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...