TV and Laundry

The life of a flight instructor in the midwest continues. School's over and most of the students have gone home but I'm still in Grand Forks to work with the Air China students. There is plenty of opportunity to work, build hours, and MAKE MONEY!

I'm covering 3 students, doing stage checks, and working with my students. I'm scheduled up from basically 8 till 5 or so everyday doing flights.

Of course the weather doesn't want to play nice. So for the past two days I've been sitting in my living room watching TV not making money to pay for the TV. I've also been doing a lot of laundry, I'm running out of things(and clothes) to do.

If it were warmer out I would be outside doing something but this is Grand Forks, ND and it is December. I've decided that if I am going to be doing this for I need to get a hobby. Let's see what are some options: Learning guitar, beer brewing, making videos, photography. I think I'll keep searching.

right seat pilot

ANE - GFK

Sunday, December 13
Well my time at home is over and it's time to get back to Grand Forks. I was planning on leaving around noon but the weather looks like it's getting worse later in the day. I was also going to fly the kbrew departure out of ANE but because of weather in Fargo I decided to file direct to KGFK.

10:00am: Wheels are off exactly at my schedule departure time(lucky!)
10:10am: Level at 6,000' and cleared direct to Grand Forks
10:15am: Center advises of opposite direction traffic at my 12 1,000' above me.
10:30am: My request for 8,000' is granted and I start my climb. Great weather so I have time to snap a few pictures and mess around with the G1000.
11:15am: I'm now in the clouds. Temp is -14C. I'm always paranoid about ice so about every minute I'm looking for ANY signs of ice. I have a plan to divert the instant I see ice. No ice forms so I press on.
11:30am: Flight Watch advises that I should be clear of IFR conditions in about 20 more miles. I'll keep pressing on, still constantly watching for ice.
11:40am: Flight Watch was right, about exactly 20 NM and I am back in VFR conditions. No more worries I'm home free to GFK
12:20pm: I'm cleared for the visual approach to runway 35L.
12:25pm: Touchdown at GFK

This was an awesome trip. I got to meet a bunch of awesome people at an AWESOME company. I was so impressed with Cessna and how they operate. It is definitely a first class company. It was fun to fly places that I haven't flown before and land at new airports. Being an instructor you forget what flying is actually about. It's about the freedom to fly from Independence Kansas all the way to Minneapolis, Minnesota in less than 5 hours!


Siouxpilot

IDP - OMA - ANE

Saturday, Dec 12
After a nice meal and good nights rest today is the day that we take delivery of the aircraft and start my flight back to Minneapolis. I want to say right away that the people at Cessna are all awesome people. They've treated us like royalty and are just normal people who you can have a conversation with.

8:00 am: Cessna picks us up at our hotel to take us to the factory
8:30 am: We begin to inspect our aircraft in the hanger, looking for anything that doesn't meet our expectations. Our aircraft our parked in a hanger with all the other
9:30am: Time for the acceptance flight with one of Cessna's delivery pilots. One more chance to make sure everything works right and nothing needs to be fixed before we leave IDP.
11:35am: We asked if we would be able to be given a tour of the factory and they said yes. So off we go through the factory. Very impressive. They have 2 production lines, one for the Mustang and the other for all the prop aircraft. The factory is cleaner than my room.
1:15pm: Wheels off. I'm IFR IDP direct to OMA. I'm filed for 8,000' with a time en route of around 2 hours 20 minutes.
1:45pm: Cessna 135XX is not hearing center so center asks if I can relay for him. It's a simple message just telling them to contact Kansas City center on 132.9
1:50pm: ATC must be bored. They keep asking me questions about UND and if we are picking up new aircraft. Their last question was they heard a rumor you get a free cake if you buy a new aircraft from Cessna(not true!)
2:20pm: Gotta love the mic input on the C172. I plug in my ipod and turn on a little music in the background. Sure makes time go by faster.
4:00pm: Arrival at OMA. Nice airport, I've never been there. A different UND aircraft arriving after me gets ramp checked by the FAA and passes(Whew).
4:30pm: After a quick fuel, cup of coffee, and bathroom brake I'm back rolling down the runway for departure to ANE.
4:50pm: I'm now level at 9,000 54NM from Fort Dodge VOR. I'm flying the twolf1 arrival into ANE. This takes me from oMA to FOD(fort dodge) then via VOR radials to anoka.
5:15pm: Getting dark!

6:25pm: MSP center vectors me over the top of the international airport. I'm enjoying flying around buildings again. I spot the Metrodome, then the new I35 bridge. I start thinking I must be close to the new TCF Stadium at the UofM and look directly below and there it is, all lit up with the screen on.
6:40pm: On the ground at ANE. Time to spend a little time with the family and friends.

I'm planning on staying until Sunday before I head back to Grand Forks.

Delay Day

The first of three posts about my trip to pick up a new C172 at their Independence, Kansas factory.

Delay Day(Friday, Dec 11)
4:50 am: All three alarms in my room go off and I drag myself out of bed. Have to be at the airport for a 6:00AM departure in the King Air.
6:00 am: Bad news. The main strut on the King Air is leaking and we have to wait till maintenance comes. Time to head home till I get the call to come back to the airport.
12:30 pm: Heading back to the airport after a nice little nap.
2:45 pm: Wheels off
3:45 pm: Level at FL250, GS 259 kts
4:00 pm: Center "405XX we have a flight of B1's off your 9 o clock block airspace 220 thru 240. I actually watch two B1's in formation pass about 1 mile behind us.
4:35 pm: Practice approach at Sioux City, Iowa. On to Independence.
6:20 pm: Arrival at Independence, Kansas.

Time for dinner (steak), a hot tub, and some sleep. Tomorrow takes looks nice and takes me from IDP to Omaha, Nebraska and then on to Anoka, Minnesota.

C172 Ferry Flight

Thursday morning at 6:00 am I will be jumping on a King Air for a ride down to Wichita, Kansas. The University of North Dakota has been accepting delivery of brand new Cessna 172's for over a year now as we replace our fleet of Piper Warriors.

Three of us are going down to take delivery of 3 new airplanes. We will be doing an acceptance flight and check and then it is our responsibility to get the aircraft back to Grand Forks, ND.

Instead of coming straight back to Grand Forks my route will take me to Anoka County airport in Minneapolis, where I will spend the night with family. The following day I will head back to Grand Forks.

I'm going to write a few posts about the trip and experience.

Siouxpilot

Upgrade

Not the type of upgrade you are accustomed to with the airlines but I have been given an upgrade in the organization at UND. Since I started instructing I've had a stretch of very good pilots come through seeking some help from me. I give the majority of my successes in teaching to the students ability/desire to learn difficult ideas. With the help of these students I've had a very impressive pass rate on stage checks. A stage check is basically a test, given by another instructor, to evaluate how a student is progressing through each course. Each course has at least one stage check and more then not two or three. The stage check consists of both an oral portion and a flight portion. To pass the stage check students need to perform to certain standards, usually the PTS standards for the given course they are enrolled in.

Because of the success my students have had I was selected to become a stage pilot. This is an awesome opportunity and something that I've wanted since I started flying here at UND. Becoming a stage pilot gives me an opportunity to also help other students. I will now be evaluating students directly, and their instructors indirectly.

During the stage check I will evaluate students knowledge and piloting ability through questions, mostly scenario based questions to prevent students from memorizing answers. During the flight I evaluate their mastery, smoothness and accuracy, and aeronautical decision making on the required maneuvers for that certain test.

I'm very happy to start doing this. I've already completed the extra required training and am just waiting approval from the FAA(hopefully this week!). I also have some great news about an adventure I get to take in December, more on that later.

Siouxpilot

Aircraft Ownership for Flight training

Well, it has been a LONG TIME. I'm in a class called information systems and technology this semester and it deals with working with word, excel, powerpoint, etc... So I've been messing around with it using functions and such. I decided to make a excel spreadsheet seeing how long it would take me to make a profit if I were to purchase an aircraft and use it as a flight training aircraft. I needed to figure out how much I would have to instruct per month to eventually make a profit. What I found was kind of interesting, I'll go into a little detail in a bit. But first, this is like another post of mine where I evaluated purchasing your own aircraft for your private pilot flight training. I wanted to see if it would make more sense to purchase or rent an aircraft. Here is the link to "Rent or Buy". This was one of my favorite posts so far along with "Holy $**T Moment".

So here are the numbers I used.
Costs:
Aircraft Purchase(1970's 172) - $50,000
Annual costs (Insurance, Hanger, Maintenance) - $6,200
Rental Fees:
Aircraft Hourly Fee - $135
Instruction Hourly Fee - $45

So heres what I figured out. To break even in year 1, pay for the cost of the aircraft and other costs, I would have to fly 324 hours that year. This breaks down into just under 27 hours per month. Probably very do able, with exceptions.

There are many hard parts about flying 324 hours in year 1. The major one is getting enough customers. This is and will always be a problem for instructors. Lets say I find 3 customers in my first year working towards their private. If each of them requires 30 hours of Dual instruction I would earn $16,200 that year. Providing good instruction and recommendations then I could easily double that the next year, $32,400.

I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff, including fuel costs since all aircraft rentals are usually "wet".

Just another interesting option that popped into my head. Has anybody gone this route? Could be an option in the future for this Right Seat Pilot.

Calculated risks

The amazing thing about flying is that we usually survive! Sure, aviation is safe but there are always risks. Pilots know this and still fly. Why? Is it that we are just risk takers? Do we want to prove to ourselves that we are better then other pilots who have failed? Do we assume we are invincible(a Hazardous Attitude)?

I don't think that is what it is. Most pilots know of these risks, accept the risk, and manage the risks when they occur. Every flight has risks, there are times when the risk is higher though. Those include takeoff, landing, instrument flight, acrobatic flight, and many others.

The amazing thing to me is that some people take these risk without being properly prepared to handle them or just not caring about the risks. Lets look at two examples

UsAirways flight 1549: The aircraft took off into a clear blue sky. Piloted by a well trained crew(both pilots and flight attendants). After taking off and climbing up to only 3,000 some feet of altitude the aircraft flew through a flock of birds. The engines ingested the birds and both flamed out with no restart possible.

The crew immediately went with their training, one pilot flying(capt) and the other performing the checklists(first officer). Even without being able to restart the engines and knowing that they were going to have to ditch a 75 ton aircraft into a river the crew kept their calm. They successfully ditched the aircraft in a RIVER and all passengers survived. Appropriately termed the Miracle on the Hudson.

Pinnacle Airlines flight 3701

This one you might not have heard about. A crew was repositioning an empty CRJ-200. The CRJ has a service ceiling of 41,000'. The crew asked and attempted to get the aircraft up to the service ceiling. On the way up the aircraft was unable to continue climbing the way the crew had it set up and both engines flamed out.

The engines spooled down and because of the severe cold the fans actually expanded and froze stuck. There was no possible way to restart the engines, even after descending into warmer air.

The aircraft eventually crashed killing both pilots.

Conclusion:
Risks are part of flying. Know the risks. Be prepared for something to happen, it most likely will! Know how to execute the proper procedures when they do. I'm not saying take risks, because a safe pilot won't take unnecessary risks. Be a smart, prudent pilot, this will keep you and your passengers alive!

Right Seat Pilot.

Here is a link to a general aviation crew managing an emergency. On the way to sun n fun in Florida they had an engine fail at a low altitude. Following the checklists they got the engine restarted and then had it fail again. They made a safe landing on an available road, and managed to pull off into a parking lot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U1lhDMZZD8

USA Today article on GA aviation

So this article has recently caused quite an uproar in the aviation community about being a one sided story and not showing all the facts. When I read this article I immediately felt horror! So many non-aviation travelers are going to read this and think "Why the HELL am I paying for these guys to fly there toys around!"

Because of my education from the University of North Dakota I recently had a class on airport management in which we discussed the AIP funding program. I knew instantly that not all the facts were being shown and in all honesty it really pissed me off. I immediately wrote a response to the article on the website and also a letter to the editor explaining my disgust.

Many other groups have mentioned many of the same stuff that I did. I did my research in about 15 minutes(while in class) and found more information then USA today. Here is my response to them.

Please understand, whether you are involved with aviation or not, that General Aviation is a key factor in our national system. Without it we would lose a lot of business, vital airports for the postal service, patient and transplant services, fire fighting, policing, news, and many more.


"I also did research on the AIP funds for this year from the FAA website, not hard to find just go to FAA.com and search AIP funds. Your author failed to mention that the majority of the money from these funds already goes to Primary commercial service airports.

I looked at the state of Florida because of it's large amount of airports. In Florida there are 20 primary commercial airports and 58 general aviation airports. Of this the 20 primary commercial airports are already slated to receive $44,000,000 this year. On the other hand the 58 general aviation airports are only going to receive around $15,000,000. Commercial service airports are receiving almost 75% of the AIP funds for this year. This works out to just over $250,000 per general aviation airport and almost $2,200,000 for each commercial service airport.

This would have been very easy for your writer to do research, as I did it in class in about 15 minutes. I'm an active reader of USAtoday.com and still will be but was shocked at the one sided story that was put up this morning. If you have questions contact me and either I will have the correct answers for you or know someone who will."

Here is the link to the article. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-09-17-little-used-airports_N.htm

Medical Situation

Well, I've encountered my first medical restriction in my flight career. I would venture to say that all pilots are more conscious of their health than the majority of people. Especially pilots who want to operate on a commercial certificate or higher.

The reason for this is because you are required to have an aviation medical certificate to fly. There are different kinds of medicals, first class, second class, and third class. With first being the most restrictive and working its way down from there.

There are many things that go into these medical exams, eyesight, hearing, are two that come to mind right away. There are many other things that could prevent you from getting a medical.

One of those is medications and surgeries that you've had. Just this past weekend I had to have surgery on my kidney. Because of this I'm now taking prescription pain pills.

Even though I have a second class medical at the moment the pills I'm taking prevent me from flying.

This is a scary thing for any pilot and you almost always think about the money that you put into your training.

I'm writing this to inform all the readers that there will probably be a short break in my stories. As I'm not flying during the next few weeks, possibly longer, I will be taking a break from most things aviation.

Thanks for following the blog and I promise when I come back I will be writing with a fever and passion that I had when I first started writing. See you soon!

Long Days

Any "real" pilot loves to just hang around the airport, talk to other pilots, be around airplanes, and just have a good time at the airport. As a flight instructor it is your job to be at the airport when you are needed. This is your job, this is what you get payed for.

Before we go any further let me explain how we charge students for our time. Usually the majority of what you pay your instructor is going to be for time actually spent in the aircraft. This is also the time that you can log. At UND we use a hobbs meter(timer) that starts ticking when you turn the master switch on. We also charge for what we call Pre/Post time. This is the time that before and after your flight when the instructor is actually teaching you.

Some instructors will charge for every minute they are at the airport in their Pre/Post time. Me on the other hand I really only count the time that I'm actually discussing flying or teaching with the student. So after the first few flights does this include the interior and exterior preflight that the student is conducting? Not unless I'm teaching something new or important.

What does this all mean to anyone who is interested in being a flight instructor? Your going to spend a lot more time at the airport than your actually getting payed for. Lets look at an example of a recent flight I had with a student.

The flight was a 10:00 AM flight so we met at the airport around 9. Here is the time breakdown for our flight...

9-9:15 student gets weather briefing and does performance
9:15 - 9:30 student and I will discuss the flight and talk about what we are going to do
9:30 - 10:00 student does preflight checks as I help out and make sure everything is OK.
10:00 - 11:30 Flight time
11:30 - 11:45 Student does the post flight check and turns in the aircraft book
11:45 - 12:00 Student and I discuss the flight. What went well and what we need to work on

Now that you have the break down let me tell you what I charged the student for. 1.5 hours of flight time and .5 Pre/Post(I usually only charge .3 for Pre/Post but for argument sake I'll use .5 here). I got payed for 2.0 hours of instruction.

That's pretty good right? Well not really, I've been at the airport since 9 and it is now after noon, 3 hours. So I've lost an hour of payed time. Not a huge deal if you only do one flight a day but now lets assume I do 3 or 4 flights a day.

If I do 4 flights a day that turns out to me getting payed for roughly 8 hours a day, almost an average work day. But lets think back, I lost 1 hour during for that one flight so multiply that by 4 and now I've lost 4 hours. I've been at the airport for roughly 12 hours and only got payed for 8.

Granted if you enjoy being a flight instructor you don't mind being at the airport. Just be prepared for long long days!

Power-Off 180s

Energy management. That's what Power-Off 180s are all about. For those of you who don't know a Power-Off 180 is a simulated engine failure to landing. On downwind abeam your touchdown point you pull the power to idle and try to land with in a certain distance from your touchdown point. While many people do this maneuver for their Private Pilot training it isn't actually required for you to pass a check ride.

To pass your Commercial check ride you need to do a Power-Off 180 Accuracy approach and landing. The key word here is accuracy. What does accuracy mean? From the PTS "touches down in a normal landing attitude, at or within 200 feet beyond a specified touchdown point."

Why is this so difficult for students? Again I'm going to say energy management. Thinking back to your long days studying physics you obviously remember that there are two types of energy, Potential and Kinetic.

The bare bones description of potential energy is energy that is stored within an object, energy that can be converted to other forms of energy. Kinetic energy is the energy that an object has due to its motion. A good way to think about this is altitude above the ground is stored energy, potential, which can be traded for airspeed, kinetic.

Back to the maneuver at hand. Depending on the airplane you need to time your turn to base depending on your sink rate. I'll use the C172 and Piper arrow as my two examples. Both of these aircraft start the same way, pull the power abeam your touchdown point and start pitching for your best glide speed. When you pull the power on the C172 you need to keep going on your downwind leg for a bit, however on the Piper Arrow you need to almost always start your turn to base right away.

Base leg is the most important part of this maneuver. This is where you determine if you have the right amount of energy. If you are going be high you square off your base turn to final turn, if your low you are going need to turn towards the runway and shorten your pattern.

So why is this difficult? Well most students don't understand that you aren't judging whether you are high or low but rather judging your sink rate. Do you have enough energy to make it to the runway? Do I have enough potential energy, altitude, that I can trade for airspeed to make it to my landing point?

If you are too high there are a few things you can do, slip the airplane, square off your base turn, or add flaps. However the one that not a lot of people know about is slowing the aircraft up to below best glide speed. If you pitch down to loose altitude you are going to gain airspeed, kinetic energy, and float past your landing point. However, if you pitch back, you increase your induced drag(drag due to lift and AOA) . Because of this increase in drag you will now be able to descend faster.

This is a very difficult maneuver to perfect but a very important one. In a real engine failure emergency you don't want to miss your only landing area by floating long or coming up short.
Link to a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nCDyL3toEg&feature=related

Garmin G1000 what???

Recently the University of North Dakota made the decision to switch its fleet from piper warriors to Cessna C172S equipped with Garmin G1000 glass cockpits. For those of you not already familiar with the G1000 it is a great tool for pilots. It consists of two 10" displays that are split up into a PFD(primary flight display) and an MFD(multi function display). These two displays are powered by multiple different devices. There is an AHRS(attitude and heading Reference system) which controls the attitude indicator, and heading indicator. The ADC(air data computer) is for all the pitot static instruments, airspeed, VSI, altimeter, wind vector, and TAS. Other pieces of equipment are the engine instruments, magnetometer(for heading information) and GPS and Comms.

The PFD shows all your flight instruments; airspeed, attitude indicator, altimeter, VSI, heading indicator, HSI, turn coordinator, and a small map if you want it. The MFD can do multiple things, as the name says. Usually is will show the engine instruments on the left side of the screen and a map covering the rest of the screen. There are also small steam standby steam gauges in case you loose your PFD and MFD.

The G1000 is amazingly simple and effective and dramatically improves situational awareness. However, for a private pilot who should be focusing on the outside references to fly the aircraft I have noticed that they are becoming more and more focused on whats happening inside the aircraft and not outside.

Because of this one of my favorite things to do to a private pilot student is to turn the contrast on the PFD all the way down so that it is basically a black screen. This forces the pilot to look outside and fly the aircraft with outside references and by feel.

You would be surprised how much students rely on the PFD to keep the aircraft level. Initially it takes a little bit for a student to keep the airplane level and on a heading but very quickly they pick it up. I've also noticed that because of this when you do turn the screen back on the students aren't looking inside as much. It improves their piloting abilities and makes everything they do better.

The G1000 is a great tool but we need to be able to fly an aircraft without it. To feel the aircraft, to hear the aircraft and understand what it is doing.

WOW

Today I got to see something that not many people get to see. First let me set the situation, Grand Forks international is located about 9.1 miles directly east of Grand Forks Air Force Base. GFK AFB used to be a tanker base but is now being transitioned into a UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle) base. They started operating Predator UAVs just this summer. Because of this they need put up a temporary flight restriction(TFR) every time that the UAV flies so it can get up into class A airspace with out interfering with civilian traffic. This TFR extends from the top of the Class D airspace at GFK AFB upto 18,000' MSL.

Usually airplanes are not allowed through TFR's under visual flight rules but because of the high amount of training and our relationship with departure we are allowed to transition through as long as we request it and are in contact with departure.

Today my student and I were practicing XC ops and we departing to the west directly over the base. After we took off we contacted departure and asked for a transition through the TFR. "Sioux 24 cleared through the TFR at or above 3,500 due to Predator ops" was the response from departure. So we climbed up to 3,500 and flew directly over the middle of the AFB.

I knew that since we were cleared above 3,500 that the Predator was probably returning from a mission. Little did I know that when I would look down at the approach end of runway 17 I saw something spectacular. The Predator UAV on short final!

As I completely started ignoring my student, like any good flight instructor does, I watched the Predator touch down and start his ground roll. Little did I know that he wasn't done, power came up and sure enough the nose started to lift up. A touch and go! WOW must be fun!

I've written about them before and I am continually amazed and interested in UAV's and UAV operations.

Side note: a Predator B UAV landed at OSH earlier this week making it the first Predator landing at a civilian airport. The link includes a video if you interested.

Controlled Crash

It's amazing when you think about the risk that all of us pilots are taking. Trying to land an airplane going somewhere between 50 and 70 kts onto a 100' wide(or less) piece of concrete. Really it is an amazing feat, one that has claimed many lives.

With practice this becomes routine and almost a none event. So what makes it so difficult? Let's add some crosswind, since the wind is never directly down the runway ;), how about a short or soft field, how about an unstablized approach?

How do we get this experience? Practice, practice, practice. Recently I read an article by master flight instructor Rod Machado on letting your students get experience. To put it briefly he talked about how an good flight instructor lets his students make mistakes and learn from them.

He mentioned how he talked to a student one time who mentioned that his instructor had NEVER let the student completely land the aircraft. That is the instructor was always on the controls and helping the student out. Is this good for the student? No.

Rod made the point that a good instructor will let his student make the mistakes and learn from them. Granted a good flight instructor knows the limits of his plane and won't let the student get into an unsafe position but will let him get close enough.

Since I've read this I myself have realized that you need to let students make mistakes. Let them see what happens from control inputs, or lack of and how to correct for it. Like Rod said I believe this is not only beneficial to the student but also shows the ability of a good flight instructor.

ATC

I know this post is could be taken as a touchy subject. I am very cautious about writing this because I respect and admire the work that an air traffic controller does when controlling multiple aircraft in a relatively very small area. They are almost always at the top of their game and provide a confidence to the pilots of both large and small aircraft.

However, the reason I'm writing this is because I recently had a situation where a controller was either having a bad day or just not happy to be there. Because of this it caused my aircraft to be put in a dangerous near miss situation and the controller to belittle and yell at other aircraft throughout the flight.

We were practicing night landings for the first time with my student. After going to the practice area and working some maneuvers we headed back to a busy controlled airport for landings. Entering the pattern I initially noticed that we were a following an aircraft who is on a wider than normal downwind. Which is fine by me especially since we don't want to cut off an aircraft at night.

This continued for about two trips around the pattern before ATC started to get upset with all aircraft over, well, basically everything. "All aircraft your downwind is Way to wide" "N***** it sounds like you still don't understand what I said" "N***** this is going to be a full stop landing for you." etc. etc. etc.

In the middle of all this I'm trying to teach my student how to do night landings. Which on about the 5th attempt as we turned to base I look back on downwind and notice an aircraft inside of us and closing fast at our altitude. I glance at my ADS-B and see that he is almost 1/2 mile and at our altitude closing. This is where I take over and push the nose forward and loose about 500' and put us extremely low to avoid this near miss.

Now again please don't get me wrong. I sincerely respect and admire the work of all ATC. But sometimes we all have bad days, in the world of aviation we need to leave our troubles and feelings at home. Lives are at stake, we are required to be the most professional of professionals. This goes for both pilots, large and small, atc, FBO employees, line operations, security, and everyone associated with aviation. Don't risk your, mine, or other peoples lives because you are upset.

Vertical Development

This is long over due but summer is finally here. You have to love the benefits that come with summer in Grand Forks, ND. We finally don’t have to carry/wear our boots to go flying, no bulky jacket, gloves, and hat. No frostbite while you are pre-flighting the aircraft.

There are finally clouds that tower above you and lightning and rain. Gotta love it!! T-shirts and shorts(not at work of course). Grilling out and bonfires. Motorcycle rides. Pontoons and tubing.

But you also have to take the bad that comes with summer. The heat, the storms, the bugs, and the sweating. The heat definitely plays a major factor in performance during the summer months. In the winter with a fully loaded warrior you can still expect to get about 700 FPM climb rate on take off climb. Yesterday, with a fully loaded Warrior I didn’t think we would get to 3,500’ before we hit Canada, we were climbing like a rock. Not only is it the heat it is also the humidity which ruins your performance.

Another big issue in the summer is storms. A few days ago I was getting ready to go on a XC flight with a student to Alexandria, Crookston and then back to Grand Forks. The weather at the time was very unstable; a low pressure system was to the north of us with a trough to the south which was combining to create some pretty nasty storms. However, during our planning it looked like we would be able to make it to Alexandria and back before the storms hit.

So we decided to go ahead and get an aircraft book, call and file our IFR flight plans and get ready to head to the aircraft. I suggest we take one last look at the weather before we leave and sure enough new TAF’s our out along with up dated radar images. The TAF’s are now predicting storms through the duration of our flight. The latest radar shows that a cell is starting to build up right next to the Alexandria airport.

Okay, time to reevaluate our flight. With the new TAF’s, Radar, and an updated call to the FSS station we decided to cancel our flight. It ended up that we made a pretty good decision. When I got home I checked the radar at about the time we would have been in AXN and there is a HUGE thunderstorm that has tops at 40,000’ MSL and is producing hail.

Summer is a great time to fly, open the windows and doors and just enjoy the beautiful scenery. Any pilot who flies in the summer also needs to be aware of the hazards associated with summer flying including poor performance and unpredictable weather. Enjoy your summer.

Time Management

Time Management is one of the most important things for anyone to master. If a person isn't able to manage their time accordingly many bad things can happen, including stress increasing. If you are late to a job interview or meeting you instantly start with one strike against you that someone who is on time doesn't have.

Little did I know that as an instructor time management would be something that is constantly on my mind. Not only so I stay under the 8 hours of flight training in 24 hours as required by the FAA but also that I'm under the 10 "contact" hours for UND. Scheduling can be a major issue when you need to do cross country and night flights.

Time management is also very important when ever we take an airplane out for a lesson. If we have a 10:00 launch, a launch is 2 hours long, we need to be back by 11:45(15 minutes before our launch is over). This policy is in place so people with launches after us don't get delayed. This is a good policy IF everyone follows it correctly.

Last night for example we had a 7:00 pm launch, which meant we had to be back on the ramp by 8:45 pm. No big deal, more than enough time to get the lesson completed. However, because of lots of training going on and no aircraft we didn't get an aircraft till 7:10 pm(40 minutes after we can get the airplane). Now we are in a time crunch.

Preflight, taxi and runup checks take time. Finally we are wheels off at 7:35 pm, 1 hour and 5 minutes to get to the practice area, do the lesson and make it back on the ramp. Not nearly enough time.

I found that the best way to make it back on time is once we get to the practice area set one of the GPS's to the Grand Forks airport and keep my eye on the ETE (estimated time en route). When it gets close to the time en route to equal our due time back it is time to end the lesson and head back, regardless if the lesson is complete.

This has probably been one of the biggest surprises to me as a CFI. You prepare so much for teaching instruments, maneuvers, stalls, everything but never talk about time management when you are becoming a CFI. I think I have a new topic to talk about when I start teaching initial CFI applicants.

Three green and lock...ahhh...

Throughout your training at UND you start in the Warrior, or C172 now, then move onto the Piper Arrow for your complex and part of your commercial training(mainly commercial maneuvers) and end with the Piper Seminole. However, to instruct at a part 141 school you need to be "standardized" in every aircraft you instruct in. What does this consist of? Well usually it consist of stalls, and other maneuvers, as well as all the different types of landings.

I've been standardized in both the Warrior and C172 since I got hired but recently got the word that I was getting standardized in the Arrow. Awesome, I finally get to fly a "bigger, more complex" airplane! The stan flight went pretty uneventful and was over pretty quick. After not flying the Arrow for almost a year and a half it came back pretty quick.

So now that I was standardized in the Arrow I began looking for commercial flights to pick up for other instructors. Sure enough, the first weekend an email went out asking for help. I jumped all over it.

After take off and heading to the practice area to work on some maneuvers we head towards the airport for landings. Usually on midfield downwind is where you do your before landing check, Gear down and locked, fuel pump on, etc etc... So at midfield we put the gear down and I kept a watchful eye as we got one green, then two greens and finally.....just two greens. Okay, no worries, YET. The first step in trouble shooting is to make sure it's not just the bulb. So we will switch the lights and see if it lights up now.

Sure enough switch the lights and it turns green. Good to go. With the advantages of flying a faster, more complex airplane comes the disadvantages of more things to go wrong and forget. Every pilot will have experiences that they build on and this is one that I will make sure I'm always checking down and locked.

The Future for a Career Pilot

Like most when I decided to become a pilot I had dreams of flying a 747 internationally, working 10 days a month, and making hundreds of thousands of dollars. In reality those days are long gone. Now is the time of spending $40 - $50 thousand dollars on flight training(and that doesn't include tuition for a four year degree) and making only $20 - $30 thousand a year for your first few years. This harsh reality has made many consider a different route. What are most people considering? Cargo, corporate, instructing, and also a completely different job with no flying. All of these are good options, however there is another one, UAV's that people should think about. Lets take a look at all of these.

Cargo
A good option, there is usually a little more job security in cargo jobs. Depending on your company you sometimes have the option of being home every night. However there are some drawbacks. First, your usually flying at night. A lot of cargo operations are single pilot night flights. Secondly, unless your with a major company(FEDEX, UPS) the pay usually isn't as good as a commercial pilot.

Corporate
A very attractive option to a lot of pilots. Flying jets to exotic places with exotic people on board. Usually decent pay. The drawbacks of being a corporate pilot is that you usually are on demand. If a business meeting comes up and a client needs to get to New York tonight, you have to go.

Instructing
Not as attractive as the others for most but at least you are still in an airplane. Won't make as much money as other jobs but should be able to do alright. Get the opportunity as I mentioned in my last post to teach multiple types of pilots. You always have the chance to work for yourself.

UAV's
I think this is a very attractive option for most pilots. And the one I really wanted to talk about. At a recent conference at UND they discussed UAV's and their future. They said that because of the lack of pilots now the starting pay is going to be around $70-$80 thousand a year. You will be home almost every night as you won't be actually going where the plane goes.

Now you may be asking yourself "don't I need to be in the military to fly UAV's?" Well the answer is yes and no. Yes because right now the majority of UAV's are military. However, I talked to some people at Northrop/Grumman and he told me that they will be hiring UAV instructors, civilian pilots, to instruct military pilots and also test fly the new craft.

To me this is an awesome opportunity. If you were to have a job like this you could be home every night with your family, make enough money to own an airplane, possibly instruct in it to make a little extra cash.

Of course there are negatives to every job. What it is with UAV's I don't know yet, I don't know if they've been around long enough for us to know.

Hello, My Name is Bob

As an instructor you don't get much opportunity to actually fly the aircraft. Lately all the flying that I've been doing is a small tap on the yoke or tapping on the rudder pedals to remind my student to keep it coordinated. So when I got the opportunity to work with an instrument instructor student I jumped all over it.

There are two nice things that made me jump all over this. The first is that the student is already an instructor, so he obviously knows how to fly. The second, and most appealing, is that as the instructor I am acting as the student which lets me sit in the left seat.

So this is where Bob comes in. Since he should be teaching me throughout the flight I can't just fly the airplane like I would normally. I need to role play as a student. So prior to the flight I let the student know that I will either be acting like a beginning instrument pilot, or a pilot who is about halfway through his training. So the beginning instrument pilots name is Bob.

For the first half of the flight I let the instructor fly(under the hood) and instruct at the same time. If he can fly the airplane, stay within standards, and instruct then they will be able to instruct when they are just sitting in the right seat and the student is flying.

For the second half I took over the flight controls and had the student, still under the hood, instruct me. Man was I happy to be flying the aircraft. And let me tell you I definitely was not in standards. I was doing my best to try and make the instructor work extra hard. How? Constantly missing altitudes, omitting instruments, missing radio calls and asking as many questions as possible.

This experience really was a blast for me, it showed me a couple of things. First, I love actually flying the aircraft. Secondly how much fun it can be to be an instructor. Everyday, or every flight, is a different experience. That day I flew with an Air China private pilot student, Air China Instrument student, and an Instrument-Instructor student. Each required a different teaching style and keeps you at the top of your game.

busy busy busy

So it's been awhile since I've posted anything and I felt like I needed to update my page. It's not like I haven't been thinking of ideas, it's just the lack of time. With finals coming up and flying I'm completely packed right now.

So I've decided to give a teaser of sorts of the stories that I've been thinking about (and planning on) writing. So these are the next three to come, in no particular order:

The Future for a Career Pilot
Hello, My Name is Bob
Vertical development

I swear when I get some free time I will start getting these down. One last teaser, figure out which story goes along with this picture...

Actual Instrument

This comes as an extension to my last post and something that has always kind of bugged me with the requirements for a private pilot. On the last XC flight I did we ended up landing at our 2nd airport, filed and picked up an IFR clearance back to GFK because of a low layer of clouds that was coming in. Taking off we entered the clouds at around 1,000' agl and were in the clouds for approximately 2,000' before breaking out on top. We flew the entire flight above the clouds and re-entered them shooting an ILS approach into GFK, which the student flew.

Now I usually have the student do instrument work on the third leg but it's usually under the hood. This turned out better than I could have wanted. Sure, while your under the hood you aren't supposed to be able to see anything else but there are subtle hints as to how you are doing. Peaking out the sides, having the hood a little too high so you can see out the front, or even the shadows on your legs and control panel as you maneuver. The difference with being in the actual conditions is now that you have none of these to rely on and actually have to trust your instruments.

So why does this topic come up? Well the requirements for a private pilot to get his rating include 3 hours of flight by reference to the instruments, actual or simulated. Sure this is good, but considering the amount of deaths that occur because private pilots get into clouds and loose directional control is it enough?

Looking back through my logbook, after all of my flights getting my private, instrument, commercial, multi, instructor, and instrument instructor ratings guess how much actual instrument time I had. 5 hours! 5 hours! Now take a private student who might only have 3 simulated hours of instrument time, put them in an airplane by themselves and in the clouds is this enough training? Possibly, if they just did there 3 hours recently, but what about the private pilot who hasn't flown instruments for the past 2 years? Now what?

I know it isn't always possible but I believe it would help if there was a requirement for actual instrument time during your private training. If not your private training the for sure during your instrument training.

Hopefully my next post will be about some of the exciting future options for pilots!

Cross Country Flight

First off I would like to thank scheets for being the first to comment on my blog. It really means a lot and motivates me to know people are reading what I'm writing about. So nothing to exciting to write about tonight so I figured I would talk about how I like to do my first XC flight with a private pilot student. Having done quite a few of these I've kind of got it down to a science and have a way that flows really well.

First off the XC flight consists of three legs. For the one I will talk about the last XC flight I did departing Grand Forks(ND) to Warroad(MN) to Hallock(MN) and back to GFK. Each leg on this particular flight was relatively the same length with the longest being the first leg which works out very well, allowing me to really get a lot of teaching in during the first leg.

So for any VFR pilot there are multiple ways to navigate, pilotage, dead reckoning, VOR's, GPS, or NDB. I've found that it works best to start off the cross country using pilotage. Pilotage is basically drawing your course line on the VFR sectional and the picking out prominent landmarks along that route. So departing Grand Forks we start out by first getting on your course heading and trying to find our first checkpoint, usually within 5-10 miles from the departure airport. After we find this point you fly over, to the left, or to the right of that landmark according to where your course line is. After that you work on flying your magnetic heading and start looking for your next landmark. If you can see your landmarks easily pilotage is the easiest form of flying, all you have to do is fly to your next point.

This leg is the perfect time to get your student using the E6-B to figure out groundspeeds between checkpoints, estimated times to your next checkpoints, estimated time in route to your destination and estimated time of arrival at your destination.

The second leg is where I like to bring in the concept of dead reckoning, using whatever means necessary to navigate between point A and point B. In our airplanes I like to teach this using the CDI needle and GPS distances to figure out when your over your checkpoints. This is a perfect opportunity to give your student some experience navigating using the CDI needle and GPS. Again another great opportunity for the student to use the E6-B to figure out all of the above mentioned items.

The third leg is where I really like to tie in dead reckoning with a real world situation. I also usually use this leg as an opportunity to get some simulated, or in the case of this flight, some actual instrument flying experience. So after we take off I will have the student put on the hood as soon as we are established on your course. Now I usually say something like "Okay, well now that we can't see outside how the heck are we going to know when we reach our checkpoints?" Hopefully they remember what they just did on their last leg and will use the CDI needle to keep us on course and the GPS(or DME) to figure out when they are over their points.

This is just one way of millions to accomplish a XC flight and one that I've found works, and flows, really well for me. Thanks again to scheets and I hope you all enjoy what my experiences. I've got a few more story ideas to write about and more and more come to me(usually while I'm in the air!)

Smoothness & accuracy

Two nights ago for the first time in a long time I got to go fly by myself. It was just a standard flight to get night current again but it was a rush to be sitting in the left seat again. Now in my life as a flight instructor I barely touch the controls, only to demonstrate or nudge the control column to send a subconscious message to the student.

While I was thinking about something to write about two things popped into my head. The first happened when I was getting current and the second was the following day with my student.

Like most aviation enthusiast I love to read anything by any other pilots. There are two blogs that I follow rather consistently, with one of the being Blogging at FL250 written by a pilot named Sam. The last post by him was about pilots loving flying, not so much the business or airline side of the job. There was however a particular bit in the post that really caught my attention the other night. Sam talked about the feeling of the wheels leaving the pavement and how all your worries disappear.

So having just freshly read that post I headed to the airport and jumped in to the mighty Piper Warrior. As the airplane accelerated down the runway and began to rotate I felt the mains leave the runway. "Yes, this is exactly what Sam was writing about." Flying for me has always been a way for me to get away from the troubles and annoyances of everyday life. Up there in the air your free from all that, free to go where you want, and you have to focus on what your doing. Like Sam, I too have always loved to fly, I don't think I'll ever not enjoy flying I just hope I can find a job where I enjoy the "job" part of the job.

The second thing that I wanted to write about became very obvious to me last night when I was doing a night flying with a private pilot student. Having just flown the night before I was shocked to see the difference in a low time private student and a CFII. Now I'm not saying I'm the best pilot, and my student is one heck of a pilot, but it was still quite a bit of an eye opener

Pilots are often judge on their smoothness, take-offs, landings, etc. Until you get that "feel" of the airplane and how to make small corrections, or not try and fight turbulence, a pilot will constantly be making jerky corrections. It was amazing for me to watch my student constantly wrestle with the airplane. Maybe I need to start preaching the two-finger flying method more. Or maybe no matter what I do it will just take time for the student find that smoothness & accuracy, hopefully before his final stage check.

Rent or Buy(this one is interesting)

For a person looking to get into flight training they almost always think that they will have to rent an airplane to do their training in. However I've started thinking that there might be a better option. Of course the key word here is might, depending on how things work out it could actually cost you more money.

So the question is "I'm looking to start my private pilot training, would it be better for me to rent an airplane for the duration or possibly purchase an aircraft?" I'm going to do my best to break it down for you. I in no way am certain with my figures, they are my rough opinions based on information I've gathered. I'm sure there are associated costs that I'm unaware of.

Renting (assuming minimum times)
35 hours dual
15 hours solo
5 hours ground instruction
flight kit
----------------------
$6,000 - $10,000.

Buying (assuming minimum times)

Average price for C152 - $30,000
35 hours dual @ $40/per hour - $1,400
15 hours solo @ $0/per hour - $0
5 hours ground instruction @ 40/per hour - $200
Gas for 50 hours @4.00 - $200
Inspections/hanger fees - $3,000
Flight kit - $329
--------------------------------------------------------
$35,129

So now your saying, okay this guys a moron how could he even thought that this could be cheaper than renting. SO in my defense here are the kickers, notice I said kickerS. How many people who want to learn to fly have talked about it with someone else who was also interested. I would guess most. In fact I would bet you could head to your local FBO and run into someone interested on a nice weekend day. Okay so lets reconfigure now with kicker number 1.
$35,129/2 = $17,564.50

Okay so cheaper but still, at best, your only saving $7,500. So here comes kicker number two. If your only planing on using your private sporadically and would actually prefer to rent an aircraft a couple times a month here is your chance to get your money back and possibly even make money. Remember what you payed for when you bought the airplane originally? $30,000 right, okay lets assume the market for Cessna 152's has gone down. Now you can only sell the airplane for $25,000. Lets do the math:
$25,000/2 = $12,500. $17,565.50 - $12,500 = $5,064.50 (Cheaper then renting)

But wait, lets assume the market for your plane actually got better. You now are able to sell the plane for $40,000. Lets do the math:
$40,000/2 = $20,000. $17,565.50 - $20,000 = +$2434.50 (you just got your private and made $2500.)

Find another friend and your costs go down. Just something to think about.

Forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward

I'll start this one off with two copy pastes:
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." -- Leonardo da Vinci
KGFK 110100Z 35029G36KT 1/4SM -SN BLSN BKN002 OVC018 M21/M23 A3019 RMK AO2 PK WND 34036/0058 TWR VIS 1/4 P0000

KGFK 102341Z 1100/1124 36028G38KT 1/4SM -SN BLSN OVC001
FM110600 34022G28KT 1/2SM -SN BLSN OVC003
FM111000 32017G25KT 1SM BLSN OVC015
FM111400 31015KT 5SM BLSN BKN015
FM111800 30013KT P6SM SCT250

When you choose the career of a flight instructor in the Midwest in the winter when the clouds come your flying opportunities are severely limited. Sure you can go up and buzz around below the clouds but good luck getting into the clouds(unless you likeice). So when this blizzard decided to roll into the state of North Dakota I knew I was going to be in for a few long, boring days.

So while I was trying to find something to do today I noticed myself continually glancing out the window looking up at the sky. WHEN WILL THIS END! Last night when I woke up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water before I turned on the light in the kitchen I glanced outside to see if I could see the stars, "traffic not in sight".

This quote has forever been a favorite of mine because it is so true. Show me one pilot, or person who's been in a small plane, that when they hear a small plane fly over doesn't look up to the sky. EVEN though we know that that plane puttering above is a Cessna.

So as I sit here waiting for the blizzard to clear I will continue to look out the window hoping to see either stars(tonight) or blue sky(tomorrow).

Grocery bag savior

On one of my first flights with a student we were up doing ground reference maneuvers, S-turns, turns around a point and rectangular course. With those maneuvers your close to the ground (600-1000' above the ground) and the fact that it was a pretty windy and bumpy day I started to feel a little sick in the stomach. Luckily it wasn't until the very end that this happened and I just had the student head back towards the airport, while I sneakily opened the vents and got it on my face. Thankfully, it never got to a point where I couldn't handle it but it sure reminded me of a time when it did get to that point.

When I was doing my private training we were coming back from a lesson and on short final I felt something coming up. Not having a puke bag and being low to the ground I just let it come up on my lap!

So I started thinking about when I'm training students, what happens if I get sick or the student gets sick? Even though there are "usually" puke bags in the plane they aren't always easily accessible or even in the plane. So I decided that it would be a good idea to put a plastic grocery bag in my flight bag, just in case.

And then it happened. Coming back from a flight where we were practicing Vx and Vy climbs my student told me that he was starting to feel sick. I said okay and took of the airplane and started searching my flight bag for "the bag". Sure enough, the student couldn't hold it in and puked, IN THE BAG!!! SUCCESS!!!

Next came my second question, being that I hate the smell of throw up, would I be able to hold it in if a student puked. The answer....yes! So another new story for me to add to my story book. The life of a flight instructor continues, my head is filling up with story ideas and I plan to get them down here soon!

First Private Pilot Student Solo

Who is more nervous? That is my question, am I more nervous or is my student more nervous? I start to think back to when I had my first solo flight. I remember a small bit of excitement as my instructor jumped out and said "be safe" but that was about it. As I taxied out it was all business as usual, going through checklists, checking all my instruments, carefully listening to my headset hoping I don't miss any radio calls. It never really hit me until I brought full power in and felt like the airplane had a rocket attached to it, however this feeling quickly disappeared as I noticed the airspeed coming up and realized I had to worry about flying the airplane. I remember having the biggest sense of pride as I looked to my right and saw no one sitting next to me on my first trip around the pattern.

Back to my question though, who is more nervous right now? As I jump out of the airplane I say my final words, be safe, and then lock the door. As I start my walk to the tower to watch I start thinking about the previous training that we've done I start to wonder have I done enough? Have we covered everything, what if there is an unexpected emergency, what about wind shear? Sure I would never sign off a student who I didn't feel comfortable with, or a student who didn't feel comfortable in his ability. But still the questions keep coming, what about endorsements? Did I give all the appropriate endorsements, did I write them correctly? I sure hope so!

As I watch from the tower and listen to my student talk to tower with only a few hiccups I begin to feel some of my nervousness turn into a sense of pride! He is doing a great job, his landings look real good, I actually wish that I was on board and could feel the wheels kissing the pavement. Three landings later I'm on my way out of the tower to meet my student in the lobby and I have a huge smile on my face, I can only imagine the sense of pride and enthusiasm that my student is going to have when he finally shuts the engine off. The only person in the lobby with a bigger smile on his face is the pilot who just had his first solo!

Push it forward....

"Alright lets start our turn to final. Nice, good turn, watch that bank. Okay we overshot a little bit lets just work our way back to centerline nice and easy now. Good job, back on centerline. Okay, we are a little bit high, lower the nose. Still high lower the nose. Keep it coming down, lower the nose a little bit. Watch your airspeed, getting a little slow, no don't pull it back push it forward....push it forward. Okay good back on glide slope, good job.....getting a little high, push it forward, forward, forward. Alright good, start your roundout, nice, hold that flare, hold it off. Good, brakes."

An interesting thing that I've noticed flying with pilots who have zero time or even very little time is their tendency to want to stay up in the air and not aim the airplane at the ground. It actually takes some forcing the student to do it until they get used to pointing the nose of the aircraft at the ground when your only a few hundred feet off the ground.

This got me to thinking, in an emergency such as an engine failure, as trained pilots we try and stay in the air as long as possible. Get to best glide speed and stay up as long as possible trying to exhaust all possible options and restart the engine. Is this a natural human tendency or is it just a little bit of fear the first few times?

next to come...scariest moment?

Hurry Up and Wait ......

The life of a flight instructor, or at least my life as a flight instructor. My goal in life is to always be ahead of schedule, or at least on time. Never late! That has been engrained in my head through the many years of athletics and from having a family member who says a certain time and then is constantly 15 - 20 minutes late.

To be on time for a 7:30 AM launch is a lot of work. We are allowed to get our airplane 30 minutes prior to launch, 7:00 AM, factor in 20 - 30 minutes for preflight planning and preflight brief with the student, and a 20 minute drive to the airport that has me dragging myself out of bed at 5:50 AM. With the usual snooze button routine I'm usually out of bed around 6am. Check the weather, looks alright, kind of marginal but should be good enough for a local closed traffic flight. Plus it will be a good experience for a student to see what MVFR is really like.

I get to the airport and start looking for my student at dispatch. Not there. Flight planning room? nope. Office? nope. Okay, time to sit down and wait for my student to show up. Finally the student shows up with only 10 minutes till we can get the plane. Alright, no big deal we do our planning and get out to the aircraft 20 minutes late, still no big deal. Preflight and get the airplane tugged out to the ramp and it is now almost 7:50 am. We are doing fine, still learning the checklists and flow patterns causes the engine start to take a little bit longer but it starts just fine and we throw on the radio master and pull up ATIS, "2 vis, 2,500 vis". Not good, the field just went IFR, time to work on our engine shutdown checklist.

Head back into dispatch and weather the flight, do a quick post-brief to talk about showing up with enough time to get a WX brief, weight and balance, takeoff and landing distance, and do a pre-flight brief. After a quick talk about our next scheduled flight the student takes off and I'm left here wondering what I'm going to do, my next flight is already being auto-weathered and I have nothing to do until 3 pm. Hurry up and wait....

Holy $**T Moment

Flying alone has never been a problem for me, in fact, it is my release, the reason I love flying. When things start to pile up on me and it seems like it's never going to end, the only therapy is to head to the airport and go up and circle the clouds, to look down on life. In the cockpit it is you and the airplane, looking down you realize how small things really are, how insignificant your current worry is.

I've flown with passengers since I've gotten my private, not many, but I've taken friends(and a girlfriend) up with me. I used to fly with my father at age 14 and I would be on the controls the whole time and never had one worry.

So while sitting at the end of the runway watching the first student I've ever flown with advance the throttle did I suddenly say "holy shit." Now, this 18 year old kid, and not that I'm much older, is looking to me to be a guiding force and have all the answers. I'm confident in my ability and my knowledge, I know I can land this plane in an emergency, I know I can handle an unusual attitude or abnormal situation. There is still however, that knowledge in the back of my mind, saying "this is it, your completely in control of your life and this kids life".

I believe you have to love that feeling, learn to embrace it. It's that feeling that will constantly make you strive to be a better pilot/instructor. It's that feeling that will drive me to not become complacent when I'm sitting in the right seat letting my student do steep turns while I stare out the window.

This is an old thought of mine and I felt it would be an appropriate starting point for this blog. I now have more hours instructing and still have/love that feeling. Each flight I learn something more about students, the airplane, instructing and myself.