Trainings Over!!! But the flying is here

I officially have a little over 10 hours now in my jetplane. (Well, it's not my jetplane, but American Eagle (AE) is paying me to fly theirs.) It's way more stressful than I thought, but not as boring. I still don't enjoy the flying yet, but hopefully when I get a little more comfortable with the routine I will recognize how cool it is that I get to fly a 50-passanger jet around the country. I have never really been interested in airline flying. However, I have seen it as a good step along the way to acquiring jet time. I am very gratefull for the opportunity to grow and expand my flying skills. This experience with training and now actually flying the aircraft has been humbling. This type of flying is really beyond me and it causes me to turn to God. It's interesting that God can use something that is so familiar to allow me to come to him for strength. I don't say that as a token statement, 'cause good Christians are supposed to give credit to God' for everything. I can say this because this level of flying is truly beyond my ability and interest, so God really has to come through for me. And that is a good thing. I like how God brings us to a place where we can't rely upon our own cleverness or skills. I hope that I can remain in this place, even after the stress passes. But I'm sure God will bring a test or two in another area to keep my learning curve and trust level up. God is good about allowing situations to enter our life that nearly forces us closer to him. I pray that I never get too smart to think I can do things on my own.

Side note: I completed ground school and simulator training a couple weeks ago. At that time I had to pass an FAA checkride which qualified me to fly the ERJ (Embraer) 145 jet. Now I fly 30-40 hours in Initial Operating Experience (IOE) with a special training Captain (CA) that clues me into techniques and helps me fine tune the skills necessary to fly with any CA in the company. I'm the First Officer, or co-pilot. I get to fly and land the plane along with the CA. After IOE I will be on reserve in Chicago (ORD), which means that I'm on call. My base is ORD, but I hope to commute from Minneapolis once I get a normal (non-reserve) schedule. I will live in a crashpad in ORD until then. (Crashpadd = an apartment for pilots where the rent is cheap and the rooms are shared; you get your own bed though.)