You're sharper than me I think. Maybe because I'm getting older- I'll be 46 on the 18th.

I walked into this feeling pretty confident. I had several thousand hours, 1300 multi turbine (albeit turboprops), an ATP, and while I'm not the smartest guy on the planet I'm a Mensa member and I used to teach organic chemistry at the university level. I've been flying for 25 years. I also went home one weekend, but I worked the whole time and while I also found the jumpseat experience invaluable if I could do it again I'd have stayed in Dayton. I used all for xft sessions and man did I work my ass off, lol. Totally worth it, but it didn't come easy.

I dunno. Everyone is different. I've seen fighter pilots come through here and struggle, some others who are younger seem to wrestle less. Ymmv.

One thing I forgot- there's a program on the ipad called Ethos. It's wonky and the database is out of date, but the freeplay FMS is super worth it to learn FMS programming and for use as a mini sip.

Good luck!