And now I'm back again, Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I formulated a simple plan of what to study and how much time to spend on it. Now that I'm back from St. Louis and the ground school portion of my transition to the 145 is done, how did it go?

Well, the bad news is that my final exam score only improved by 4% over how I did in ground school for the Dash.

The good news is that my Dash ground school score was 96%, which means I got 100% this time!

The even better news is that I spent much less time to accomplish that, thanks in large part to coming to battle with that plan.

I'll get more into the specifics of how I studied in next week's post. This week, I have a lot to catch up on at home, having been away for almost two straight weeks. However, I am pleased with how the plan turned out. That's because I accomplished more in less time, and time is the most precious asset any of us have.

Money is something that we can make more of. Some have a lot of it and some have little, but we can make more of it if we want and/or need to. Time, however, is given out in the same 24 hour packets to absolutely everyone. It doesn't matter if you're the richest person on the planet or you live in a van down by the river: everyone gets exactly the same amount of time. Saving it is saving life.

As I noted in my original plan, I had no intention whatsoever of studying on the weekend. That time was set aside for me to recharge and explore the city. I absolutely did that, too. In that spirit, Friday we checked out Salt & Smoke, one of the finest BBQ places in St. Louis.

I spent Saturday evening going to see where two of the most important rivers in United States history meet: the Missouri River and the Mississippi River.

Afterward, I hopped across the Mississippi to Alton, IL to check out their riverboat casino, then drove along the river for a while. I have been writing a book on the Mississippi River, so getting to spend some time checking it out was fantastic, and I even snagged a bottle full of water from it for my bookshelf.

Sunday, I headed to the Forest Park area of the city. This is where the 1904 World's Fair was held, and it is in an absolutely gorgeous part of town. I ended up walking over 7 miles all over the area, and along the way I saw the world's largest chess piece outside of the chess Hall of Fame:

It's in an area with old but well-kept houses. This one was obviously a schoolhouse over 100 years ago, but it's someone's very nice home now:

After grabbing a coffee at one of the 5 shops on the same block, I checked out the St. Louis Basilica:

A few blocks away, I came across the biggest fungus I've ever seen, and I have no idea what it is:

I spent the next three hours walking around the park, which also has the zoo in it:

There is a pretty lake in the southeast corner of Forest Park, with a tree that thinks it's the Gateway Arch:

Next week, I'll go into how I managed to get a perfect score and still have time to stop and smell the flowers. See you next Wednesday!

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The author is an airline pilot, flight instructor, and adjunct college professor teaching aviation ground schools. He holds an ATP certificate with a DHC-8 type rating, as well as CFI, CFII, MEI, AGI, and IGI certificates, and is a Master-level participant in the FAA's WINGS program and a former FAASafety Team representative. He is on Facebook as Larry the Flying Guy, has a Larry the Flying Guy YouTube channel, and is on Twitter as @Lairspeed.

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