*In case you missed Part 1 of my “Getting Started” story, read Astronauts, Free Flight Lessons, & The Embraer 145 – Part 1 now.
The last stop, or what we thought to be the last at the time, was Embry Riddle Daytona. Who wouldn’t want to go to college in Daytona Beach? Turns out, not me. The school was nice but something was missing. I think it was the fact that it was a predominately male college at the time of my visit and I just wasn’t sold on the place. After visiting Riddle we retired for the day back at our hotel where we bumped into a Captain for American Airlines in the lobby.
We got to talking about flight schools and the places we had visited so far. The Captain told us to cheek out the University of North Dakota (also known as UND). My Dad and I were like, “Where?” We thought we had already checked out most of the bigger named aviation colleges, but apparently it was time for a trip to Grand Forks, ND.
As soon as Dad and I got off the plane, I thought to myself, “There is no way I’m coming to school here. It’s in the middle of nowhere!” But I put my first impressions aside and went on the admissions tour. The University was a full operating college with a lot more diversity than just aviation. You could go to medical school, law school, engineering school, and so much more. This appealed to me because it meant I would get to meet and mingle with people in other areas of life and career pursuit.
So I applied to UND and was accepted! I completed all of my undergraduate courses and graduated 6 months early with a Bachelors of Science in Aeronautics and my Certified Flight Instructor certificate. This gave me the perfect opportunity to do an aviation internship at Continental Express. It was grand! I had jumpseat privileges and I traveled my butt off all across the USA and Europe, getting the pleasure of riding in the flight decks of many awesome airliners. How’s that for an internship perk?
During the internship it became apparent to me that the job market was a little rough for CFI’s so I resorted to enrolling in an aviation Masters Degree program. This meant back to North Dakota for me! I spent the whole next year back in Grand Forks taking Masters classes both in the classroom and online. Then the time came for me to really look for a job. I got on the UND job boards and applied to some CFI positions around the country. This landed me a Flight Instructor job in Lynchburg, VA where I spent the next 5 years of my life.
Flight instructing was going great, I was teaching students from a local university and I had my own place to live. Life seemed grand, but not for long. As most with most Flight Instructors, I was trying to get a job out in the real world world of aviation – for me, that was the airlines. After 16 months of flight instruction I was hired with the airlines and began my training as a First Officer to fly the Embraer 145.
Life was getting really exciting now and I had finally reached my dream of flying a jet. After training I spent 4 months on reserve (just a fancy airline term for being “on call”), which for most airlines, is a relatively short time frame in comparison. Once I became a line holder with known flight schedules, it became apparent to me that I would have a lot of time during my days off to do something else with my life besides just flying for a living.
That’s when I began dabbling a bit with some various online business ideas, none of which really panned out. Then one day when I was in the shower (of course), I came up with the idea for ThePilotReport.com, and the rest is history as they say.
Clear Skies & Calm Winds,
Len @ ThePilotReport.com
