SMAC034 – First Solos & How to Maximize Flight Training

Thanks for joining us again on this edition of the Stuck Mic AvCast! Before we get started today an apology and best wishes to us all from co-host Carl Valeri as he was not able to be with us on today’s show. We did, however, find a stunt double to step in with our VERY FIRST guest co-host, one Mr Larry Overstreet. For those of you not familiar with Larry, Len interviewed him for Episode #31a – Learning to Glide with Larry Overstreet which we highly recommend you have a listen to not only to meet Larry but to also to learn more about soaring.

Pre-Flight

First of the show announcements is the Meet Us in Mohave event on October 19th through October 21st. This meetup is the 2012 CalPilot Annual Meeting and features next generation space pioneers, sailplane rides in high-performance gliders, static aircraft displays and a bunch more.

For those of you looking to get your kids or younger family members into flying, there’s an upcoming Young Eagles day at Robinsville, IL on October 20th at the Crawford County Airport. The Young Eagles program is put on by volunteer pilots for the purposes of taking children ages 8-17 for their first airplane ride, for FREE. There’s also going to be hamburgers, brats, car show, and raffles to name a few.

There’s a new non-profit in town, the Institute for Women of Aviation Worldwide and our very own co-host Victoria Neuville is the Director so make sure to congratulate her! The purpose of iWOAW is bring businesses and organizations together to foster the diversity and growth in the air and space industries by outreach and educational programs aimed towards men and women working together in harmony.

Lastly, there’s our “What’s Great About Greenland?” segment. Today’s fun fact about Greenland, besides it’s hard to pronounce names, are it’s costal waterways. With over 1,300 km of waterway from north to south you can enjoy a journey from town to town much like that of a cruise ship.

Cruise Flight

After Landing Checklist

~ Picks of The Week ~

Victoria – Sportys First Solo Trophy

Larry – Cub Air Flight School and My First Solo

Rick – FAR/AIM iOS App

Len – UND Aerospace Podcast

Listen to Episode 34 Below

Astronauts, Free Flight Lessons, & The Embraer 145 – Part 2

*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