. But all in all, it felt good. Well, I mean, the legs felt decent. My lungs hated me. I can't recall the last time I felt this bad when running! Have I really become that out of shape?! My lungs were incredibly painful, but I pushed on. I probably ran 1.5 or 2 miles with some necessary walking time thrown in there. It wasn't pretty, but I was sure glad to be running again! The ankle held up fine, but like before, I never really had a problem with forward motion. It's the side-to-side motion that's painful.

On my way back, I passed a family right by the airport. They, too, were out enjoying the gorgeous weather. There was a mom and dad and two lil' twins...probably two or three years old. I passed 'em, then went inside the gate to the airport. But almost knowing what I would see, I looked back and noticed that the dad and two sons were glued to the fence. Before getting back into the SUV, they had to at least look at the airplanes. From a distance.

Nope, no way, not with me here! So I walked over and asked if they would like to see the airplanes up close! "Are you serious?!" The dad was excited! He loaded up the kids in the car, and they all drove around. I then took the family for a tour of the airplane out on the runway, the helicopter that was being cleaned by the flight crew, and several of the airplanes in the hangar. And the kids (and dad!) were lovin' it! And in good form, I had the twins sit in the pilot and co-pilot seats, and I let them turn the yokes back and forth. They were flying the plane! Just wish we had a camera!

The family spent probably 20 minutes just takin' it all in, and I loved it. I just love bein' able to share this passion with others! I hope I'll always be that way.

I spent the evening here at the airport. Without a car, I was kind of boxed in! I watched some TV, ate some spaghetti, then just chilled the rest of the night. Which is fine by me. My car is still in the shop, and I haven't heard any news on it yet. I'm eager to see what the damage is. Or maybe not so eager, depending...

Tomorrow, Jarryd and I will be flying somewhere for lunch. Just me and him. We haven't confirmed a place yet, but there is talk in the air of Mexican food in Oklahoma...

This is so much fun!

Went to bed at 12:15 A.M.