after two weeks of scheduelng and re-scheduling the g1000 glass cessna 182, i finally got a chance to fly it yesterday and received my high performance endorsement. this airplane is amazing!! because it is the only glass 182 available for rental in the d/fw metroplex the cost is outrageous! but, i am building glass time and high performance time which will payoff later.
to date, i am about 30 hours short of receiving my commercial license. when i am not working, my days are filled with studying for my written, scheduling and flying x-country flights and doing CAREs stuff. my blog seems to be getting less and less attention these days.
i've been talking a lot with my instructor about my transition to instructing. i think it will happen in the next 5-6 months. i will be done with my commercial by the end of september, then will take a week to get my multi-engine and then go to school full-time to get my cfi/cfii for about a month. i have a plan to build my multi- time, also. more to follow on that later...
over the last few weeks i have flown the skarrow to galveston and the g1000 cessna 172 to stephenville, tx where i had the chance to eat undoubtedly the best barbecue i have ever eaten at hard eight barbecue pit... basically, after you get out of the plane, you walk over to one of the three golf carts parked near the fbo, and drive them off-road off the airport property to the restaurant. needless to say, me and my instructor, martin, had more fun than we should have been allowed to have by taking the ATV golf cart off-road.
the flight to galveston was with a buddy from work, where i thought we would have the chance to check out this little texas beachfront town. houston is notorious for vectoring small planes around the class b airspace even though you're on a flight plan...we were no different. this added an extra 45 minutes to our flight, giving us just enough time to refuel, make a trip to whataburger where i had the opportunity to stuff my face with a cheeseburger and fries on the drive back to the airport and file my flight plan back to dallas. my passenger was eating his burger and fries as we were taxing out and taking off. on departure from galveston we flew a good five or so minutes east over the gulf before houston approach began vectoring us to intercept our route. even then, they vectored us around houston's class bravo airspace. i ended up back in dallas 1 1/2 hours later than planned, causing the guy who had the plane after me to be bumped from his spot on the schedule. i felt bad, but the circumastances were well beyond my control. addtionally we spent more time on the ground in dallas trying to get the plane started. once we got it started, it ran beautifully.
today i am taking the g1000 cessna 182 to siloam spring (slg) to get some lunch with my brother. my mom will be accompanying me on this flight. the last time she flew with me was when i was 15 and i had my instructor with me. it was a flight with some winds, i was fairly new at the controls and she was sitting in the back in a relatively underpoweredd 172.
i have come across some pretty good aviation podcast sites the last few weeks, which i am providing links to. i have really enjoyed some of the stories and features on these sites. if you get a chance, take some time to check them out...it's definitely time well spent while you're surfing the web.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Numa Numa
This is hilarious!! Apparently this is the video that made this song famous. His name is Gary Brolsma and he also has a pretty funny website: www.garybrolsma.net
Numa Numa
Numa Numa
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
>time building
i am sorry i haven't updated in awhile, but for the last four weeks i have been obsessed with building time any way i can.
i have been splitting time in a cessna 152 and the skarrow with two instrument students, making hops from dallas executive to non-towered airports throughout oklahoma, including stillwater, norman and mcalester. i have visited my brother in siloam springs, ar two weeks in a row to grab lunch and then fly back to dallas. i have been to austin twice and had the chance to fly into and drive the streets of san antonio. i've dodged weather and diverted to alternates twice, waiting out the storms; one in ada, ok and another at fort worth spinks field. i have flown into and out of the outer ring of the presidential tfr near waco and filed both ifr and vfr.
in all, i have gained close to 40 hours of time in the past 4 weeks and some invaluable experiences in my commercial time-building...and i have loved every second, although it is exhausting.
i have had the opportunity to spend some quality flight time with two great guys, who have each taught me a lot.
jasson just received his instrument rating about a week ago and the time i have spent with him has been exclusively in the "skarrow" which i now have to admit isn't so skarry after all. we alternate acting as pic in the left seat and operating the radios and nav equipment in the right seat. an engineer by trade, jasson is a very thorough pilot who loves to talk about anything airplane-related. so, of course, we got along right from the start.
this last week on a return trip from siloam springs we diverted to ada,ok to wait out an intense thunderstorm on the covered porch of the local fbo; we just spent the time talking about which planes we could see ourselves flying in the near future. jasson is thinking about a fractional ownership in a cirrus sr22.
Cirrus SR22
jose, an intrument student pilot from mexico was a guy i spent time with in the 152. we had A LOT of time to get to know each other in that little airplane. only 19 years old, jose isn't sure yet what he wants to do with his flight ratings. he is staying with his aunt and is on a student visa while he works on his ratings. he is an extremely hard worker and loves to learn everything he can about aviation. the most frustrating aspect of operating the 152 was that it is not ifr-equipped, so we were at the mercy of atc on our vfr flights. our requests were frequently ignored and atc, generally, wanted nothing to do with a 152 flying vfr. i will say,however, that the dallas approach controllers have been nothing short of outstanding as they have worked with us each time we have needed clearance through class b airspace. they have sent us direct over love field to and from dallas executive.
i have learned that the more professional and "together" you sound on your initial call-up to atc, the more willing they are to help you out no matter what type aircraft you are flying.
i was a little upset when jose (who has somewhat broken english) tried calling fort worth center multiple times for flight following and was completely ignored. the female controller was rude, short and had very little patience with the other pilots who she was handling at the time. her workload was not as hectic as i have seen it before and therefore had no reason to be that short with the other pilots.
this saturday will be the start of my glass cockpit and high-performance time. i will start working on my checkout in the 182 garmin g1000 glass cockpit. this will set me up to instruct in the g1000 when i get my cfi/cfii and the required 500 hours total time to instruct in it. i am pumped about getting this experience under my belt.
Cessna 182
i am continuing to hit the books for my commercial written test. i didn't realize how much performance and weight and balance stuff i would have to know. i have a computer-based knowledge test prep with the entire bank of possible questions. i am going to give myself three solid weeks to get to know the material before i will consider taking the written.
i also have an opportunity to get some time in a beech bonanza with an older gentleman who has thousands of hours and flies around the country for his job. that will be a wealth of experience that money can't buy. i was supposed to go with him a week ago, however i had just completed my three-day work week (working 14 hour nights) and had crashed on our couch and didn't hear my phone ring...not cool... anyway, when i finally get the chance to fly with mr. gresham i know i will come away with a lot.
work is also kicking me in the rear-end as i am realizing that i will have to consistently spend more hours per week to be successful there (if things go well at work, maybe i can ask to transition into the three new citation X's that they operate) :)
i am still having fun in my training and cannot wait until it pays off with my first job instructing, maybe freight-dogging for awhile and then who knows...
i have been splitting time in a cessna 152 and the skarrow with two instrument students, making hops from dallas executive to non-towered airports throughout oklahoma, including stillwater, norman and mcalester. i have visited my brother in siloam springs, ar two weeks in a row to grab lunch and then fly back to dallas. i have been to austin twice and had the chance to fly into and drive the streets of san antonio. i've dodged weather and diverted to alternates twice, waiting out the storms; one in ada, ok and another at fort worth spinks field. i have flown into and out of the outer ring of the presidential tfr near waco and filed both ifr and vfr.
in all, i have gained close to 40 hours of time in the past 4 weeks and some invaluable experiences in my commercial time-building...and i have loved every second, although it is exhausting.
i have had the opportunity to spend some quality flight time with two great guys, who have each taught me a lot.
jasson just received his instrument rating about a week ago and the time i have spent with him has been exclusively in the "skarrow" which i now have to admit isn't so skarry after all. we alternate acting as pic in the left seat and operating the radios and nav equipment in the right seat. an engineer by trade, jasson is a very thorough pilot who loves to talk about anything airplane-related. so, of course, we got along right from the start.
this last week on a return trip from siloam springs we diverted to ada,ok to wait out an intense thunderstorm on the covered porch of the local fbo; we just spent the time talking about which planes we could see ourselves flying in the near future. jasson is thinking about a fractional ownership in a cirrus sr22.
Cirrus SR22
jose, an intrument student pilot from mexico was a guy i spent time with in the 152. we had A LOT of time to get to know each other in that little airplane. only 19 years old, jose isn't sure yet what he wants to do with his flight ratings. he is staying with his aunt and is on a student visa while he works on his ratings. he is an extremely hard worker and loves to learn everything he can about aviation. the most frustrating aspect of operating the 152 was that it is not ifr-equipped, so we were at the mercy of atc on our vfr flights. our requests were frequently ignored and atc, generally, wanted nothing to do with a 152 flying vfr. i will say,however, that the dallas approach controllers have been nothing short of outstanding as they have worked with us each time we have needed clearance through class b airspace. they have sent us direct over love field to and from dallas executive.
i have learned that the more professional and "together" you sound on your initial call-up to atc, the more willing they are to help you out no matter what type aircraft you are flying.
i was a little upset when jose (who has somewhat broken english) tried calling fort worth center multiple times for flight following and was completely ignored. the female controller was rude, short and had very little patience with the other pilots who she was handling at the time. her workload was not as hectic as i have seen it before and therefore had no reason to be that short with the other pilots.
this saturday will be the start of my glass cockpit and high-performance time. i will start working on my checkout in the 182 garmin g1000 glass cockpit. this will set me up to instruct in the g1000 when i get my cfi/cfii and the required 500 hours total time to instruct in it. i am pumped about getting this experience under my belt.
Cessna 182
i am continuing to hit the books for my commercial written test. i didn't realize how much performance and weight and balance stuff i would have to know. i have a computer-based knowledge test prep with the entire bank of possible questions. i am going to give myself three solid weeks to get to know the material before i will consider taking the written.
i also have an opportunity to get some time in a beech bonanza with an older gentleman who has thousands of hours and flies around the country for his job. that will be a wealth of experience that money can't buy. i was supposed to go with him a week ago, however i had just completed my three-day work week (working 14 hour nights) and had crashed on our couch and didn't hear my phone ring...not cool... anyway, when i finally get the chance to fly with mr. gresham i know i will come away with a lot.
work is also kicking me in the rear-end as i am realizing that i will have to consistently spend more hours per week to be successful there (if things go well at work, maybe i can ask to transition into the three new citation X's that they operate) :)
i am still having fun in my training and cannot wait until it pays off with my first job instructing, maybe freight-dogging for awhile and then who knows...
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