Flying an aeroplane with only a single propeller to keep you in the air. Can you imagine that? — Captain Picard, 'Star Trek: The Next Gen'

Flying is something that you can't imagine until you do it. When you do get to fly, and not just as the passenger, it feels wonderful. Only a few steps away until I can fly this bird on my own!
My first couple of flights to get back up to par have been pretty good. The first flight went amazing. I impressed my instructor and myself by not having too much rust built up and I remembered how to fly more than I expected.

turbine windmill farm. the clouds show the turbulence.

The second flight we did we went to the bottom of a hill where there are the giant turbine windmills on top. It was fun trying to do 360's and ascending and descending turns with turbulence while your instructor tries to distract you :p that's their job! I'm still having a bit of a hard time with approaches, but that will come in time. I can do it, just not as perfectly as I would like.

One thing a student should remember is that they are not looking for perfection when you are first starting out. I'm told I am very hard on myself and that I am usually doing better than I actually think.
My third flight went pretty well. We did pirouettes (I know its a dance term but we like to think we are light and smooth on the pedals like dancers are with their feet :) and I did very well at those. We hovered around a painted object on the runway at about the same altitude and distance away in a circle in a little bit of wind.

Collective control. Throttle twist

We practiced governor off work for my first time, which is interesting and requires more concentration than usual. For those who don't know, in layman's terms the governor essentially adjusts your throttle to what power you need to pull from your engine at any given time. If you turn it off, you need to watch your RPM's very carefully and keep it in a very small point on the tachometer to fly. This means you are always adjusting. This is important to learn because governors fail occasionally and if it does you don't want your blades to slow down passed a certain point, or you will crash and die. Okay okay, you might not die, but its possible. Or your governor could speed the engine up and you could cause severe engine damage and damage to other components.

I thus far need to work on trying to understand the radio talk a little more and to be more outside of the cockpit (which I should have learned long ago) and using a little bit more situational awareness.  I plan on using liveatc.net to help me understand the radio a bit more. I understand the lingo for the most part, its actually understanding what they are saying. Just practice is all.

At the end of the flight my instructor told me good job good job, maybe one more flight and we will send you off to do emergency procedures with the instructors that are qualified. When I looked at my schedule for the week I noticed that I am scheduled with those instructors that will get me through to soloing. I suppose it's about time although I am still nervous.
 I've had a mock test where they sit down for two hours and ask you question by question about anything you have learned. They try to trick you! I've been fooled a couple of times and I was nervous enough to get a few things wrong, but overall he said I would definitely pass a private pilot (only counting the lessons we were reviewing) and I even had a lot of commercial pilot information that impressed him. Confidence booster! They will ask if you are sure if that is the answer or they will ask if B is the answer instead of what you said which was A.
 Stick to your guns! I sometimes have a hard time or I get nervous and second guess myself. Over time though I am learning to trust my first instinct.

ON THE AGENDA:
 - practice regular and hovering autorotations until they say I would survive a crash if one were to happen when I solo
 - oral test about lessons 1 through 6.
 - SOLO!! (stage 1 of 3 complete)

After soloing:

ok, my night flights wont look AS awesome..but still!

 - start studying lessons 7-14 which I have already acquired (stage 2 of 3 complete). It's been a while so that might take some time.
 - Start learning lessons 15-18 (the last lessons of private pilot and stage 3)
 - start doing cross-country, night flights, and cross-country solo flights
 - there's a flight in there somewhere where the tower and my instructor will devise an evil plan to confuse and elude me. I will be sent all over and around the airport in a crazy fashion following radio calls and dealing with traffic under pressure. That one will be greaaaat.

Really I don't have all that much left to go. A LOT of flying is coming up!

And, of course, more studying. :)
Sorry for such the long post!
Until next time!