Grounding oneself
Condolences on your loss Sunfish and bouquets on recognising unnecessary stress/ lack of concentration it could cause when you are flying. About 10 years ago, one of our Gr1 Instructors went throught he pain of his father being diagnosed with a very aggressive tumour. We stood him down rom work for a bout a week before his father pasing away and for at least 2 weeks after. He was then to decide when he felt able to return to light duties and after that he only flew with students who were past the ab initio stage. After 4 weeks back at work he was back at full strength. Another Instructor - although much junior, went through a similar process some time later and was offered as much time as he felt he needed. In both cases, the pilots concerned could take their time to come to terms with their losses and return to work as they saw fit. One Instructor got on top of things pretty well and the other took a very long time. I do hope Sunfish that you will soon come to terms with your grief and move on with your life as I am sure your father would have wanted you to and cherish the memories of your shared "good times".