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.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
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. :)
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. :)
Thursday, October 18, 2007
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!
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!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, October 1, 2007
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