12.13.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:00 pm by jrhilliard
I haven’t written much in my blog about this, but I’ve had something in the works for a while now and wanted to make sure it would happen before I said too much publicly about it.
I’ve arranged to start working for a local flight school and aircraft sales business, beginning December 19. The flight school operates two aircraft. One is a 2001 Cessna 172 with a conventional panel, while the other is a 2005 Cessna 172SP with a Garmin G1000 glass panel. I’ve been studying the G1000 system with the help of John and Martha King for the past couple weeks and it doesn’t look too tricky.
I’ll go for a check flight within a few days to shoot some approaches using the G1000 avionics and acclimate myself to how everything is layed out. Hopefully I don’t fall dangerously far behind. I have to make my students believe I’m at least somewhat competent the first time I fly with them! There’s a high demand for flight training in this area right now, so I already have several students lined up to start training with me next week. I better be prepared for my first day.
In addition to all this, the owner of the flight school talked to me today about being sent up to Duluth, Minnesota next month in order to complete the Cirrus Standardized Instructor Program (CSIP) training. There is a brand new Cirrus SR-22 based at our airport and both the owners want to get their instrument ratings in it, so I might be the man to train them.
After completion of the CSIP course I would be authorized by Cirrus Designs, as well as recognized by insurance underwriters, to provide training to new owners of the Cirrus SR-20/SR-22 aircraft. In case you aren’t familiar with the SR-20/22 line, they are those slick new machines that cruise high and fast, and are known for their ballistic parachute recovery system safety feature–have an engine failure at night over the mountains? Just pop the chute and you’ll be ok.
I’m especially excited about the potential for being a CSIP instructor, as I’d be the only CSIP instructor for at least 150 miles in any direction. As far as I know, I’d be the closest instructor for the Omaha and Kansas City markets, so I’m sure many Cirrus owners would come here for initial, recurrent, and additional training.
To spread icing on the cake, we’ve also talked about selling Cirrus aircraft here. If that turns in to reality, I’d be involved with demo flights and marketing, which would be a ton of fun.
The only downside to all of this is that I have to turn down AOPA with their internship opportunities next summer. I hate to turn AOPA down, but if I go through the CSIP program I would need to stick around here for the summer and flight instruct. The CSIP program isn’t cheap, and if the flight school invests in me they want me to stay in the area for at least a year–which is a very reasonable request.
So hopefully all of this works out. Aviation is a notoriously fickle industry. It’s possible for these opportunities to fall apart as quickly as they appeared. I never believe I have a job until my first day of work and I never believe anyone is getting a plane until I see it parked on the ramp. That’s just the way things work. But for now, the future looks quite bright. Teaching in new, glass cockpit aircraft, and getting paid well to do it, all while selling aircraft on the side? I can see myself getting used to this lifestyle.
All of this makes me wonder though, have I reached the top yet? This is pretty much the best a guy can ask for, at least in the instructing world. But then I think about instructing in, and selling King Airs, PC-12s, Citations, and the like. It makes me realize I’m only taking gateway drugs at this point. At least I’m enjoying my ride to the top!
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12.05.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:14 pm by jrhilliard
It sounds like I have a decent shot at landing a summer internship with that famous four letter aviation association you’ve probably heard of. You know, the one that has more than 400,000 members and represents many of the pilots and aircraft owners in the country.
As a requirement for my communication degree from college, I need to complete an internship related to the communication industry. The criteria is fairly broad, actually. It can be related to writing, editing, marketing, web develoment, public speaking, public relations, or anything of that nature.
A few weeks ago I got the idea to see if the AOPA might be able to use me. I contacted their human resources department and sent in my resume.
This afternoon, a staff member from their human resources department called me back to let me know she had received my resume and forwarded it on to three different areas that might be interested in me.
One potential job would be assisting in the development of aviation safety material for the Air Safety Foundation. Another possible option is to work as an editorial assistant in their publications department, helping to fact check and copyedit AOPA magazines before going in to print. A third option involves work with their government affairs division.
It sounds like I’m a strong enough candidate to have a shot at something with them. I’m not sure if I’ll get multiple offers, but I’m hoping to be offered a position from at least one of those three possibilities.
Needless to say, I’m very excited. All of the jobs sound fascinating, I completely believe in the mission of the association, and each of the internships could lead to full time employment in the future. It’ll be a few months before I know more, but it sounds like I’m off to a good start.
I’ve said for some time now that I’m planning to establish a career as a professional pilot as soon as I finish college, but I’m open to other ideas if something better were to come along. Up until now, I haven’t found anything better. AOPA might change my mind though…
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12.03.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:18 pm by jrhilliard
I had a unique flying experience last night…
A friend of mine (Keri) had a friend visiting her this week. This friend of Keri’s came all the way over from Norway to hang out for a while. His name is Joar. That’s pronounced like “You are” in case you’re like me and aren’t fluent in Norwegian.
So Keri, Joar, some other friends, and I headed out to Red Robin last night to chill for a while and get some of their fantastic burgers. Keri had told Joar earlier that I am a pilot, so I offered to take him flying sometime before he left to return home to Norway.
After dinner we started talking about when to go flying and it didn’t seem like our schedules lined up very well. Finally I just thought, “Hey, why not go right now?” It was almost 10 p.m., but I’m a night owl, I don’t mind staying out late.
So we headed to the airport to go flying.
On the drive out, we got chatting about about flying and the differences between American and European aviation.
Joar confirmed what I’ve heard from many others, how there isn’t much general aviation in Europe. What little there is only exists among very wealthy people. I guess that’s understandable–considering the price of regular auto gas is $8/gallon in Norway, I can’t imagine how expensive 100LL must be.
It made me that much happier to take him flying, knowing he might not have a chance to experience aviation the way many Americans can. I love taking new people flying, but flying with a European guy is icing on the cake.
It also reminded me of how amazing of a system we have here in the U.S. A lot of times American pilots, myself included, get so caught up with complaining about the price of insurance, gas, stupid TSA security rules, privatized ATC, etc. that we lose sight of how fortunate we are to be flying in the United States.
We have *so* much freedom here that we forget about. By the time we got my plane fired up the control tower had closed for the night, so it was just a matter of taxiing out across this big Class C airport, announcing our takeoff, and blasting off in to the night.
Joar was surprised at how easy and simple it all was. Drive up to a hangar, pull the plane out, and go flying. Go where we want, when we want. Simple as driving a car. And really, that’s how 90% of general aviation flying in America still is. Oh, and a regular guy like me, making less than $25k/year, can afford it, to. That’s pretty sweet.
I let him take the controls and we just cruised around for half an hour, checking out the sights of Lincoln from the air. It couldn’t have been more peaceful up there, drifting around over the city on a clear, calm winter night with the glow of street lights underneath us.
Oh, and another perk of taking him flying? He said he’d show me around his hometown in Norway whenever I get a chance to head over there. Hopefully I’ll be able to take him up on his offer some day.
Here we are, after putting the plane away on another frigid (15 degree) December night in Nebraska:
Have fun, and stay warm out there!
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12.01.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:18 pm by jrhilliard
I finally took my 140 up again yesterday after not flying it for nearly a month.
Why the downtime? Aside from getting busy with work and school, my plane was in the shop for a couple weeks.
It all started when I decided to upgrade my electrical system and convert all the fuses over to circuit breakers. I had had problems of blowing a fuse if I turned on my beacon, strobes, nav lights, panel lights, and comm radio simultaneously. Obviously it was too much for the fuse to handle, so this essentially prevented me from flying to towered airports after dark, and honestly, there were enough other little gremlins that I simply didn’t trust it to fly after dark, in general.
My shop split the four fuses in to nine circuit breakers which makes a world of difference. Now I can safely run everything simultaneously, and even if a breaker pops, I only lose one or two components, rather than a quarter of the entire electrical system!
In addition to the circuit breakers, the shop installed a 12 volt auxillary power outlet so I can plug in things like a portable GPS. They also did a rheostat (dimmer switch) for the panel lights, so flying at night is a lot easier on my eyes now. Finally, I can safely and comfortably fly at night!
Here is what the new panel looks like. I’m very pleased with how they matched the “look and feel” of the rest of the panel:
I couldn’t wait to take it up for a test flight! Everything worked well, except for the frigid temperature outside. Remember that I bought this plane in April, so this is the first time I’ve flown it in cold weather. My oil temp never showed anything higher than 110 degrees. My heater kept my feet from freezing, but I definitely kept my jacket on. I could see my breath in the cockpit, even with the heat at full blast. The outside air temperature showed 15 degrees F at 3500 feet MSL:
I’d been wanting to visit a little private strip to the east of Lincoln, near Weeping Water, Nebraska, for a long time now, so that’s where I headed. The airport is called Browns Airport (NE69) and it’s the home base for the Lincoln Sport Parachute Club. I know the chief pilot for the drop zone, so he gave me permission to fly in whenever I want:
There is a 2200 foot long north/south grass runway, along with a 1400 foot long southeast/northwest grass/dirt runway/taxiway. I couldn’t figure out what the heck that second strip of land was considered, if it’s actually used as a runway or not, although Airnav lists it officially as a runway. I wasn’t willing to use it as more than a taxiway.
Both runways are noticeably sloped with obstacles all around, so I ended up going around twice before setting up a decent approach and putting it down right where I wanted it, on runway 35. Like I said, it had been a month since I flew my plane last and I forgot just how long I can keep it in the air. I kept coming in high and fast until I got it right the third time around. Sloppy flying is not acceptable at this airport!
Here I am, parked in front of the main buildings:
Since it’s the off season and late in the day, nobody was around, as far as I could tell. All the buildings were locked up and the parking lot was empty. So I took some pictures and headed back out:
Taxiing on the southeast bound runway/taxiway:
Lined up and ready to depart runway 35. This is an upsloping runway, but the winds were calm, the air was cold, and I was lightweight. I got off the ground in the first 1000 feet and crossed the departure end at least 100 feet in the air:
That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll have some more adventures to post later.
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