Perhaps the greater victory, though, is tonight's Ground School breakthrough:
Eric’s Amazing Compass
This evening's instructor, instead of being threatened by my demands for excellence in teaching, took up the challenge, and created a very sweet, if somewhat faulty, model of a compass with which to show us how a magnetic compass works. (The evening's topic was "Flight Instruments") The thing was hideously ugly -- a cpaper, markers and re-shaped coat hanger contraption worthy of at best, a grade 3 science project, but still, his efforts are very much appreciated. Not only the visual tool itself, but the positive learning climate created by the fact that he cared enough to try, drastically improved my learning experience tonight.
His questioning techniques were waaaay too fast, and there was no wait time, and I am still definately in need of some private tutoring, but at least I am feeling more optimistic about the whole Ground School thing.
I also learned tonight -- don't laugh -- that we are flying in Southern Domestic Airspace (turns out northern and southern domestic airspace do NOT relate to northern and southern hemispheres – oops!)