here is the abbreviated version, we are about to leave (in the viking) for the in-laws:
-I am sooo tired of someone reaching up and pulling power levers. If someone does that ONE more time; POW right to the moon!
-I am similarily tired of getting an instruction 'climb 5500 heading 160 full procedure xxx' and not 2 mins later 'wait, lets change that to direct abcde and do the gps 12'. DECIDE! ONCE!
-I was due for my annual recurrent training (required with a non-SP type rating) so I asked to upgrade to SP. With SP you don't need anyone else in the plane to fly, and you don't have an FAA mandated recurrency (I will always do at least annual recurrent training anyway, but this will allow us to be more flexible on the dates). All the flying is to the ATP PTS so I said, hey why not get the ME ATP at the same time. (and the answer is, because it means one heckuva day of hard oral, written and flight testing!
-I was humbled more than once by various things in the training, including gaining a new appreciation for pax comfort. While my friend was doing his training, I sat in the rearward facing seats in the cabin. Wuff!, I have never been so close to ralphing in my life. They were doing steep turns one way then the other and stalls, I couldn't see the ground much because of the tiny windows, and they had the yaw damper off so the tail was doing little circles. I had the bag out and ready, and was sweating like a fountain. My hands were blanched with pooled dark blood on the 'edges'. Took a while before I could sit up front again and become functional.
I didn't do everything perfectly. However I did recognize when a deviation was beginning and took appropriate corrective action. I was able to do the approaches within spec although my real imc flying is smoother.
Engine failure during coupled approach, depressurization & emergency descent, hydraulic failure!, oops you lost your brakes whatrya gonna do?, engine failure before V1, approach after approach after approach (never knowing til mins if you are going to land and what is next), "V1, hands off, rotate, accelerate to V2, posrategearup, 400' accelerate to V2+10flaps up, aftertakeoffchecklist", low oil pressure number one, state procedure, gear wont extend, state procedure, engine fire warning number two state memory items..... a lot of this stuff is still spinning around my mind awake and asleep
all in all, that was my summer vacation (a couple of days) and it was great - but I really don't want to do it again for a long time!
