Instrument flying and such stuff

So my instrument rating training is coming on apace. Well, it's been going slowly actually but things have picked up of late, since I've got my teeth into my written exam study. I'm not sure why I want to put myself through all this at 43, but I do and I've got a load more exams yet to go before getting my instructor rating. I had a glorious flight today. We're very lucky to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where in the summer the clouds come in from the Pacific and back up along Skyline Boulevard, making Half Moon Bay airport almost always in cloud. I was up doing exercises that I haven't done for a while, like 60 degree banks, holds and unusual attitude recovery and my instructor decided it would be fun to add a pop up clearance into Half Moon Bay. I got it filed, programmed into the G1000 and off we went. I've done a lot of approaches, including to Half Moon Bay, but this was the first where the cloud base was actually down to minimums. (KHAF is 370 feet and it was about 400 feet today so as I approached minimums I thought I'd have to do a missed approach for real rather than one for exercise.) Flying back though, VFR on top, and the vision restrictions goggles off, we got this massive panorama of the cloud bank, that was over the Pacific but ended abruptly at Skyline. It was the kind of view that just makes you stop and gawk. It's a pity I didn't have my camera with me, as it was unbelievably impressive.

My instructor is away for the next few weeks, so I'm going to focus on study but am going to take a couple of flights just for the hell of it. Greg, a buddy, and myself will be off to somewhere for a $100 burger somewhere. Should be fun and this time there will be photos.

S