Why you haven’t heard from me
Hello faithful readers,
Sorry for not writing many blogs lately.
The reason for my absence has been my extremely busy schedule. I flew about 40 hours and billed 55 hours in the past month through the flight school and things are only looking to get busier in the future. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I bill 60 or 65 hours in the next month…that’s pretty darn busy considering I’m still a “part-time” instructor and college student.
To give you an idea of why I say “billed” hours, that’s because it’s a reflection of my paycheck, but not necessarily time spent at the airport. Personally, I don’t bill for time spent signing logbooks, scheduling the next lesson, etc. So I reserve 2.0 hours per lesson, but generally I only bill for about 1.6 of that. That’s approximately 24 minutes I’m at the airport per flight that isn’t recorded on my time card.
Then of course there are “dead” spots in the schedule. That’s time that I can’t really leave the office, but it’s not recorded anywhere. For instance, one lesson might end at 9 a.m. and the next might not start until 11 a.m. I can’t do much useful for two hours, so I’ll hang around the office, prep for the next ground school session, call some prospective clients, etc.
Before you know it, 60 “billed” hours can easily equate to nearly 100 hours spent at the airport. That’s why I say I’ve been so busy.
I have five students now and I think that’s about all I can handle until the school year ends at the first week of May. On top of my flying duties, I’ve been teaching a ground school class one night per week and flying jumpers at the drop zone on the weekend a lot more now that the weather is warming up.
The good thing is that all this work means I’ve spent a lot more time in the air lately and have been having a blast. I haven’t taken many pictures recently, but I’ll try to post some pictures and stories soon.
Thanks for reading. That’s all for now.