The quizical wonderings

Man. It has been a while.

A couple of things. First, I am finally done with check-rides for a while. Who knows how long, or honestly how soon my next one will be. But the next one will hopefully be a sim ride at a 121 operation next Spring.

Second, I'm really not too sure what to think about this whole instructing gig. I mean, I enjoy it, but sometimes I'm not too sure what I'm doing - more importantly, why I'm doing it. And I don't mean why I'm teaching, or even flying for a living. It has more to do with the fact that maybe I'm actually - finally - doing something that I enjoy, and I'm not too sure how to really feel about it.

I take what I do, and more importantly how the industry as a whole is doing, very personally. I grew up and spent many a cross Atlantic trips in a Delta L1011. As a young boy, enjoying the view out the L10's larger than life cockpit windows - and the simple fact that the guys up front were in charge and loved what they did for a living really stuck me as a young boy. Sure, it was novelty, but flying for a living means a lot to me. Moreover it means a lot to me that I expect my fellow professional aviators to not sell themselves short. Have some professional pride and demand the most from your employers, they will do nothing less than that when they ask things of you.

In other areas of aviation I've found another forum to join and take part in. I had heard of www.propilotworld.com many months ago, but since I lacked the required membership minimums (a commercial pilot certificate) I wasn't able to join until a few months ago. Unfortunately, I just joined up a few days ago. All you other professional pilots who come through here from either Jetcareers.com or Airlinepilotcentral.com be sure to check out PPW. You won't be disappointed.

I'm also approaching 400TT. About 130 of that is dual given. I enjoy what I do, no doubt, and I'm pretty sure that is what is causing this unknown development of why I'm wondering what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.

But anyway - as scatter brained out as this post is I hope it's some consolation for going over a month without updating this thing.

All the best, and happy new year!

Dual Given

Good Morning. I really don't know how many, if anyone really, even visits this damn thing. But anyway.

With about 40+ hours of dual given under my belt I'm still wet behind the ears to this instructing thing. I think I've had it pretty sweet thus far though. My student load right now is 2 Instrument students, both in stage I which is Basic Attitude Instrument flying. Good ol' Pitch + Power = Performance. I also have one pre-solo Private student, her first (second following the intro flight) is scheduled for this morning in about 45 min. Hopefully the frost isn't too bad this morning and we actually get to fly.

I've flown with more than just those three students though. Flown with a commercial student who is working on his maneuvers, two other instrument students - one who is getting ready for a checkride, and the other who is finishing up the program with cross country trips.

I've also managed to get some ME time. Flew with two guys who I've flown with before in the twin prior to becoming an MEI.

I haven't encountered any boneheaded moves yet, but I'm on the look out. :)

Wish me luck, I'm off to work.

CFI Single add-on, and the first few hours of dual.

I had my CFI Single engine add-on this past Weds. The checkride went fine. Was actually really concerned with my performance but overall it was a ride that I passed.

On Tuesday I actually gave my first 6.3 hours of dual given. It was multi time as well, which was nice. It was a cross country trip to New Bern NC with one of my instructors students who she couldn't fly with that day. No big deal, I'm in! :)

Yesterday I didn't fly much. Flew .5 in the DA40 to get rechecked out in it. Today on the other hand was much better. 3.2 hours of flight time today, spread over three flights. One instrument, one pre-solo private student pilot, and one intro flight. I'll take it for now. :)

Tomorrow starts early at 8am with a DA40 checkout / recurrent for a pilot who just needs to get back into the plane. At 10am I have a twin flight with another one of my instructor's students who she won't be able to fly with (more multi time! cha-CHING). After that I have a two hour break before I fly with a guy that I went through the instrument program with. He is transitioning from the multi-engine back to the single and wants me to fly with him for a few times before goes off and time builds in the single. I can't say I blame him. My first time back in the single after flying 65+ hours in the twin was a disaster. . .speeds all over the place, floating down all of the runway.

The weather has been beautiful these past few days. A little windy in the afternoons, but that is to be expected with cold air and winter. The hours are gradually building up.

In other news I've actually found a real killer Coffee shop. Ran by a great group of women, beautiful too I might add. The coffee is delicious. From Green Mountain Roasters. Absolutely DELICIOUS!

Alrighty, til next time.

I'm an MEI

Well finally had my MEI checkride last Thursday. Sorry for the late update.

It was a very good ride, straight forward, no tricks. Oral lasted about 3 hours, and flight was just at 1 hour.

I have a single engine add-on ride later this week, and then supposedly a double I (Instrument instructor) ride late next week.

Funny how I can go two months without having a checkride, and then all at once I have three lined up. Amazing.

Weather

Just so happens that the week that Georgia is suppose to get a good deal of rain, is also the week that I have a checkride scheduled.

Ah - the life of a career changing pilot in training. . .always seems like it'll never end.

Already it has dragged out from a planned five months to seven. I really can't put myself, or my family through any more of this. It has to be done, and it has to be done pronto.

But hey, a 30% chance of rain for tomorrow, weds, and thursday. Doesn't get much better than that does it? Best scenario I can plan for is the rain lets up on Weds, we have some fog thursday morning, and then in the afternoon when it's time to go flying we have some Cumulus clouds popping up.

Have a few flights scheduled in the late evening of Friday and Saturday to fly in the right seat of the single, and get a SE CFI addon checkride scheduled for hopefully sometime next week with a DPE. Been wanting to hook back up with the examiner I used for my instrument rating as he was a real pleasure to fly with - would be nice to give him some business again.

Til Thursday. . .when I'll hopefully have some great news. :)

MEI Checkride - scheduled.

Finally have an appointment with an FAA Examiner for my Multi-Engine Instructor CFI Initial. The big day is a week from today, the 25th of October.

Going to be a long day. Need to get back into the books, read about the Fundamentals of Instructing and slowly get back into the checkride mindset.

I'm ready though, time to get paid!

Music, and MEI

Just real quickly. I like my music loud. . .yes, loud. Not outrageously loud, but I can't stand people who listen to good music (personal opinion) on a very very low setting. Now, if it is for the sake of carrying on a conversation - that's fine. But when it's a mutual understanding act, listening to music together with another person, and that person BARELY has the volume up. . .it really sucks the lifeblood and enjoyment that is music.

In other news. . .

Finally got back into the twin today. Thank goodness. From the right seat much less. All maneuvers looked great, with one exception. The right hand steep turn. Lost a good bit of altitude (200ft) initially, and eventually got it all stabilized again. But, that's the one thing specifically that needs some work.

Flying again tomorrow morning from the right seat, and that should be it. One more flight perhaps before the actual check ride, but we can't find a reason for me to waste money, and time burning through another 10 hours of multi time, lol.

In other news. . .version 2.

I don't have hard numbers, but I got my last check in from the VA finally for my flight training. Here are some rough numbers.

Total cost thus far, for Instrument rating, Commercial Single and Multi: $33500.

I received a $3691.31 check about three weeks ago for my Instrument rating. This morning, I received 4 direct deposits, totaling $14941.62. So, total funds out of my GI Bill account = $18632.93.

For my flight training, I took out a $20,000 loan through SLM. This $20k got me through my instrument rating, a multi engine addon to my private license, a good chunk of ME time for my Commercial Multi. After that, I was planning on floating the funds from the VA to cover the rest of my training. Well, I eventually found out that my flight school didn't send in my monthly enrollement verification sheets at the end of the month. I found this out, about 2 weeks before I should have received my first VA check. Well, guess what happened. . .no money for me to continue to fly. After bringing this to the attention of the flight school owner, we worked out a deal. Essentially I flew on credit at the school until my VA money came in. I ended up racking up a $13k bill.

In the end, it all worked out. Leaving me with $5k to finish my MEI, CFI single, and II if I wanted to. What will most likely happen though is, my MEI initial (maybe a grand), CFI single (maybe a few hundred bucks), and I'm not going to get my II right now. So, leaving $3k left to put towards my $20k loan.

It all worked out indeed. Worked out just great. If I can just now get a darn MEI checkride. Waiting for the FAA to call us back and let me know when they can come down. Til next time. . .keep the blue side up, and the brown side down.

We Endorse John Edwards

Leo W. Gerard and Cecil Roberts, Jr: We Endorse John Edwards

Good on you gentlemen. . .here is a few excerpts.

John Edwards' decision last week to participate in public campaign financing set off a qualm-storm in the media about his ranking among the Democratic candidates but, for us, it strongly reaffirmed our confidence in him.

It was deemed a sign of financial weakness by completely fallible political junkies and media critics who've anointed a front-runner despite the fact that the race is too close to call in Iowa, and other candidates have gathered more endorsements and raised more money.

To us, Edwards' decision meant we'd chosen the right candidate, one who prefers public money with its limitations to the complications of accepting donations from donors who prove to be fugitives from justice.

Edwards' move to public financing was principled. It was about his refusal to take corporate campaign contributions -- which he calls corporate bribes. He's got that right.

I'd recommend reading the whole thing. Eventually Democrats in this country will get over their wet dream of nominating a female, or a minority, all for what - never reaching a climax - as neither of these two actually have the electability in a general election. But hey, I know some democrats just want a wet dream.

Stratus

Yeah, it's stable alright. . .but man does it really suck.

We've been needing rain badly here in the Atlanta area for about the past 3 weeks. Actually, for the whole year. I had really expected for a higher than average Hurricane / Tropic season, but even that hasn't helped us any.

A 1/5 of an inch a day wouldn't help us come out of this drought by years end. . .think about that.

I should actually be finishing the last 5 lesson plans right about now. Fortunately for me though, it's all ME aerodynamics, and some OEI (One Engine Inoperative) operations. VMC demonstration type stuff. :)

I had always thought that VMC demos, Lazy-Eights, and Chandelles would be more difficult than they really were. All three of them were actually pretty mellow. The authors of these aviation books need to do a better job with their pictures - putting fear of Lazy-Eights into the people that read them - all for - more emphasis in what the maneuver is going to look like? A little over emphasis is fine, but sheesh. When I first started reading about Lazy Eights, for some odd reason (those silly pictures) I thought I was going to have the plane climbing a good 600-800 ft, then descending rapidly to get back down to my initial altitude. Not. At least not in the DA20's. Never once did I see an initial climb higher than 400ft. Amazing how peaceful they really were in the end.

MEI Adventure

Have two flights scheduled on Friday, and one on Tuesday. Hopefully sometime this week we will know when the FAA can come down an give me my checkride. Have a fair bit of stuff to study, but I've been in the ME mindset for almost 3 months that I should know the airplane like the back of my hand.

I still feel a little weak system wise, even though I know I can really perform when I need to. Need to do some studying on FOI, go through my lesson plans, finish them up, etc.

Michael Franti - Time to Go Home

Twinstar Flying

It truly is a beautiful plane to fly.