Pre-Flight

Hi!

The most important part of my flight is pre-flight. That's when I check out all of the nuts and bolts (literally) on the plane.
I took some video and pictures of the preflight, so I thought I'd post them here.

The first thing I do is take off the plane cover, but I didn't take a picture of that. The next important thing is turn on the master switch, turn on the landing and anti-collision lights, make sure they work, and also check the stall horn (if I'm about to stall, I kind of need to know...) I also check the fuel tank levels to make sure they match up with what is ACTUALLY in the fuel tanks. So I took a video of that part. You might not be able to hear me too well, but at least from reading above, you know what's going on:

So then I turn the master switch off, and basically walk around the plane, checking to make sure everything is fixed down and all the bolts are secure.

This is a photo of me checking to make sure the antennae are fastened to the plane well...

Checking out the elevator and rudder bolts...

Walking around the Tomahawk to look for any abnormal fissures...

The inside of the rudder. Bolts are secure, none missing!

Making sure the static vent is clear. This is for intake of static (non moving) air.

 Now we get to the flaps! The flaps are the moveable parts of a wing closest to the body. They create drag (and lift) and you put them in to slow the plane down. Essentially you only really use them when landing. Again, I make sure that all the bolts are there and none are missing. Looks good...

Then, I check to make sure it doesn't come up when I lift it. The whole point of flaps is that they stay down even when it's windy and the air rushing past would normally pop them up...

 Then I move to the Ailerons. They move up and down when I turn the yoke. So if I want to turn right, I turn the yoke to the right. The right aileron goes up, and the left aileron goes down. I also need to check all the bolts here. I also check for the static line. This diffuses any static that might be around...

I crawl underneath to check to bolts on the ailerons....

Then I check fuel. As I mentioned in my preflight movie, fuel needs to be 10 gallons per tank at least or,  "up to the tabs", and on this day, the fuel was not. There are two tanks on my plane: one in each wing. This is what they look like before you open it...

This is after. You can kind of see the tab on the left side.

Then I check the fuel! I have a fuel tester, and push it up against this little spigot. The fuel comes out into my tube. I look to make sure it isn''t dirty and doesn't have bubbles in it. I also check to make sure it's blue. Fuel for my plane has to be blue. It also designates what octane the fuel is....

Haha. You can tell this is me because you can see the vein bubble on my hand.

Then, every girls dream, I open the cowling (the part surrounding the engine)
Here, I just check to make sure nothing is loose, everything is secured, and all the things are there that should be there (ie., spark plugs, wires, etc.)

I also check the oil. My plane can carry 6 gallons max, and I can't fly it with less than 4. 

 

I run my hand over the propeller to make sure it isn't cracked or warped....

 Me checking the other side to make sure everything is secured.....

 Engine looks good....

Now I check the fuel a second time....

And a third time....All from different spigots

I check the wheels, to make sure they are intact, the brake pads are there, and nothing is loose or missing

I check the pitot tube. This is where air rushes in and goes to my gauges, telling me how fast I'm going, etc. If it's windy, and a gust shoves itself in there (like today) my airspeed indicator will read an incorrect air speed and occasionally tell me that I'm going faster or slower than I am, or stalling (even though I'm not).

I check the flaps and ailerons on the other side too. Finally, I check the Tach and Hobbs times (which indicate maintenance and billing, respectively)

As I mentioned before, this day, the fuel was not where it was supposed to be. So I radioed in to the "service" that fills our tanks and told them that. I also used my cell phone to call the office of the club I fly out of. It felt very luxe! Call, and ye shall be filled up!

So the fuel truck came, and filled me up. Now, learning to fly is expensive. To rent my plane costs $99/hour, which for me, is A LOT!!!!! However, on this day, it was hot, and I was just hanging out in the plane, listening to music, and waiting for Mike. I only get charged for the plane when it's actually ON and flying (which it wasn't).

So I thought - "that $99 is really worth it right now. I'm just sitting, chillin', and someone is coming to ME and filling up my tanks without me [directly] giving them money for it."

Now, of course part of that $99 goes to fuel and wages for the nice young man filling up my tanks, but at the same time, I felt a little like an airborne princess, having people do my bidding and not feeling bad about it. I mean, what fuel station will come to YOU and fill up YOUR car with gas?

The fuel truck

This is the fuel man (below). I would hate this job. Driving around at pilots' beck and call and pumping gas all day? To be honest, I usually never even SEE this guy, so I can't even thank him. We always leave to go back inside before the fuel truck comes. It seems like such a thankless and mundane job, but hey. Whatevers clever. Maybe it pays well?

So since I had a bit more down time, I decided to listen to the ATIS (Airport Traffic Information System). It tells you what the conditions are like and what you should set your altimeter to. I have another video:





So today I did quite a  few landings again...Mike said they were good. Could be better. It was ridiculously windy again today too. Tomorrow is supposed to be more mild. I'll let y'all know if I've actually got landings down tomorrow.......

I hate running. Kind of.

I started running last summer (July 2011) Before that, I eschewed running. As my sister says, it's the only exercise that is not fun to do. When you do it, you kind of want it to be over. Tennis? Hiking? Swimming? Diving? Squash? Skiing? All are enjoyable when you're doing them. Running feels good when you get the runners high, and then it just kind of all hurts. Personally, running is the only sport that I do where my muscles are stiff and painful the next day. Even lifting weights is more pleasant for me.

Nevertheless, I started. I have always been a cardio machine on the elliptical. My boyfriend at the time (who ran) could not understand how I would do an hour plus on the elliptical, but then beg for reprieve after 5 minutes of running. Bless his heart, he decided to teach me how to run. I downloaded an app (free) on my iPhone called "RunKeeper". RunKeeper is awesome, because you can set it to cue you to change speed (slow, steady, fast) based on distance run or time run.

We started by doing intervals: we'd run for a minute, walk for a minute. Then, after a couple of weeks, we bumped it up to running for a minute 30 seconds, and walking a minute. Then I bumped it up after a couple of weeks to running 2 minutes, walking 1 minute. I got to the point where I was running 6 miles 4 times a week. My pace was about 10 and a half minutes per mile. One day, about 3 months after I started with the intervals, I decided to just keep running and not do the interval running. I was able to run 3 miles without a problem at a pace of 8:30 a mile. I was astounded.

However, I kind of started to slack off after that. I would run after work, and when I buckled down to study for the AFOQT, I couldn't fit in running and studying. I picked studying after work instead of running (glad I did!) When I got to Boston, I would do one long run a week, but then I slacked off on that too. When I went to Ohio over school vacation, I realized that I had totally lost my running prowess. My sister literally ran circles around me, and it made me realize that I had to start running regularly again.

Running for even a mile straight is still a mental hurdle that I can't get over. When I was in good running form, the first mile was always the worst. I couldn't wait for it to be over. So since I knew that I had to run no matter what, I started interval running again. Mentally, it is much easier for me to "woman up" and do.

Sometimes when I would think "O.K., you should run 5 miles today" I wouldn't go. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. However, interval running is something that I really like. I know I have my walking minutes. It's not that bad. So since I got back from Ohio, I've run every day bar one. Even if it's a little bit, I do it. It already feels much better! I know that running will be a HUGE part of Officer Training School, so I need to be comfortable running. One thing that I would LOVE all of your help on, is music. I have a playlist that is fun, bouncy songs. However, I'm not a fan of putting pop songs on that playlist. They get played so much on the radio, I get sick of them and don't want to hear them when I'm running. Let me give you some examples. I like the following song for it's beat and it's motivational tune:


But I also like less "dance-y" stuff. I heard this on a Volkswagen commercial and it's now on my running playlist. I also discovered that I love this group:


Finally, I do like "rap", but...different rap. This is a french artist who identifies himself as a "house music" artist, but this song is not solely "house":

Anyway, if anyone has some good tunes they'd like to suggest, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I'm liking running again, and good tunes would make it even better. Finally, a little update on some other things. I am probably going to take my Air Force medical in Boston sometime next week.

I recently did a physical for my student pilot certificate. Students usually get a 3rd class physical, but the doctor who examined me used to be a naval doctor, and asked if I'd like a 1st class. 1st class physicals usually include an EKG, but guess what? If you're under 40, no EKG. I just had more stringent vision requirements. I registered in at 20/20, which is exactly what the Air Force needs for me to get in. My peripheral vision isn't great, but I don't think there's anything I can do to fix it. My "body symmetry" is good, as are my blood pressure ("you're gonna live forever!" He said) and other things.

Additionally, I found out that in my "eye year" I am filing paperwork, and hanging out at a base. Interesting...

Want

Alright.

Tuesday night, before I left Ohio, I hung out with several friends, including an Air Force pilot I know. He's in the OH national guard. He was in army ROTC during college, then traveled around, then decided that he wanted to be a pilot, and applied via Air National Guard. In one of my first posts, I mentioned that there are 4 ways to become a pilot:

1) Go to Air Force Academy in Colorado for college and apply for a UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) slot from there

2) Participate in Air Force ROTC when getting an undergraduate degree somewhere apart from Air Force Academy

3) Apply through the National Guard

4) Apply for active duty (This is what I'm doing)

Air Force Pilot (I'll call him A), brought up many pros for applying via National Guard:

1) You work part time
2) You apply for a UPT spot based on the plane flown at that base. So if I want to fly a fighter, all I need to do is apply to a National Guard base that has fighters.
3) It's much more casual than active duty (which is a full time position)

He doesn't think that I should bother applying for active duty...he thinks that I should apply to National Guard. I personally disagree. I think if I worked part time, I'd go a little stir crazy. He said though, that he gets asked all the time to do "extra" assignments. Which, I find to be a bit strange, because it's super competitive to be a pilot. One would think that the Air Force would just hire more active duty pilots and cut back on National Guard Pilots. However, A recommended that I apply to National Guard stations as well as applying active duty. He said: "If you want to fly, don't wait. Apply to everything you can to get a UPT slot". He said that once I have a UPT slot, I can switch around (to active duty) but...I kind of doubt that.

A is also very negative about active duty. He says that National Guard flies more than Active Duty. He says that Active Duty pilots get mired in paperwork. He says that active duty pilots don't get to travel as much. He says that since states have less money, the time from acceptance to OTS is quicker than active duty (states don't want you sitting around and wasting their money).

Either way, I think I will take his advice and I will apply to National Guard stations at the same time I'm applying for active duty. I just need to wait until I take my TBAS and get my Pilot Candidate Selection Method Score before I send in an application packet.

I know I don't write this blog every day, but this past weekend made me realize just how badly I want this. I re-wrote my personal statement to be more flying centric. I'm considering posting it here so that I can get feedback from all of you. I started stressing out about my recommendations...every single recommendation is so kind and wonderful. I seriously teared up after reading each one (there are 5). However, I'm wondering if I should have recommendations that are more flying specific...A had 4 out of 5 recommendations that were flying centric. I'm also kind of kicking myself because had I taken the AFOQT later (like, now) I would have a MUCH better pilot score. I know WAY more about airplanes and flying now than I did when I took the test. I literally learned all the aeronautical information for the AFOQT 2 weeks before I took it. Oops.

Apart from that, my workouts, my free time, my conversations...almost everything is focused on this singular goal of becoming a pilot. I want it SO very badly. I don't know why, but it really just hit me hard this past weekend for some reason.

One more thing that gave me tentative hope about my candidacy...I saw A's AFOQT scores. His verbal, quant, and academic were all low 60's. His pilot score was a 94 (not quite sure how that happened). He would totally kill me if he knew I just wrote that..So anyway, I think that I am a slightly stronger candidate at this point...I just need to keep flying, working out, studying hard, etc.

Shake Your Tailfeather

So....I'm wrapping up a couple of days in Columbus. I came here to visit my sister and friends, and also to do my initial physical for Air Force at the Columbus MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station). I also scheduled in 3 flight lessons: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. First of all, Sunday was a gorgeous day, but WAY too windy. The wind was gusting close to 40 knots, which is way too much for a small plane with an advanced beginner inside.

Sunday night I abstained from hanging out with any of my friends. I went to bed at 9pm. I woke up at 5:10, after a nightmare that I had slept through my alarm and woken up at 7:30. I got out of bed, and drove to MEPS to be there at 6am (it's by the airport, Columbus International). I got in, listened to instructions, and then went to see the Air Force coordinator. He said that the internet was down, but that we should sit anyway, and maybe it would come up and we could get our physicals then. Now...first of all, last I checked, a doctor doesn't need the internet to check someone out. But apparently they DO need the internet to label urine samples and input personal data for individuals. Fine. So I waited. And waited. And waited. And talked to this really nice guy who is getting an Air Force scholarship to go to medical school at Boston University. Fun! So we got some coffee in the waiting area, and kept chatting. At 8am (2 hours after getting there and essentially sitting and waiting) the Air Force coordinator called us in and said, "Hey guys, internet isn't coming up, you should just go home, no one is going to see you today." Ugh. I still scheduled myself for the next day though, in the event the internet came up. I mean, I leave here Wednesday, so I figured I might as well try to get the physical in.

I was also supposed to have a flying lesson Monday. Didn't happen. Again too windy, and my instructor was stuck in Pennsylvania (plane issues). Argh! I felt like it was a very unproductive day, relative to all the things I had planned. Although I did read a book called "Amsterdam" which was quite good, and I also finished chapters 4 and 5 of the FAA Manual.

I went to MEPS again this morning, again forfeiting another opportunity to see my friends on Monday night (well, I saw one. And I got to hang with my sister, which is always great). This time, when I was instructed to see my coordinator (around 6:45) he told me straight up "No point in you staying. The chances of you being seen are slim to none. You should just do it in Boston." Ooooookaaaaaaay. Another wasted drive, albeit not as much as yesterday! And the good news is, I got to FLY today too! Out of 3 scheduled lessons, I got to go to one. I flew at Capital City Aviation at the OSU airport. I had called ahead and told them that I fly a Piper Tomahawk, so if they could give me something like it, that would be grand. Boy, did they ever (sort of). The plane I flew is called a Diamond 20, and like the Tomahawk, it is small mid-wing two seater. And the similarities end there.

My little Tomahawk is from the '70s. It's rickety and old. The Diamond 20 is described like this:

"Imagine taking your favorite sports car and adding wings. That's the feeling you get when you strap into the DA20 and take to the skies. Sporty, sleek and exciting, the DA20 offers outstanding performance and impressive economy."

Apparently, if I get Air Force, I will learn in a Diamond 20 or Diamond 40...This Diamond 20 is a 2009. It doesn't have a steering yoke, it has a joy sick like thing in the seat. Here, I'll show you:

Inside the cockpit, the controls:


The lovely bucket seats:


Best of all, the visibility! You might not be able to tell, but this plane essentially just has a glass pod enclosing the cockpit. The visibility in this thing is amazing. And even just opening and closing the cockpit is pretty freakin cool! Also, everything is automated and streamlined and gorgeous. And it's fast.


I stalled it, landed it, practiced slow flight, steep turns, and flying in the pattern. One thing that was good was getting another instructors opinion on how to land. I liked this guys approach, and I will try to tell Mike and maybe try it in the Tomahawk too...Hopefully it will work. I can't wait to get my private pilot license. Hopefully it will be before the next time I go to Ohio. I want to take my sister or a friend up in this thing and fly around. It's just so much fun.

Don't worry, I still love the Tomahawk. I asked Pete (my other instructor) for a video that he took of me stalling the Tomahawk. It's best seen by turning the volume WAY up and going full screen. you can hear the stall horn (the beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep) hear the engine shake, and you can see the tail shake. And you can hear me giggle in the background a little. :))

Flying the stupid pattern

GRRRRR!

I thought I got it. I didn't. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, I had the WORST day yesterday. I couldn't land.

TWICE, I had to abort. Literally. Like, I would have screwed up the plane had I attempted to land, so we just went full throttle and took off again whilst essentially hovering 100 feet over the runway. I KNOW it's just practice, I just hate not getting it. When I dove, I would just do it over and over and over again. I didn't care if I flopped, I'd do it again. Which I guess is essentially what I did yesterday. But at the end I just had to call it quits. Ugh.

There were a couple of good things about yesterday though:

1) I'm starting to sound like a bad ass over the radio. I wish I could insert an audio file, but the archives only seem to capture what the tower says back to me and not what I say to the tower. Boo. I guess y'all will have to come up in a plane with me and hear how cool I sound. Mike is very impressed. He says "you sound like such a pro, it's awesome"

2) I mentioned 2 posts ago, that when flying the pattern, one has to make the first turn at 700 ft, and then level off at 1100 ft. Yesterday, Mike put little suction circles over the gauges, so that I couldn't see my altitude, my rate of climb, my rate of turn....ANYTHING. The only things that I COULD see were airspeed and engine rpms. So I had to guess, by looking and intuition when to turn and when to level off.

Well, I took off and landed 11 times, and every time, I turned at 700 and leveled off at 1100. I did it by looking out the window. Fortunately, since I have flown the pattern 3 times before, I kind of know what it should look like, so I just did that. Mike was happy. I was happy. By the way, we checked every time, to see if I had turned and leveled off at the right altitude. Then he covered up the gauges again.

3) My take offs are spot on. No issues whatsoever.

Finally,

4) Mike came late, so after I did the pre flight plane check before flying, I had the time to dick around and take a bunch of pictures. YAY!!!!!


This is me wearing my (shitty) rental headsets. Which is why I can't hear myself in the archives :(
If anyone wants to get me an AWESOME birthday present....a new headset would be....orgasmic.


All of these dials (which tell me what I'm doing) were covered, except the second one from the top left, and the one all the way at the bottom above the switches.



Kind of a view of both of our seats. You can see that there are two steering yokes, and on the floor there are two sets of rudder pedals so that Mike can override and correct all of my stupid mistakes. :-/ I sit in the left seat, Mike sits in the right.


View of the West Ramp, where we park our planes


Tomahawk tail (and me)


View off my wing to the other Tomahawk. The one in this photo is my preferred Tomahawk (Traumahawk?). :)

My Sister (and other help)

I've mentioned that I have a sister.

Without her, and partially her husband, this whole process would never have happened.

I grew up in an area where people who joined the military were considered "dummies" who couldn't get into college. Jarhead-y type people who were essentially your typical high school delinquent. Fast forward to now, where I KNOW that every. single. pilot (and officer) has a college degree. HAS to have a college degree. In the Air Force, the only "flight" position that you can have if you don't have a college degree is Boon Operator (the person who lays on their stomach in a refueler [KC-135] and operates the boon - the long stick like thing that goes into the plane being refueled).

View from a KC-135

Anyway. After meeting my sisters husband, I realized that military people (mostly officers but also enlisteds) were actually quite intelligent, well-traveled, and...awesome. I never would have come to this conclusion without my sister.

My sister was also instrumental in helping me study for the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. When I studied for the SATs and GREs I never bothered to take a practice test. My sister asked me about a month before I took the AFOQT, "Have you taken a practice test?"
"No. I don't have a complete one."
"Well then go out, get a book that has a complete practice test, and take a full practice test under timed conditions"

That day I went out to get a book with a complete practice test. I was scared that I'd do really poorly, but I actually didn't, and it helped me strategize for the real test (especially the parts where you have 3 minutes to answer 40 questions!) I honestly don't think I would have done as well if it weren't for my sister.
Another way she helped: when I was trying to decide between pilot and intel, she was pushing pushing for pilot. Honestly, I hate taking my family's advice. I almost always do the OPPOSITE of what they say, so I kind of bristled against her advice and kept insisting that I would do intel. Not pilot.
I did talk to a lot of guys about pilot vs. intel to get other points of view, and all the guys I spoke with said "Hell yes do pilot! Who cares about the time commitment? It's awesome!" I kind of got lulled into that until my sister said: "Wait. Talk to GIRLS. See what THEY would do." The girls I spoke with were less enthused about pilot. More thought I should do intel, which is why I actually originally was totally 100% for intel. Again, the only reason I switched back to pilot was because I KNEW that if I didn't do it, I would always want to relive this period in my life and actually GO for it.
My sister always thought that I should try for pilot no matter what, and after I waffled and then finally committed, she totally could have said "I told you so!" But she didn't. And that alone, is why she is the best sister ever.
Finally, when I came back from Prague in November, it was 2 months before I was about to take the AFOQT. I knew I would take it no matter what, but when I got back from Prague in November, I wanted to move there permanently. My sister reminded me to think about what my life would be like in Prague, and what it would be like in Air Force. It was a tough decision, but when I really thought about it, I agreed with her that I had to at least give Air Force a shot. Honestly, Prague will always be there. And guess what? In the event that I don't get accepted to Air Force...I will just move back to Prague. It's not a bad contingency plan, right?

Pretend the man beating the other man is a metaphor for me beating all odds and making pilot...

So today I did a bit of cardio, worked as a 7th grade English teacher in the morning and then as a 1st grade teacher in the afternoon, then I gardened a little bit, and then I saw my dad, Ophthalmologist extraordinaire, and got contact lenses to make my vision 20/15 for the test on Monday. I'm lucky to have someone to make my eyes perfect in the blink of an eye (har har).

I do specifically have to thank one more person. I will just call him BH. BH also made me realize that I shouldn't care what people say, and that I should do what I love. And if I'm not doing what I love, I should find out what exactly it is that I love. BH knew that I loved Prague and wanted to move back. However, he also knew my feelings about Air Force. I actually remember a specific conversation that we had one day that I will never forget. He said, "If you got Air Force, and also got a job in Prague, which would you pick?" And I said, "Air Force - because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity that I will never have again." He said, "Well, then I think you should study your butt off for the test and do everything you can to get in". BH even tutored me for the math part - he answered every phone call and every question that I had about anything. Which is embarrassing to say, because he helped me so much to be more efficient and to ace it, and it's STILL the part I did shittiest on. Ugh.

Anyway, my sister and BH are only two of the many, many, many, MANY people that have helped me so much along this process. Among others: MC, for answering rando physics questions. SP for being so understanding of my anti-socialness in Columbus. RA and SB for being incredibly supportive of my decision despite the fact that it means I probably won't be in Europe for a while and thus will also not see them for while...My parents and my family for being so understanding and supportive of my 360 degree career change decision. MR for inspiring me to write this blog. And so so so many other people that I need to thank - I can't list them all. Any-hoo. That's all for now.
Actually, one more thing. I will need to re-write my Air Force application personal statement to be more flying-centric (ie: "I love flying. I am committed to flying. I should be a pilot"). Which shouldn't be a problem. Especially because I will be able to have my lovely sister around to proof read it :)))

Flying the pattern

So I was planning on writing a really pouty post on how I can't land the airplane and how I suck.

I recently started flying the pattern with Mike. I've done it three times now. I think I wrote about it before - I take off (which I've now mastered), and when I reach 700 feet I turn left (or right, whatever the tower directs). When taking off, you take off into the wind, so the first turn is called the "cross wind". Then, at about 1100 feet, I level out the plane by pulling the power back, and make another left turn so that I'm parallel with the runway. This is my down wind. When I'm at the end of the runway, I pull the power back again and start a descent. I make another left turn ("base") and then another left into my final approach. See diagram below if you're confused:



Anyway, I did this on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, there were insane winds (I thought) and I had extreme difficulty doing ANYTHING right. Of course, Mike doesn't think that wind is a good excuse: "It looks the same whether it's windy or not!" he says. When landing, one has to gently pull the nose up, and cut the power simultaneously. I had major issues with this, because I didn't know when to cut the power, when to pull up harder, etc. etc. I porpoised the plane twice. This is when the front wheel comes down first (BAD) and the pilot pulls up the nose (reflex). Then the plane does this bouncing thing where the nose comes down again, bounces, and goes up again. Apparently after the 3rd time of this, the front wheel usually breaks off. Oops.
I left Saturday completely deflated, frustrated, and pissed at myself for not getting it.
Sunday was way different. I landed the plane well about 9 out of the 11 times. The other 2 times were "ugly" but "still safe" landings. Yay! I'm getting it. It seriously is a new thing that I have to teach my body. Practice is the only thing that will make it perfect. Speaking of, I'm going to Columbus this weekend (and part of next week) to visit my sister and my friends! I'm so excited, I can't wait to see them all. However, I already booked 3 flight lessons over there so that I can keep practicing. I think I'll be flying a bigger plane than the Tomahawk, so that should be interesting to see what it's like to fly something else...! My recruiter said that I can take the TBAS "as late as I want to" but I still need to get it in before June.
Speaking of, another thing that I'm doing over there is my initial Air Force physical. It's just an ear, eye, nose, throat thing to make sure I'm not some tremendously handicapped weirdo. However, they do test my eyes, which makes me nervous. I have to make sure I get up to date contacts and glasses, so that I don't fail for something stupid like depth perception. I will have to be at the medical facility from 6am to 12pm, which I am REALLY not looking forward to. But, I will do it, and fingers crossed, hopefully they won't find anything wrong with me...