Achieving the Dream

Fellow pilots and musicians,

I know this is long overdue, but I thought I’d take the time to update you all on what has been going on since the last time I posted. Let’s pick up where we left off. After my last post, I studied, flew, and worked hard to end August with a CFI, multi-engine certificate (not MEI, just commercial AMEL/ASEL), and a bachelor’s degree in science in aviation. Then I got a job as a flight instructor in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I was living the dream, getting paid to fly, living off Taco Bell and energy drinks, and having non-stop fun. After a couple of months, I ended up getting back to work myself and passing my CFI-I check ride in February of this year. With that, I gained a lot more students and started flying quite a bit more. My record was 42 flight hours in one week (I don’t suggest this, it is extremely taxing on yourself). In June, I interviewed and got a job offer with SkyWest Airlines, but I still had about 150 hours left until I hit my 1,000-hour minimum requirement. Those last couple of weeks of instructing were by far the hardest. In three weeks, I had 12 students take private, instrument, commercial, and CFI-I check rides. This meant dozens of hours giving ground lessons and never-ending check-ride prep flights. With that, I had 11 students pass on the first try and only one student had to do a retest and then passed with no problem. Although, that student taught me a great lesson on the effect of fatigue. We had started the day with a last-minute plane swap which meant checking the maintenance logs, documents, and changing paperwork on IACRA. Then, we flew two hours to the airport where the check-ride took place. After a two and a half hour oral, they went and flew. So you can imagine why it was easy to make a simple mistake.

Now begins the next chapter, the airlines. The hardest training I’ve ever had. In late August, I started the incessant training process to become an airline pilot. First was ATP/CTP in Dallas, where we learned the information required to take the written test for my R-ATP certificate. After passing that, I flew to Salt Lake City, Utah, where I had about a month of classroom training. The first week was indoc, learning about the company’s policies, exemptions, and regulations, followed by a test at the end. The second week was all on the computer, learning about the CRJ’s systems, then two weeks of ground training in the classroom with three validation tests at the end. Once I made it through the classroom training, I flew out to Cincinnati for a month to do all of the simulator training. After roughly 44 hours in the simulator, another validation, and a flight back to SLC, it was time to take my LOE. The LOE is the check ride for the type rating, and R-ATP in my case. All two months of training, weeks worth of studying, six different tests, and nights of little sleep led up to this. On October 28th, I passed my LOE with a few minor mistakes. Nobody is perfect, right? I now had a type rating for the CRJ and my R-ATP. But the training doesn’t stop there. After a quick two days of differences training for the CRJ-700/900 (all of my training was on the CRJ-200), I did my first IOE trip. That first flight was terrifying, but so much fun. All I could think about when we first took off was “holy crap this is really fast”. As for my first landing, I slammed that CRJ so hard into the runway in South Bend, Indiana, I thought I left a crater behind me. I landed so hard, that passengers were complaining in the back. By the end of the trip, I had gotten the landings down a little better. At least the passengers weren’t complaining now, just the flight attendants. As of now, I’m done with training and on reserve (on-call) based out of Denver. I moved back home to Montgomery, Texas, right before I left for training and am commuting to Denver until I can hold an IAH/DFW base.

So, I’ve been pretty busy in the last year or so, but where does music fit in with all that? Up until I went to training, I was playing a lot of guitar and drums with my best friend in Omaha. We had plans to start playing small gigs but sadly, I had to move. I’m still playing when I can, but with commuting, and being away from home all the time, it is difficult to find time. I’d also like to get back into playing piano as I haven’t played consistently in years.

And now you’re all caught up. If you’ve read this far, thank you for the support. Thank you to everyone in the community, my parents, and instructors for helping me get this far. It’s a dream come true. And a big thank you to Bose. I’ve been using the A20s that they were kind enough to send out for almost two years and still use them today at the airlines with zero issues. If you have any questions about flight training, airlines, or anything else, feel free to reach out. Happy holidays!