Although the most important event that happened last weekend was flying my plane for the first time after the overhaul was completed, I also had my bi-annual flight review. On Friday, I spent some time with the instructor going over knowledge, such as reading a chart, knowing about the different types of airspace, and other stuff that pilots need to know. On Saturday, we went up in a 172 for an hour or so to practice basic maneuvers, stalls, landings, and so on. Basically to determine that I still know how to fly a plane safely.
We were originally going to do both the ground and flight portion of the flight review on Friday, but there was an issue with scheduling an aircraft. Snohomish Flying Service has six 172s, with two of them being older 172N models, and the rest being newer 172S models. Well, one is a 172R but it's so like the 172S that it makes no practical difference. I've only ever flown the 172N. Neither of the 172Ns was available on Friday so we'd scheduled a 172S, specifically the one that they have with a G1000 glass cockpit. I've never flown one of those before, except in a flight simulator. However, while I was with the instructor on Friday, one of the managers came down to talk about the plane. When it comes to the 172S with G1000, they preferred that I go through a more involved check-out process. Basically they didn't want me using it for a flight review and, to be honest, I can understand their position. Fortunately, there was a slot available for the 172N on Saturday and we scheduled it. And, as it turned out, the reservation before mine cancelled so we could start earlier and have more time.
The ground portion on Friday went well, and he didn't have any issues with my knowledge. The flight portion on Saturday also went well. There were a couple of hiccups, but nothing major. On my first power-off stall, I let the nose drop further than he liked so we did it again and it was fine. On my first landing, I rolled out just a bit too late and actually bounced the plane. Well, I could tell it was bouncing but it was so gentle that it didn't seem too bad. But, since I needed to practice a go around anyway, I gave it full throttle and climbed back out. I've recovered bouncy landings in a 172 before; they're really forgiving. I've only ever bounced once in my plane and I immediately went around.
We went around and came in for another landing which I absolutely greased. It wasn't just a good landing, it was a pretty one. We did two more landings after that. I greased the second one just as good as the first, and the third was almost as nice. We taxied back to parking, shut down, and went inside where he signed me off in my log book for another two years.
After the ground portion on Friday I went over to the shop and found out that my plane was all done and ready to go. I was going to fly it Saturday after I finished the flight review, but while I was waiting for them to pull my plane out of the hangar they'd stashed it in, I realized that I was too tired to be comfortable flying. I'd already been flying for more than an hour and doing things I normally don't do, and that took a lot out of me. I could tell that my brain wasn't working as fast as normal. I decided to play it safe and go home. I'm glad I did so. As I noted earlier I'd been sick for a while and I could tell that my ability to maintain my energy level, or recover from doing something draining, hasn't fully recovered. Speaking of being sick....
I had postponed my flight review a couple of times due to my illness. On Sunday, November 24 I was still coughing and still had a sensation of pressure in my head. I decided it was time to go to the clinic and get this figured out since it had been two and a half weeks since the symptoms had started. They'd gotten better for sure, but they were lingering longer than they should for the flu, or even RSV (which is what I was pretty sure I had). Of course, when you get sick like this, there's always the concern that it's the current human malware that has wreaked so much havoc on the world this past couple of years, but I didn't think that's what it was due to the symptoms, and how relatively mild they were.
Well, when I went to the clinic, they performed a COVID test as they do to everyone who visits and, well, I was wrong. It really was the big C. Or at least the test came back positive so, even if it was RSV or the flu, or both, COVID was probably in the mix somewhere, too. Even by the time I visited the clinic, I hadn't really had a fever for a few days at least so I was past the time where I was contagious. But at least now I knew what it probably was and the duration of the symptoms wasn't as mysterious anymore.
I'm doing pretty well now, but I can tell I'm still recovering. The good news is that I felt quite good yesterday when I was flying my plane. I don't know when I'll be fully recovered but, for the most part, it's not really an issue anymore. I just have to be aware that I'll probably tire more easily than normal for a while longer. I'm fortunate that my case was relatively mild. I was only out of commission for two or three days. I've been vaccinated, and I've had one booster. We now know that the vaccine doesn't work nearly as well at preventing infection as the initial tests indicated it was, but it does appear to reduce the severity of the symptoms considerably. Combine that with the likelihood that I had the Omicron variant, which is more contagious but less severe than earlier variants, and that explains why I came through this relatively easily.
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