Another sunny morning was spent by me under the "hood" flying the airplane on instruments without me getting to look through the window. I think I am definitely starting to get a little more of the hang of flying with only partial panel. You'd think with less instruments, less work, but no, it makes my brain hurt. This time was at least a little more effortless - but we also did fairly easy (at least for me) approaches using the ILS and then later just the localizer. Its nice to have needles that just tell you "go left", "go up", etc.

I like flying. It makes me happy all day. There are very few things that have that effect on me.

I'm trying to enjoy the peace and quiet before I launch into a 16 day mission starting tomorrow with the pre-launch planning shift. At least this time, I get two days off, though relatively early in the mission (Flight Day 4 and 5, which should be Friday and Saturday of this week if we launch on tim0e... which of course, puts me in the annoying position of having to use vacation time on Friday since its at the end of a pay period. I guess I'll make it up by earning some comp time in the next pay period, but still...) Its always a long mission for the planning shift, since we work right up until the shift before landing. And there's always the prospect of mission extension (if missions are always extend it, why not have that in the plan in the first place?)

This one is going to be a lot of time on console for me. My hours aren't so bad, at the beginning of the mission it starts out at 7:30 a.m. and moves to 4:30 a.m. by the end of the mission. It could be far worse. Of course, its still not my favorite "rock star" shift of mid-afternoon through evening. But I'm not complaining.