Airlines to cut 60 million seats for Christmas

I love the comments of this news article:

Any other industry would raise prices in response to increasing costs. The airline industry is the only one that decides to quit rather than compete.

Any other industry (except maybe the MSM, I guess) would improve the product it offers before blaming everything and everybody else.

My question is, since the airline industry is made up of several different and supossedly independent companies: How is this not illegal collusion?

In keeping with the line of comments, ANY OTHER INDUSTRY woudl be facing massive antitrust suits for signaling each other on restricted output to increase profit margins. I still don't understand how the airlines get away what is an obvious attempt to establish a cartel.

ANY OTHER INDUSTRY would see the CEOs who approved this sort of garbage facing serious jail time.

Let's see how these are idiotic. Raise prices... or just charge $7 for a pillow and $20 for each bag? Isn't that another way of raising prices without charging more for the upfront fee? Hell, it's charging for what you actually use on the airplane: space and weight.

You pay for what you get. How would they improve the product without it costing more? Oh ya, you want your free food/beverage/admirals lounge and not pay for it too. Also, there is are costs associated with trying to keep a tight schedule (and miss a few flights) compared to keeping excess airplanes (and all the stuff that makes airplanes go) in stock sitting around.

Lastly, the CEO's aren't colluding. In the airline world, the profits so razor thin and consumer loyalty so lacking/useless that any cut by any airline is met with cuts at other airlines. You win when there is a price war, you lose when the market is saturated.

Right now, there is excess capacity that needs to be cut. Airline pilots are all looking at plan B. There are at least a few thousand ex-airline pilots on the street looking for jobs. I have seen requirements for jobs go from "do you have a commercial pilot's certificate" to "1000 hours of Multi-turbojet time required". If you are thinking that the airlines are adding jobs, you are woefully mistaken.

And the sad fact is that there are rumbles that a major airline is going to die. the NWA/DAL thing was simple survival in many ways and UAL/Continental was about saving their collective bacon...

Professionalism

I feel I'm a professional, but I don't know the nitty gritty details on how I should react in certain situations. And the problem with being a professional is that if I set standards, I can't let them slip even with my favorite student.

Let me give you an example.

No-shows: A no-show is where the student doesn't show up. It can also mean they didn't cancel within 24 hours. How do I differentiate between a student that overslept, a student that is on call and has to go perform surgery on short notice, and a photographer that forgot to cancel the flight? I'll never see the photographer again and who knows how I'll get paid (or if they will pay). The doctor student has a very valid excuse and warns me in advance if she is on call so I will have advance notice. The student that overslept should be billed (not my fault).

But as a professional I feel I should treat all these situations the same...

Vacation

Took 3 days off for EAA: Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday. Monday and Tuesday were fun (ROCKET RACING! I'm still psyched about that but I think it's going to fail). Saturday I'm not going to go because I saw rocket racing on Tuesday (kewl).

Spent way too much money on the bars and at EAA, but that's what a vacation is for. Wednesday sucked (meh).

I can't wait to get my 500 hours X-C and can do charter work.

Then get a freaking fraction partnership

I see posts/articals like this or this.

My response is get your own fractional. Buy your own jet. Oh wait, you complained about turboprops (puddlejumpers) and now Regional Jets (RJ's) and still fly the unfriendly airlines. You can't pony up the $50,000 it takes to hire your own airplane so STFU.

The airlines are the greyhound bus of the aviation world. The pilots don't give a shit about you anyway (let's be honest, they want to get to the fractional world so they can get treated like professionals and be paid like professionals instead of the greyhound bus driver they currently get paid and respected like). The Flight Attendants only want travel and a decent paycheck. The Maintenance guys don't care (hahaha, they START at $50k at a corporate jet job - the airlines can't compete on that score). I don't know how the customer service reps care (oh wait, they don't and especially when you treat them like shit).

As it currently stands, the night cargo guys are almost respected (and paid) more in the aviation business than the airline guys. It takes skill and balls to fly a piston twin in rough weather without radar or decent equipment. The last redeeming quality of the airlines is they fly turbine equipment, and it's valued in the aviation world.

Pony up the $50k a year and sit back and enjoy your catered meal and lack of lines or don't and enjoy the smell.

Sorry

Busier than all hell. Life is hitting the fan on so many fronts:

Professional - I passed 1200 hours of flight time. For those of you keeping score, that's 50 days of non-stop flight time. I can now be PIC of a charter flight :) I think I'm going to fly past 1300 hours here in a little bit and then destroy the 1000 hours of dual given mark. [Dual given is how pilots log instruction given to other people]. Now I need to have two students pass check rides and I'll get the gold seal and finish my last CFI goal (I am 6 of 8 check rides for students at the moment).

Also, I am trying to get my MEI checkride done. My schedule is so full I can't get time on it 3 weeks in the future to take the freaking checkride. Plus the airplane is broken :( Oh well, it can always be worse. I have no rush to get it done, but the price of the airplane is going up (it was $205 when I started at the employee rate, now it's $260 per hour only 7 months later. Damn fuel prices!).

Work - I have billed 30 hours of time this pay period. We started the pay period on Monday... 4 days of work and I've billed 30 hours, and flown ~20ish of them. That's 5 hours of flight time a day and ~8 hours of billing a day. CRAZY CASH $$$$ BLING BLING!!! Oh, the logbook thanks me too.

Personal - I have zero free time. EAA is coming up and I plan on laying off work a little so I don't get run over by a supercub in the practice area. Plus I've taken off a few days to relax.

I am getting back into Magic the Gathering (damn that game, it's like gamer crack) and have spent some mad cash on old school cards. I'm building a turbo sliver Elder Dragon Highlander deck with crazy ass mana acceleration, infinite loops, and old school broken cards. E-bay is my friend (and worst enemy of my bank account)!

Hopefully it'll slow down next week, and I'll get a chance to post some. Have a good one.

Memorial Day

A few people know it, but I'm not the first pilot in my family. The first pilot title in my family goes to Grand Uncle Guido. He was an instructor for the AAF before and during WW2. Sadly, he died on duty during 1944 near Independence, KS due to a crash shortly around D-Day along with another pilot.

Sadly, I don't know many details but hopefully I'll find out what happened eventually. I just need an exact date and I found out the location just recently (going through the WW2 records I inherited from my Grandfather). Then I'm going to write to the military and get official records of the crash and whatnot.

From what I've put together, he and a buddy were flying at night during a cross country flight for the weekend and hit a mountain (but in Independence, KS?). Since they were two of them and since he was an instructor, I figure they were flying a T-6.

Independence Kansas airport: http://skyvector.com/#35-20-3-1416-2703
Airport Data for Independence, KS: http://www.airnav.com/airport/KIDP
T-6: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-6_Texan

I'm lazy

Just redo-ing my room. There is too much stuff stuck in the crannies that I need to clean out.

Work has been nuts. Lots of demo flights and people trying to kill me. Thus far, they have failed :)

Don't pick up the phone!

Often times, we get a call at work that goes like this: "Hi, I'm Mr. Smith. I want to become an airline pilot, can you train me to fly an airliner?" At this point, I've lost interest.

First, do some research. You need to earn your Private Pilot Certificate. Then you need to earn your Instrument Rating. Then you need to earn your Commercial Pilot Certificate. Then finally, you need to earn your multi-engine certificate. Notice, I said EARN.

Second, you just don't show up for a 4 month class, and go off flying airliners. Airline training is 6-8 weeks long, that's about 2 MONTHS! And that is training highly experienced pilots to fly airliners, not going from welder to airline pilot. If you do flying full time, you will get your multi-engine commercial pilot's certificate in a year. That's working your ass off and doing 40 hours a week of aviation related stuff.

Third, this is going to take MONEY. I'm taking $30,000 or MORE. If you are making $25,000 a year as a welder or auto mechanic, that's more than a full years worth of savings! You might be able to get loans, but how to pay them back? You are now an inexperienced pilot and will make less than $25,000 a year for your first 5 years of flying.

Do you have a family? If so, how are you going to support them while you go full time flying? If you do it quickly, do you have the money saved up to support them even if the flying is paid with loans? Will you have time to do this 40 hours a week or will family obligations get in the way? Are you dedicated enough to keep at it?

If you are single, do you have the money to do this? Are you willing to dedicate the time and effort to doing this? I would put aviation as the equivalent of a masters degree. Are you willing to move to anyplace on the planet for a job?

I would say that less than 5% of the people who start on the path make it all the way. It's nowhere near as fun or glamorous as it sounds or looks from the outside. This week, I've been up at 7AM and getting home at 8PM from work. Oh, and the pay sucks.

I wouldn't want you to spend your life savings or emergency fund ($2,000 most likely) and then get nothing out of it, but I'll take your money because I need to pay rent. If you call me up and ask if we train people to fly airliners, you aren't serious about this and while I'll take your money, don't expect much.

Pilot Pay - the Realities

I get paid $13 an hour. Per flight or ground hour. Not a bad pay if you are figuring on doing 2,000 hours a year (as in a typical 9-5 job).

The problem comes in when you get down to the nuts and bolts. The typical lesson schedules 2 hours and I get paid for about 3/4ths of it. If it gets canceled due to weather, student reschedules, or any other reason, I get paid nothing. Any preparation/setup isn't typically paid.

For instance, let's take today: a 3 hour groundschool and a demo flight. A solid 4 hours of pay, I'm officially there from 9AM - 3:30PM (at the office 6 hours, 30 minutes). That neglects to mention I have to spend time coming up with lesson plans (90 minutes) before the groundschool (unpaid). So now we are from 7:30AM - 3:30PM, still the same 4 hours of pay. Then the demo flight canceled due to weather. And the person behind the desk tried to schedule me for a sightseeing flight. I can't do sightseeing flights (legal reasons, I'm not covered under the waiver). So I spend 2 hours trying to free up the demo flight from my schedule and put it on someone who can do demo flights.

So the final result was 7:30AM-3PM (7 hours, 30 minutes), and I get paid for 3 hours. Sadly, it doesn't get any better at the airlines or most charter companies. The only time pilots get paid is when they are flying, usually non-flight hours are not paid... It's very easy for pilots to end up working a 12+ hour day and get paid for under half of it.

And people wonder why pilots are fleeing from aviation jobs. With the skills and responsibilities that they have and the hours they work, they can easily make more as a manager of Burger King or another job that has less responsibilities and duties and requires less time.

At times I'm responsible for $100,000 worth of equipment and a million dollar insurance policy plus a 4 year degree and $30k worth of specialized training, do you think getting paid $25k a year is enough?

Stability and Flexibility

If you don't like being flexible, don't become a pilot. Your schedule changes on a whim. Planning 5 minutes in advance is planning for the future, planning an hour is long term planning.

I can't tell you the number of times my day has gone to shit and I've spent more time doing what wasn't on the plan for the day than what was on the plan.

Whitman Tailwind

Got to fly in a W-10 for a Flight Review yesterday. I'm glad we don't have one.

First, it's small. I barely fit in the aircraft and if I was 2-4 inches taller I wouldn't fit (I'm 68inches tall). Plus side to side it was more cozy than the 152. And the yoke was VERY poorly designed and took up most of the room.

Second, it's fast. I'm talking 160kts in the cruise fast. The Seneca II flys that fast. Sadly, it the Seneca II takes off faster and uses less runway. It's a pretty big runway hog. Climb is decent, but I think it should be flown at a slower climb speed to get closer to Vy instead of 140kts.

Third, it's twitchy. Like REAL twitchy. The small elevator controls result in being thrown into the ceiling (refer item 1). Roll is a little faster than a C152. And in non-issue turbulence in a 152/172, it's throwing you around the cockpit.

Fourth, you can't see squat. There is a window, but has the airframe supports running through your sightliness and you can't see to either side.

Fifth, the rudder is connected to the brakes. Every landing resulted in massive breaking on landing. Decent ground control, but takeoff/landing definitely resulted in using brakes as you kept it on the centerline.

Sixth, the instrument cluster is a cluster fuck. There is NO logical flow of instruments, and even the guy didn't know 100% where they were all. It's almost designed as a vertical 6 pack, except that there was room for a normal 6 pack if you moved stuff around. Plus I had the throttle/mixture sticking out at my face (glad to know I'll impale my forehead on it if we crash).

Overall, I'm not impressed. And I got some ideas of what not to do when I build a Sonex. But it's an airplane and I got to fly another type. Why won't anyone let me do a Flight Review in their G550? ;)

Got to fly a Cessna 414

Talk about a fun experience. Fast, sleek, spacey, great avionics, pressurized, DAMN I want to fly it more :)

Busy, but happy

Wake up at 6AM, look at alarm clock, and decide it's time to suffer for the greater glory of pilots everywhere. I need to prep for my 9AM class on instrument flying.

Stumble over to the computer, find the books and proceed to spend an hour and a half summarizing todays lesson on Word. Todays topic of choice: FAR 1, 61, 91, NTSB 830 (why you don't want to survive if you crash), Chapters 3A and 3B. Make sure it's correctly formatted and hit the print button.

Shower, shave, and brush teeth, the normal guys stuff. Potato chips for breakfast, Pepsi in hand to wash it down, and off to work I go.

Wander into the office and stop by the copier to make 6 copies of todays lesson and a first lesson survey (3 lessons in - I'm lazy). Hit the conference room, realize I had two students in there (hmmm... 15 minutes early?). Notice one of the students brought food (cinnamon rolls!!!) and help myself. Grab a set of whiteboard markers from storage and am ready to teach. Get through Chapter 2C in 90 minutes (OMG, teaching radio navigation is a POS) and then break for 15 minutes.

Chief CFI and another CFI swarm to talk to the students. Get back on track and complete the regulations part of todays lesson (I'm running an hour behind in this class, need to make it up somehow).

Follow up with a BFR for a guy that hasn't flown in 5+ years. HE STUDIED!!! Yes, he was rusty but IMHO he knew his stuff and we flew through it in 2 hours of ground. Weather was 9kts gusting to 29kts (WTF? 20kt gusts?!?! I'm not taking a 172 up in that shit!) so we called the lesson.

Last student canceled due to weather (I'm out of ground topics). Catch up on a little paperwork and then decided to get out of there while I still could.

Wish all days went this smoothly. 5 hours of pay, at work from 9AM to 4PM, I think that's a good day! There were zero snags (how did that happen) except for the being behind in the class, but it'll work itself out next week ;)

*Sigh*

I'm about this > < close to enforce the no-show/cancel within 24 hour rule. The last two weeks have SUCKED and I'm fucking tired of the shit I put up with.

Let me start with this week

Monday: SUCKED, only talked to a student. I earned $8!

Tuesday: I got to go flying in the old ass 172, and the student sucked it up on the flight... I don't know what to do because he keeps screwing up the "when to go missed" question on ILS/VOR/ADF/LOC approaches. Not the first time I've mentioned this to him, and he agrees, but it just doesn't happen. $150 for 0 gain :( Then a review flight with a post-solo student (fun!), we all survived. I should point this out that it's the highlight of my day.

Wednesday: I actually earned some $$$! First student at 7AM canceled the night before, but then I get a call from the chief flight instructor at 6:30AM wondering if I can take a student at 8AM. Did the random student thing (good job for 2nd lesson). Then my first demo flight no-showed. My 2nd demo flight showed up late, and I KNOW I'm going to be pressed on time. Rush through the demo flight and now I'm 30 minutes late *sigh*. I went straight into the BFR and did an hour and a half of ground. At this point, I'm going to make it to the groundschool if we start the aircraft RIGHT NOW... Doesn't happen because the guy needs to preflight and I hit the bathroom. I ask if we can defer the flight but the guy needs the BFR today (WTF? You have 2 FREAKING YEARS TO SCHEDULE THIS!!!). Of course, the guy brings his own aircraft (so I'm supposed to look over the logbooks but I do the CFI thing and punt and he's PIC and I'm only evaluating). Flight goes well and we do exactly 1 hour of flight time (per the regulations) and I run into the groundschool ~10 minutes late. The Chief CFI is there explaining the 141 vs 61 training (OMFG, I hate this part the most. It takes 30 minutes, confuses the shit out of the students, and at the private level I truthfully don't give a rats ass if you are 61 or 141). Then I run through the lesson (YAY!). Time till sleep: 11PM

Thursday: Look at my cellphone and realize 7 AM student called, and left a message. He's not showing up. Fine, go back to sleep. Invite friend over to play Halo 3 and Xbox, next student is at 5 PM. 5PM student cancels due to weather (rain/clouds) and I play Halo 3 all night. BEST DAY, EVAR!

Friday: Show up to work at 7:30, power is almost out due to thunderstorms night before. I need to print out checklist... Print out checklist and talk to my MEI to do lesson. Electric goes totally down and we decide to cancel due to thunderstorms. Next student cancels due to weather (thunderstorms). Next student shows up and retakes test (volunteered time), and the final student cancels due to weather later on in the day. 0 pay.

I think I've gotten paid for 10 hours this week thus far. After I do my LSAT, I think I'm going to move on to another job. I worked my tail off and have gotten $100 for my troubles, most of it sitting on my ass at the airport. At least at the airlines you get paid a rate that assumes you are going to sit on your ass for 75% of the time and at 135 companies you get paid to sit on your ass explicitly. Total flight time logged this week: 6 hours!

I could almost rent a 152 for the flight time with difference in pay between what I am getting paid and working at some crappy little computer place.

Airline Oversight

I was reading Afternoons with the Mad Rocket Scientist and came across this post http://madrocketsci.blogspot.com/2008/04/your-dose-of-geekery.html

Personally, I think having FAA oversight is vital and necessary. Yes, American Airlines isn't going to initially go skimping on maintenance. But what would keep smaller contract airlines from skimping? And with the smaller guys skimping and undercutting the big boys, who is to say American won't then skimp to keep costs in line? I really don't want a series of ValuJet crashes because everyone is trying to save a buck.

It already happens in the Charter world with scumbags undercutting the premium charter companies. I flew down in FL and IMHO the maintenance is known as bad and fulfills the legal obligations and nothing more. Good charter companies can't compete on price and if someone is shopping for a ticket, they have no way of checking the maintenance quality.

Plus, this issue has been fought with crew rest (maintenance on the pilots if you will). Pilots work long and hard hours, usually in unique environments that place additional stress on them. ALPA has fought long and hard for additional crew rest requirements and has won some and lost some. As it is, the NTSB has it on this most wanted list in aviation safety.

Update: I forgot about the Cessna 208 Caravan in icing conditions. The aircraft flys like a brick in icing conditions but that hasn't stopped the FAA from revoking it's ability to fly in icing. It's a major cargo aircraft, and thus would be destroyed in value and create huge upsets in the cargo industry if it's FIKI certification was revoked.

Skill is good, reflexes are better, luck is best

Some background on demo flights. A demo flight is a $59 half hour of flight time and a half hour of ground time as a first flight. It's a loss leader and is intended to hook the student into getting their Private Pilots License.

I have a love/hate relationship with them because you can get students out of them but it's frightening for me as a CFI because you have a student with zero experience and skill and literally anything can happen. Sometimes, the student kicks ass and takes names. Other times they try to kill you and you end up flying half the flight to keep everyone from dying.

The student wanted a demo flight, so I gave him a demo flight. The preflight went quick and I explained everything, and I was hoping it would go well. The student was a student in a groundschool of another instructors and I figured they would know something about flying. Sadly, no.

Taxi went ok, not great but not exactly we're going to run into that jet over there. The takeoff went amazingly bad.

We lined up with a position and hold clearance, and then reviewed what we would do. When tower cleared us to takeoff, the student pushed the throttle fully in and start rolling down the runway. Sadly, the student is using the brakes to keep it on the centerline. Brakes are not good to use during the takeoff roll (for the obvious answer and some not so obvious). I tell the student to not use the brakes and we start veering left. Right rudder... more right rudder... even more right rudder...

At this point, we are seconds away from the edge of the runway and about to hit the runway edge lights. My normal trick is to remind the student to pull back because we are at 60kts by this point. So I say pull back ;(

The student takes it literally and pulls the elevator FULL back. This is VERY bad because we are 1) slow 2) low 3) about to run over some runway lights 4) about to stall 5) turning (the student also somehow turned the yoke putting us in a 30° bank). Witnesses said I came within 1ft of hitting the wingtip into the ground. After a successful recovery and a little breather, I put us in a gentle climb and get us to a few hundred feet (it's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I don't trust you).

The student ended up taking alot of photos on that flight. I was happy because when he was taking photos, he wasn't trying to kill us and I was flying.

The ironic/bad part of the story is that one of the witnesses that saw the event was the 2nd highest manager of the line crew. He called the flight school to report me :( I have a bad feeling it's going to get back to my boss/bosses and I'm going to get a lecture :(

And in the end, skill is good to have in aviation. Reflexes are even better to have. And if you have luck you don't need either of the two above :)

Random Student

Definition: Random Student - A student that shows up on your schedule and you don't know anything about what the student wants to do or what's going on. The CFI is in the dark as to what is going on and is most likely happier not knowing.

You are now informed!

'Tis windy

What a warm sunny day! Sadly, not a good day to go flying... Peak wind of 37kts, that's faster than the stall speed of a 152 I could have taken off of the airport like a helicopter if I was flying today :)

Metar at Madison, WI during the peak gusts: KMSN 161753Z 19020G29KT 10SM CLR 19/04 A2971 RMK AO2 PK WND 19037/1723 SLP061 T01940044 10194 20083 58023

Just because it's sunny doesn't mean it's safe to fly. Oh well, it'll clean off the ramp of the dust/salt/gunk that has built up over the winter.

Rain tomorrow, looks like the rest of this week will be a wash.

Instrument Study Stuff

I promised a student a website on ADF training: http://roye.home.netcom.com/flighttraining/

It seems to have disappeared since the last time I saw it. Let me say, it was a VERY good flash trainer on how to use the ADF.

Also, as a bonus there is a good navigation program: http://www.visi.com/~mim/nav/ I sometimes use it in hidden mode and practice flying around blind in relation to the two navaids (press 1 or 2 to change them to ADF's if you want to practice ADF navigation).

Enjoy, and remember, crashing is bad and if you do it on a checkride you will fail :)

Advanced learning

I find often times pilots can learn from other disciplines. You might be asking yourself what am I talking about? I am saying do pilots learn the bare minimum and then keep learning within one track or do they then go on to cross train with mechanics, helicopter/glider pilots, ATC, weather forecasters, and line guys?

I think the lack of cross training between various disciplines of aviation is a mistake. I went to a seminar on gliders last Saturday and found it VERY informative. And in many ways, it was more informative to me as a powered fixed wing pilot than sitting through the an FAA wings seminar would have been (which are snooze fests IMHO).

The seminar started off with a talk about emergencies and how they can happen ANYWHERE and the need to access the situation is important. For instance, if a gliders rope brakes at 100ft, where are they landing? How can you plan for this situation at your home airfield? What decisions beforehand can you make as a pilot to minimize the risk and come out alive and in one piece? Not exactly applicable to me as a powered pilot, but there are serious similarities that I use in my every day life (ironically, my checkout for doing skydiving included just this very thing).

The second speaker talked about NTSB accidents and common errors to glider pilots. Again, not 100% applicable to me as a powered pilot but still VERY applicable to myself. One accident (CHI07CA291) involved a pilot failing to reset his altimeter. A simple error that destroyed a glider. The next two accidents (LAX60LA929 and LAX05CA294) were easily preventable if the pilot had not reacted in an impulsive way (one of those hazardous attitudes). Plus, a little more training would have resulted in two less crashes and an extra person living today. The final accident was LAX06FA277A. As a powered pilot, I am SHOCKED at the damage the jet took from hitting a simple glider:

The Glider was destroyed totally, the largest piece was a spar sticking out of the Hawker's nose section...


The final speaker was talking about parachutes. I'm interested in parachutes because I am forced to wear one while doing skydivers. I have zero interest in jumping out of aircraft, but if you gotta jump you gotta jump. Let me say it was less interesting than I would have thought and contradicted some things I learned during my skydiver pilot checkout. Still fairly informative IMHO.

4 hours of learning by going to this free seminar on glider flying, and yet I still walked away with a ton of information and new skills that I can use to fly safer in my powered flight time.

If you get an ability to go to other seminars (if it was helicopters, glider, maintenance, ATC, weather, whatever), I would HIGHlY recommend it. Yes, it's not all useful stuff but it will give you a better idea of why other people do what they do, and how you can best react in situations that involve them to keep everyone safe.

Lack of posts

No, I'm not abandoning the blog. It's just that I'm gearing up for teaching instrument ground school this Saturday, working on taxes for April 15th, and typing up MEI stuff (and practicing approaches on MSFS 2k4).

I'm working on several posts, bear with me and I'll spew out some good thoughts :)

Golf Course...

...is open! I'm going to wonder down there Monday and check it out.

Stuff you see from the air

So, I zone out when flying. I will look out my window and wonder WTF stuff on the ground is. 99% of the time, it's obvious but the 1% of the time I don't know what it is. You would be amazed at some places I've driven in a car to answer my question (or maybe not).

For instance, there is ONE green strip maybe 100ft long by 10ft wide (I'm guessing) in Amund Reindahl Park. It's a bright green (almost algae color) compared to the brown grass around it. In google maps, it comes out as a black line oriented North-South:


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My bet is it's some sort of water.

Also, I saw guys out on the Bridges Golf course!!! I might get a few rounds in soon =D The golf course is on the south side of the airport right under the approach path to runway 18.


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This is going to be my hangout during the summer when I'm not working. $17 a round during M-T and $175 for 25 large buckets of balls. They've got my vote!

Finally, there is this mystery. I have no clue what is other than some sort of underground storage. The thing is, the doors are open on the south side and closed on the north side, and I can't tell if it's abandoned or just not being up kept. In google maps, it looks like a grassy place but it's obviously some sort of storage with concrete bunkers with a grass roof...


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Oh, and the bunkers are built on top of a garbage dump... I think they date back to the 50's (we have an old map) but I may be reading the map wrong or it might be some sort of other storage that was torn down and made way for this.

Experience, or lack thereof

I was listening to two commercial pilots today practicing for their CFI. I'm amazed how badly they were doing (for instance, instead of spin they were talking about 'wing overs'... FYI: you are going to scare the shit out of a student pilot with 5 hours with talk like that).

And their conversation made me think about the experience I've gained and how much I've learned since I got my CFI. I look at the other two guys as inexperienced, but I realize that I'm inexperienced too compared to a lot of other pilots...

The old joke of you start with a full bag of luck and trade it for experience to put in an empty bag. Hopefully you fill the bag of experience before your bag of luck runs out. I've had some close calls (nothing too close luckily thus far) and it's amazing what I've learned.

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Newbie Controller

Newbie controller on the airwaves at tower position today... Talk about a cluster fuck and I am glad no one got hurt (that I know of). Unfortunately, my student isn't the greatest on the radios and is an ESL student, and gets confused when someone starts yelling at him...

Best exchange of the day:
ATC: Cessna 49439, turn base.
Student: Say again?
ATC: Cessna 49439, TURN BASE!!!
*Student looks at me with deer in headlights look*
Me: Cessna 49439 is on final, unable turn base.

Another quality exchange:
ATC: Dakota 8183X, go missed approach [for runway 18]
8183X: Dakota 8183X going missed.
ATC: Cessna 49439, do you have the Dakota in sight? [we are on final for 14]
Student: Looking for traffic.
*30 seconds later and we are on short final*
ATC: Cessna 49439, do you have the Dakota traffic in sight?
Student: Negative.
ATC: It's right off your right wingtip!
*I know the Dakota isn't anywhere near where we are*
Student: Negative traffic
*student begins to take evasive action on short final and I tell him to fly the aircraft before we become a smoking hole*
8183X: We have the two cessnas in sight
Later on, I talked to the Dakota pilot and she said she was 500ft away from the Cessna behind us in the pattern. I bet the other Cessna had no clue they were about to die if the Dakota didn't maneuver out of their way. GO ATC!!!

I hate this controller, and on a busy day like today he screws up and begins yelling at the pilots. Then the flight training becomes totally unproductive with students b/c the student is getting yelled at for not complying with non-nonsensical demands and they shut down.

Flying - the ultimate rush

One reason I love flying is the absolute feeling power you get.

Takeoff has to be one of the greatest rushes known to man (short of illegal drugs). Roll onto the runway, line up and look down the runway. It's a piece of concrete (or even grass, mud, gravel, or who knows what) and at the end there is a fence. Behind the fence there are trees. You are going to go OVER the trees!!!

Bring the engine up and triple check the instruments that they are all in the normal range. Finally, you let go of the brakes and begin to roll. Airspeed indicator alive! Roll out those ailerons, keep it on centerline, the centerline stripes are now starting to come fast and furious, V1, V2, ROTATE! Goodbye fair world! So long suckas!

And you are now a bird, and your are only limited by your skill and fuel in the tanks :)

Wensdays

Student first solo... I hate student first solo's. They never go as planned and you truly don't know WTF is going to happen.

Then a student failed a stage check. And he had his check ride scheduled for Friday. And he is leaving a week from Friday back to Alaska. I hate my life...

Went home for lunch, and got a short nap.

Then I taught PPL groundschool. This is somewhat depressing, but somewhat uplifting. The students study a little, but they really don't know the material. I wish I could scream "JUST LEARN THE MATERIAL BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO MEMORIZE IT ANYWAY".

4 hours billed, at work from 8 AM - 11AM and 2PM - 9:30PM. Welcome to the CFI world, get paid for half the time you are at work...

NOS vs. Jepp

Forewarning, if you don't know what NOS is, you don't get a say in the debate. NOS is now NACO charts.

When I see stuff like this: http://joe.emenaker.com/Aviation/JeppVsNACO.html, I cringe.

My first rebuttal would be that Jepp charts don't pay to flight test the approaches, but neither does NACO. The FAA flight tests the approaches to make sure the layout and navaids still work. My second rebuttal to the cost is that the government can't be sued for bad charts but Jepp can. Good luck with a multi-billion dollar suit when an airliner augers in and it could be your fault.

And truthfully, I know that Rand McNally cribs off maps published by city/state/national governments. You too can get one by writing your local state congressman (or stopping by the local DOT). Jepp isn't the only company profiting by duplicating a government publication.

The cost issue isn't all that bad. First, Jepps cost about twice what NACO charts cost. In my case (WI/IL), it costs me $145 for Jepps and $50 for NACO for a year. On the other hand, my Jepps show up at my door in advance and I don't need any planning to keep up to date charts in my flight bag. And, if you count the 28 day updates for Jepps, I get twice the chart updates for about twice the price!!! Why take the chance you missed an MDA change?

The chart holders are a one time cost. Plus, Executive sized 3 ring binders work well for Jepp charts $3.50 at staples.

Lately the Jepp charts have been publishing full updates every 56 days. I love this because I can throw my old charts out and not worry about it. It's not as bad as it used to be.

Let me now get into the artistic gripes.

Gripe 1: Do I give a rats ass about military airports? Also, brown blends in pretty well to the various background stuff (especially at night in bad lighting). I prefer my airports in high contrast to the background.

Green vs blue, is easily distinguished under red and white lighting. Plus, it highlights those airports and makes them easier to pick out.

Also, if life is going to hell in a hand basket, the last thing you are going to be doing is looking at the chart. It's called radar vector to divert please.

Gripe 2: I like having the huge compass rose's. It makes it much easier when you need to go 'off roading' and not follow the airways to your destination.

I won't put it delicately, OMFG, you want to NOT have terrain altitudes depicted on your chart!?!?!? DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH? GPS has gone this way and with good reason. Turning the wrong way in IMC in mountainous terrain has a way of punishing failure in ways that a IFR checkride doesn't.

Gripe 3: Jepp labels backcourses in big bold letters. Hell, they even have a SEPARATE symbol for backcourse. Congrats?

The update problem has been resolved. And if you use NOS charts that aren't in the book and are loose leaf, it's just as bad as Jepp.

But the other thing with Jepp is that it's not designed for someone tooling out in the practice area. It's for people who go places, and it is designed for that. The important information is bolded over the non-essential info. Information not needed when doing the approach is stashed away on another page. They put taxi diagrams for ALL IFR airports on a separate page, instead of tiny sizing it and putting it at the bottom where it clutters up the approach page.

At large airports, they are now doing color coded red circles showing runway incursion areas. When going to airports with temporary approaches, it's a different color of background paper.

My biggest gripe is that Jepp charts are expensive, but you get a superb product for the extra cost. And Jepp is starting to come around a little to it's smaller customers complaints.

I'm baack

I'm back to posting online. We'll see how long this round lasts...