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#1
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My first passenger
Of course I had to pay him to get into the airplane, but when he got out an
hour and a half later, he shook my hand, signed the back of my Student Permit, took some trophy pictures for me, and officially stated that the Government was satisfied that I can pilot an airplane. I haven't been around to harass you guys very much since my ISP pulled the plug on USENET service. But anyway, some of you may recall that I posted a "first solo" in December 2004. My initial flight was in August 2004, and exactly 19,141.12 Canadian dollars later, (and approximately 100 total hours), I have a PPL. Approximately 10 hours before finishing... and watching those numbers skyrocket out of sight... I decided to switch instructors and schools. Had I not, I wonder if I would be able to type this today. Based on my experience: Never choose a big multi-instructor school because it is close. Wrong reason. It is remarkable how much time is eaten up ferrying back and forth to the practice area. Driving five times the distance saved at least 20 minutes per flight equals about 70 dollars dual all taxes in. I don't think it cost me 10 bucks in gas to go the extra distance. Just the 50 or 60 bucks saved per hour of real instruction would have cut five or six grand right there. Stay away from schools with computerized instructor booking. Sounds good. I can schedule my instructor for a month in advance. So can the next guy. If my dates run into bad weather I have no flexibility to book another day because he is already booked. It can work in your favour, but it can also backfire severely, especially in Winter. I ran past the school's solo-currency requirements a number of times resulting in more instructor time than should have been necessary. The toughest thing, however, is to spot the passenger who is posing as an instructor. I actually thought that my instructor was "pretty good".... until I took my first ride with the new one. And I suppose he was, in a way. I did learn all the necessary manoeuvres, after a fashion. But it only took 10 minutes in the same cockpit with the new one to understand that I had 90 hours of bad habits to undo. Anyway... another life experience to cross off the list of things to do before I die, and now I get to start the next, continuing, phase of it all. Let's see, I wonder if I have any money left for the night rating...... :-) Thanks to these groups for some of the initial inspiration to get started. |
#2
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My first passenger
Cool... Let me be the first here to say congrats!
The Monk |
#3
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My first passenger
("Icebound" wrote)
Anyway... another life experience to cross off the list of things to do before I die, and now I get to start the next, continuing, phase of it all. Let's see, I wonder if I have any money left for the night rating...... :-) Thanks to these groups for some of the initial inspiration to get started. Congratulations Icebound! Interesting write-up. Good luck with that night thing. :-) Montblack |
#4
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My first passenger
Let me also say, congratulations...
Now, $19K canadian for the private rating, yikes... Even allowing for the conversion to US dollars, I can only repeat a saying from my youth when we were raising horses - screwed, shoe'd, and tattooed.. I hope your night dual goes better... Any time you are in the USA near michigan give a hollar and we will get together for some flying... cheers ... denny |
#5
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My first passenger
"Icebound" wrote:
Of course I had to pay him to get into the airplane, but when he got out an hour and a half later, he shook my hand, signed the back of my Student Permit, took some trophy pictures for me, and officially stated that the Government was satisfied that I can pilot an airplane. Congratulations!! Based on my experience: Never choose a big multi-instructor school because it is close. Wrong reason. It is remarkable how much time is eaten up ferrying back and forth to the practice area. Driving five times the distance saved at least 20 minutes per flight equals about 70 dollars dual all taxes in. I don't think it cost me 10 bucks in gas to go the extra distance. Just the 50 or 60 bucks saved per hour of real instruction would have cut five or six grand right there. On the other hand, the "right" instructor can make *all* the difference. The extra 20 minutes to and from the practice area would have been well worth it had you been flying with the instructor you finished-up with in the first place, right? Stay away from schools with computerized instructor booking. Sounds good. I can schedule my instructor for a month in advance. So can the next guy. If my dates run into bad weather I have no flexibility to book another day because he is already booked. It can work in your favour, but it can also backfire severely, especially in Winter. I worked at a school with online scheduling. On occasion, schedules for airplanes or instructors had to be adjusted to accommodate maintenance, weather, or the needs of another customer -- most customers are understanding of this occasional occurrence because they know when it's their turn, their needs will be addressed in the same manner. For the most part, it works very well. You can schedule an airplane/instructor during hours when the office isn't open, without having to talk with anyone. If your first choice (airplane and/or instructor) isn't available, you can readily see what/who *is* available. And **IF** the person keeping the system up to date is on the ball, all your flight/currency info is readily available, and if you try to schedule an airplane when your currency has run out or you don't meet the qualifications for a particular aircraft, the program will not accept the attempted scheduling and will prompt you to call the office. I ran past the school's solo-currency requirements a number of times resulting in more instructor time than should have been necessary. Online scheduling *does* force the customer to be more diligent about his/her own needs re currency and the aircraft/instructor. Flight training is generally ongoing, a conscientious instructor will thoroughly explain currency requirements, and he/she will be involved while you are soloing so that you stay on the schedule and don't disappear during your currency; however, it is ultimately your responsibility to stay on the schedule to keep your currency up. The airplane you fly may not always be available on short notice when you realize your currency is about to expire, but that can be the case with manual scheduling as well, if you wait till the last minute to schedule--that's not the fault of online scheduling. The toughest thing, however, is to spot the passenger who is posing as an instructor. I actually thought that my instructor was "pretty good".... until I took my first ride with the new one. That *is* tough, and hard to know unless you fly with someone different on occasion. That's one of the advantages of some multi-instructor schools with structured, spelled-out curriculum, such as a CPC. If your usual instructor is not available, any other instructor can look at your records and logbook, see what you are working on, and pick up with no overlap. Stage checks are also done by a other instructors, giving the customer the opportunity to fly with someone else. And nothing substitutes ongoing communication between customer and instructor -- if you feel you could be progressing more rapidly, that you and your instructor don't readily "connect", or that your instructor is not mindful of your time in the airplane or using your $$ wisely, you need to be pro-active about it. That's not always easy to do without feeling like you're stepping on toes, but like anything else, the level of service you get depends on your input/feedback and sense of your own progress. Didn't mean this to sound like a lecture, but online scheduling and multi-instructor schools can be advantageous and don't necessarily all deserve a bad rap. Congrats again ... have fun, fly safe. |
#6
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My first passenger
On 01/29/06 21:04, Icebound wrote:
Of course I had to pay him to get into the airplane, but when he got out an hour and a half later, he shook my hand, signed the back of my Student Permit, took some trophy pictures for me, and officially stated that the Government was satisfied that I can pilot an airplane. Congratulations, Icebound. It's too bad that you had to go through such difficulty. But I'm sure you feel better now! As far as the night rating goes, that's one of the great things about aviation: There's always more training that can be done. Good luck with your continuing education! -- Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane Cal Aggie Flying Farmers Sacramento, CA |
#7
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My first passenger
"Icebound" wrote in message ... Of course I had to pay him to get into the airplane, but when he got out an hour and a half later, he shook my hand, signed the back of my Student Permit, took some trophy pictures for me, and officially stated that the Government was satisfied that I can pilot an airplane. Icebound: I wondered where you went.I missed your inputs on weather related threads. Big Congrats!!!! on the ticket and big welcome back. All the best Bob Barker N8749S |
#8
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My first passenger
"Icebound" wrote in message ... Of course I had to pay him to get into the airplane, but when he got out an hour and a half later, he shook my hand, signed the back of my Student Permit, took some trophy pictures for me, and officially stated that the Government was satisfied that I can pilot an airplane. Well put and Congrats! |
#9
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My first passenger
Well done!
I wondered about step two as well. Did the retractable gear, complex aircraft thing in an Arrow. That was OK. But what was really rewarding was VFR OTT. Not too much time or expense, but a real challenge and it gets you a good ways towards an IFR and/or night rating someday. It sure builds confidence to do radar vectors and a backcourse approach under the hood. Welcome to a great fraternity. Marc CYBW Calgary. "... cold, but it's a dry cold." "Icebound" wrote in message ... Of course I had to pay him to get into the airplane, but when he got out an hour and a half later, he shook my hand, signed the back of my Student Permit, took some trophy pictures for me, and officially stated that the Government was satisfied that I can pilot an airplane. I haven't been around to harass you guys very much since my ISP pulled the plug on USENET service. But anyway, some of you may recall that I posted a "first solo" in December 2004. My initial flight was in August 2004, and exactly 19,141.12 Canadian dollars later, (and approximately 100 total hours), I have a PPL. Approximately 10 hours before finishing... and watching those numbers skyrocket out of sight... I decided to switch instructors and schools. Had I not, I wonder if I would be able to type this today. Based on my experience: Never choose a big multi-instructor school because it is close. Wrong reason. It is remarkable how much time is eaten up ferrying back and forth to the practice area. Driving five times the distance saved at least 20 minutes per flight equals about 70 dollars dual all taxes in. I don't think it cost me 10 bucks in gas to go the extra distance. Just the 50 or 60 bucks saved per hour of real instruction would have cut five or six grand right there. Stay away from schools with computerized instructor booking. Sounds good. I can schedule my instructor for a month in advance. So can the next guy. If my dates run into bad weather I have no flexibility to book another day because he is already booked. It can work in your favour, but it can also backfire severely, especially in Winter. I ran past the school's solo-currency requirements a number of times resulting in more instructor time than should have been necessary. The toughest thing, however, is to spot the passenger who is posing as an instructor. I actually thought that my instructor was "pretty good".... until I took my first ride with the new one. And I suppose he was, in a way. I did learn all the necessary manoeuvres, after a fashion. But it only took 10 minutes in the same cockpit with the new one to understand that I had 90 hours of bad habits to undo. Anyway... another life experience to cross off the list of things to do before I die, and now I get to start the next, continuing, phase of it all. Let's see, I wonder if I have any money left for the night rating...... :-) Thanks to these groups for some of the initial inspiration to get started. |
#10
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My first passenger
wrote in message ... "Icebound" wrote: Of course I had to pay him to get into the airplane, .... snip... Didn't mean this to sound like a lecture, but online scheduling and multi-instructor schools can be advantageous and don't necessarily all deserve a bad rap. Congrats again ... have fun, fly safe. Of course I am overstating the case, and all your points are well taken :-) Perhaps one of the issues was, that in fact the school did not set up any flights with other instructors, and the only supervisory flights were pre-solo, primarily to confirm solo-privilege suitability. There would probably have been another supervisory flight pre flight-test-recommendation. Consequently certain things seem to have been un-noticed... or treated as minor... and nobody ever said differently. For one small example, I thought I was pretty careful about keeping the ball centred and my instructor never commented in all that time. In fact I was skidding in certain cases and not picking it up and my new instructor jumped on me in the first 5 minutes that I was with him. |
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