$10 Flight Planning Software

wrote:


Bob,

I have a software program that user's can use to carve up sectional
charts into the chunks. I used to provide chart chunks to my
customers, but without enough sales at a price point that was
comparable to the other flight planners, I couldn't afford to keep
putting them out.

By making AirPlan shareware at a low price without chart chunks, it
becomes a low maintenance shareware program that I can afford to keep
online and give free updates for...

Dean


I can certainly understand that. Thanks.. It looks to be a nice program
and I'm just scratching the surface.


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* boB*
* copter.six*
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On Feb 18, 1:43 pm, "Gerry Caron" wrote:
wrote in message

oups.com...



On Feb 16, 8:34 pm, "Gerry Caron" wrote:
"Marco Leon" wrote in message

roups.com...

Being in the software development in order to support my aviation
habit, I secretly dream about working for an avionics company working
on EFIS or MFD systems. Unfortunately, Long Island has very few
cutting-edge aviation companies despite its rich heritage in aviation.
It must be nice to have money actually going IN to your wallet while
doing something related to aviation.

Marco

It's not just nice to work in aviation, it's inconceivable that I could
be
happy working in any job outside aviation. It's worse than any addiction
the medical community recognizes. I grew up around airports -- Dad was
an
A&P. I got a degree in Aero Eng and now have 30 years in the industry;
17
years USAF (Maj Ret.) and 13 years in avionics.

The downside to this industry is that you have to go where the jobs are.
Everyone has their priorities. For some it's family. Others just have
to
live in [insert town here]. I have to live where I can do the work I
have
to do. It's taken me back and forth across this country 4 times. Can't
say
I've lived any place I truly didn't like, though I did like some places
better than others. Overall, I'll say I prefer to avoid big cities so I
probably won't go back to LA or Long Island.

If you're serious, I know where there are open positions doing just what
you
describe. Let me know.

Gerry

I could have a job tommorrow at Collins, but I don't want to live in
Cedar Rapids Iowa.

Likewise, I passed on two job offers from Boeing to work on the 787
because I didn't want to move my family to Seattle. I worked there
for 8 years on the 777 but that was when I was a younger man and
single. The salary offer from Boeing wasn't enough to make up the
cost of housing differential between where I live now and the Puget
Sound area. I would have to trade my 3700 square foot home for a 2
bedroom shack for the same selling price!

I enjoyed working for Boeing, and other companies I have worked for.
I would advise everyone to steer clear of Chelton Flight Systems. It
was absolutely the worst place I have ever worked, and that includes
all the minimum wage jobs I had before college!!!! I have some real
horror stories from that job...

Dean

I understand. I work for Collins, but not in Cedar Rapids. I'm in
Melbourne FL. It's not heaven, but it's preferable (to me) to Cedar Rapids.
The disadvantage is that Melbourne is a smaller organization with fewer
opportunities. The advantage is that Melbourne is small enough that you
know almost everybody. I get most of the benefit of a large corporation
with few of the drawbacks. For me, it is worth the trade-offs. In recent
years, Collins has grown and about half the company is somewhere other than
Cedar Rapids.

I have worked for small avionics companies. One is no longer in business
(it was bought by the other company.) The other still exists, but is no
longer in avionics. I gained a lot of experience, but you are correct to
watch out for the small avionics companies. They tend to be
undercapitalized; so pay, benefits, and resources are often low.
Personalities are always a big factor in a small company, and it often works
to the detriment of employee satisfaction.

My point was that if you truly want to work in aviation, it's quite possible
to make a decent living doing so. You just have to realize that it can be
cyclical and you may have to move around to stay in the industry. When I
got laid off from my last job (because they shut down the operation), I
could have found a job locally; but it wouldn't have been in aviation. So,
I moved to Melbourne.

Gerry- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I had heard that Collins had some sort of operation in Florida, but
that was about the extent of it. What do you work on down there?

A friend of mine who was my roomate when we both worked for Boeing on
the 777 is now a director at Collins in Cedar Rapids. One of my
former lead engineers at Boeing is now the chief systems engineering
on the 787. I have lots of friends at Boeing and Honeywell that I
worked with during my Boeing years. I really miss that line of work,
but I just can't bring myself to live in Seattle, Phoenix, or Cedar
Rapids.

What you said about personalities at small companies being a negative
effect on employee morale hits the nail right on the head for my
Chelton Flight Systems experience. Two of the three guys who started
the company had zero management experience, and zero skills and
dealing with their employees, yet they were president and vice
president, and that made it a nasty place to work. Add to that the
fact that they turned on their third partner and tossed him out of the
company just two weeks after he barely survived a plane crash that
killed two others (he was a passenger) made the place morally
repugnant. The only good that came out of that experience is that I
am still friends with the partner who was tossed out.

At one point they even threatened to fire me if I didn't pass an RFI
test because they had a consultant of theirs telling them that my
design would never pass RFI, and I had the nerve to insist that it
would pass and that the consultant was incorrect. I passed the
DO-160D category M RFI test with 20db of margin. I never received an
apology or an admission that they had treated me poorly. I have never
been so happy to change jobs as the day I left Chelton Flight Systems
for another position at an electronics company.

Dean

wrote in message
oups.com...

I had heard that Collins had some sort of operation in Florida, but
that was about the extent of it. What do you work on down there?

The engineering group down here works on Comm & Nav radios and surveillance
systems (transponder, TCAS, radar).

If you search the Open Positions database on the RC careers web page, you
can filter on location. Reviewing job descriptions will give you a pretty
good idea of what goes on at that location.

Gerry