My Flying Career

Please forgive me, as it has been far too long since I have posted.  I apologize to those of you who  have been sitting at the edge of your seats waiting to hear what I have to say next (all one of you)

So what the heck have I been doing?  Well a lot has happened in the last month, and I have had to put blogging on the backburner.  First off, I am pleased to announce that I passed my Flight Instructor Airplane (FIA) knowledge test with a 90%!  A quick note on that test.  I think the computer was reading my mind and found the areas that I was the weakest in, and giving me all of those questions.  I was actually kind of upset to get a 90%.  I had been working REALLY hard, and felt that the computer didn’t give me any easy questions.  But oh well, 90 is good too!

I also lost my job on January 14th due to financial difficulties the company was having.  I had worked for the company for over five years and both parties were sad to see each other leave.  That was the main reason I have not been posting anything.  Because frankly, I have been extremely busy with Resume’s, application, interviews, working through finances, you know the drill.

As of February 1st, I now am an employee of McKenzie Books, Inc. and Cash4Books.net in Beaverton, OR as a Software Developer.  I was very happy to not be unemployed for very long and hope to get back into my flight training soon.  So the plan now is to wait for a little bit longer days and continue my Flight Instructor training at Hillsboro Aviation in their Cessna RG.  I will, of course, keep you all posted when I start that.

Until then…

Wow, I can’t believe I am preparing for my Commercial Multi-Engine checkride (or the official name, Practical Test)!  What a ride it has been so far, and it is only just beginning!

The last several weeks I have been working towards meeting time requirements, cross-country requirements, practicing maneuvers, and studying for my oral.  All in preparation to meet the PTS (Practical Test Standards) on the day I have to shine the most.

As I have been preparing for my checkride, I notice a few things different about this checkride as opposed to any of the others I have taken since.  For one, this checkride is a culmination of practically everything I have learned to this point.  This is not like an Instrument rating, where the examiner can only really ask you questions about Instrument related issues.  Or a Multi-Engine rating where the examiner can only ask you questions pertaining to Multi-Engine aircraft.  This is a Commercial certificate, which basically gives the examiner the right to ask you questions about nearly anything I’ve learned up to this point.  The amount of knowledge I need to know and have readily available is much larger than my other recent checkrides.

Anyway, last Wednesday, I took a practice oral exam with one of the senior flight instructors at Hillsboro Aviation.  I felt pretty confident about my knowledge.  My biggest challenge was getting what was in my head, out my mouth.  For some reason I really struggle with putting what I know into short, concise, detailed statements.  I turn them into these huge bloated paragraphs that in turn confuse me and the guy asking the question.   It’s frustrating to me, because I know the answer, I really do.  But when I put it into words, I sound like an idiot.  Need to work on my communication skills I guess.

The flight portion of the practice checkride we scrapped due to weather.  The weather wasn’t terrible, but I needed 4,000 feet to do single-engine maneuvers in the twin, and it didn’t look like we were going to get that.  I opted to just wait until next week and do all the maneuvers at once instead of breaking it up into two flights.  So barring any weather issues, I’ll do the practice flight this Monday and let you all know how that goes.

Well in my first post I said I would talk a little about the process I used to pick the school that I would be completing my training at.  This process was filled with much research, advice from pilot’s I respect, and prayer.  Originally I was going to go through the “Fast Track” program at ATP (Airline Transport Professionals, Inc.).  My wife and I decided not to take that route because we were newlyweds and not seeing each other for 3 months was out of the question.  And even though they provide housing, it is only for the student, so my wife would not be able to come.

My next choice was Delta Connections Academy.  They were just finishing up their brand new campus in Houston, TX at the time.  My wife and I were planning on flying down their to check it out and find a place to live.  Ya know, just scope out the area.  We had heard both good things and bad things about Houston and of course the bad things are what stuck in our minds.  ”It’s hot and humid, the crime rates are really bad”.  Needless to say, it would cost more than twice as much to move to houston and go through their program with moving expenses, living expenses (I would not be able to work much while attending school), and school expenses.  With the seemingly endless downturn of the economy, their just aren’t the school loans their used to be.  So even if I wanted to go to Delta Connections Academy, I wouldn’t be able to.  I look at the glass half full.  That decision was easy.  I can’t go, so I won’t go.

Then my instrument instructor mentioned that I should just stay here, get my ratings through Hillsboro Aviation and work for Ameriflight when I build enough time.  It would be cheaper, I’ll make some good connections here on the west coast (which is worth a lot in this business),  I can do school at my schedule and work part time and best of all, I wouldn’t have to move.  Seems like the perfect plan right?  Flawless in fact hehe.

Well we are about to find out…I anxiously await my first day at Hillsboro (April 1st, 2009).  Meanwhile I have been saturating myself with flying.  Reading blogs (check out my blog roll), re-watching my King Schools Instrument DVDs, flying on Flight Simulator practicing approaches, anything and everything I can do to keep myself pumped up and ready to roll.

In conclusion to this post, I am happy where I am at and where I am going.  And on a slight side note, my work decided to keep me for Tuesday’s and Thursday’s!  Which is fantastic and a huge load off my mind.  So I will be going to school Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and working the other two days.

See ya next post!

This blog is for friends, family, and other pilot-career-aspiring people out there who want to follow me on my journey to becoming a Professional Pilot.

My name is John Kelly, I am 22 years old and have always dreamed of eventually becoming a professional pilot. Over the past few years I have earned my Private Pilot’s License(Single-Engine & Multi-Engine) and Instrument Rating. I fly out of Salem’s McNary Field(KSLE) and am attending Hillsboro Aviation to continue my flight training.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog and am open to comments and advice.

To see my current plan, visit the My Plan page.

Well…I signed the loan and told my work that I would be going to flight school on April 1st.  No turning back now! I’m so excited I haven’t been able to sleep well (or that could be the massive amounts of coffee I drink at work).  This is something I have dreamed of ever since I was a kid and now it is becoming a reality.

Now it is true that the aviation economy is not at it’s high point.  But I think of it this way; Treat the aviation economy like the stock market.  Buy low and sell high.  Well, it’s hard to think of it getting any worse that it is now; so I figure it can only get better. Right?

A little about myself.  I am 22 years old and am married to the most wonderful woman ever (she would have to be to put up with my aviation craze).  Over the past few years I have earned my Private Pilot’s Certificate and my Instrument Rating add on from flight instructors at my local airport.  I believe this to be the most inexpensive and efficient way to start out.  More on that later…

The flight school I have chosen is Hillsboro Aviation out of Hillsboro, Oregon.  Many factors have come in to play when choosing this school and after literally a year of researching, my choice is clear.  Since this is more of an introductory post, I will not go too much into detail, but don’t worry, I will lay out my reasoning and research in future posts(so stay tuned ).

One last thing…the point of this blog is give other pilot-career-aspiring folks out there a chance to hopefully educate themselves from my mistakes and maybe even right choices every now and then.  I, in no way, consider myself a good writer, so you will have to bear with it.  But I will do my best.