FMA Solo 2019 – FMA Solo Program

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!

Lots of Good News!

Hello fellow pilots and music enthusiasts!

I couldn’t be happier to share with you all that I am officially a commercially licensed pilot! In late April, I passed my commercial check ride after weeks of bad weather delaying the flying portion. I had actually done the oral portion in late March, but couldn’t finish the check ride due to high winds. Up until I finished the ride, I battled low ceilings and high winds. Finally, a day of clear skies and calm winds came and after nailing all my maneuvers and landings, I was rewarded with a commercial license. The moment my examiner closed the door of the FBO to leave, I completely lost it and was freaking out that I had finally finished. I had been working on my commercial since last June and a weight was lifted off of my shoulders when I was handed my temporary certificate. My first flight as a commercial pilot was nothing different than the countless training flights I had done before, but it put a whole new perspective on flying. I can’t thank those of you a part of FMA, my parents, and all my flight instructors enough for getting me to where I am today. The continued support means more than any of you would ever know!

Fast forward to Monday, I began my CFI training. I spent two hours with my new instructor going over how to teach different lessons and a bunch of information that I didn’t know. As I’m always told, a good pilot is always learning and this was very true on Monday. After being grilled about aerodynamics, aircraft systems, and regulations, I came home to find a package from our fearless leader, Mr. Zapp! I opened it up and immediately found the copy of AviNation I was featured in (still doesn’t feel real) and a maintenance handbook that I’ve already begun reading amongst other awesome items. A huge smile was already on my face seeing all the stuff in the box, then I dug a little deeper. I saw a large white box at the bottom and wondered what it could be. Then I saw the classic “Bose” logo on the side. You can ask my roommate, I was screaming “NO WAY, NO WAY” at the top of my lungs while simultaneously yelling other words I cannot include. The best way to describe me opening the box is the scene from “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the lost ark” when he finds the golden idol and the gold from it is reflecting off of his face. I could not believe it was real. Attached to this post is a picture of the first flight with the A20s, I had to go test them out (and it gave me a good reason to get out and fly!). The noise-canceling is so good on these that I had to take one ear off when I leaned out the mixture in cruise as the plane I was flying didn’t have a lean assist. I am so thankful for everyone in FMA who continues to show support for me and the rest of the recipients. This community has given me so much more than I ever thought and I will cherish all of this forever.

P.S. For all the guitar players here: can anyone name the model of my amp in the picture?

Cross Country down to Stearman Field and more!

Hello All,

I hope you are all doing well. I thought I’d share with you all about my most recent cross country down to Stearman field in Wichita, Kansas. As part of part 141 commercial training, I am required to do what we call a “long cross-country”. This is a flight that consists of one 250nm leg with no stops in between and then stopping at two other airports. All of this is done solo as well. I started at KCBF and flew down to KWLD, then to 3AU, and finally stopped at 1K1 for some dinner before heading back to KCBF. In case you don’t know about 1K1, it is an airport with a restaurant right on the field. In my opinion, it is the best on-airport restaurant in the midwest. Everything is pilot-themed and the service/food is phenomenal. I logged a total of 4.8 hours that day and it was a blast! I’ve included a couple of photos of the trip along with this post.

I’d also like to add that I’m nearing the end of my commercial training as I have my check ride scheduled for March 18th. The one thing I tend to struggle with is the power-off 180, so if any of you have any advice, I’m all ears!

Over my winter break from school, I also went down to St. Augustine, Florida, and got my spin endorsement with Patty Wagstaff. This was arguably the coolest flying experience I’ve ever had in my life as I got to not only fly an Extra 300L but also fly it with Patty Wagstaff. I also had upset recovery training that day with Spencer Suderman in a Super Decathalon. For that flight, I learned how to do aileron rolls, recover from different flight attitudes, and even did a loop! (but by the time we did loops I was ready to get back on the ground). It was VERY beneficial to my confidence in the airplane. Now, I feel like I can recover from just about anything in an airplane. If you are thinking about doing upset recovery training or aerobatic training, I highly recommend going to Patty.

Anyways, I hope you are all doing well, and thank you for your continued support!

Update on Life and My Experience at Oshkosh

Hello all,

Sorry for the radio silence for the past little while, but I have been hard at work trying to get through college, and my ratings, as quickly as possible. Currently, I am an Instrument Rated Private Pilot and am about 80 hours into my commercial license. So far, I have flown almost every day this summer trying to build hours for commercial training. Normally, students here fly a max of four days a week. Also, to put it in perspective, I passed my private checkride just over a year ago. So, as you can see, I’ve been very busy with school and flying. The reason I am doing all of this is that I am trying to graduate in 3 years. Academically, I can do it no problem, but it’s the ratings that are slowing me down. With that being said, it has easily been the most fun summer getting to fly to all of the little airports around Nebraska.

Recently, I was given the opportunity to perform Taps on trumpet at the annual Oshkosh Memorial Service. It was such an amazing experience and I am so grateful to be given this opportunity. The best part of it was right when I began playing Taps, I looked up and the Aeroshell T-6 team was performing the missing man formation right over the memorial. It was truly amazing. HUGE thanks to John Zapp for giving me this opportunity. The rest of the day, I just walked around the grounds in utter amazement at the airplanes there. The last time I had been to Oshkosh, I was 13. Yes, I thought the planes were cool and all but being a pilot put the show in a whole other perspective. For those of you that were there, did you get a chance to see ‘Scrappy”, the 700hp STOL plane built by Mike Patey, outside the Garmin booth? Absolutely crazy. Sadly, I didn’t get very many pictures of Oshkosh because the camera on my phone is broken. But, I did get a selfie at the memorial service! Hopefully, EAA puts out some videos of the memorial so I can share my experience. Let me know what your favorite thing about Oshkosh was!

I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted on how my commercial training continues. Thank you to everyone taking the time out of their day to read this and I hope you are all doing well!

Also, I inserted a picture of one of the past flights I took to get my 100nm day and night flight out of the way. My instructor and I flew down to Stearman Field (1K1) to get dinner. If you are ever in the area, or just need a reason to get out and fly, I highly recommend it. Great food and great people.

Have a good one!

Scott Lutte

New Chapter

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well.

First of all conGRADulations to all those who graduated this year! We have worked extremely hard to get here and hard work definitely pays off. I am going to miss walking around the hallways that I have been accustomed to for the past four years, eating lunch in the band rooms and most of all, rushing to the airport right after school.

This year through music at school, I was awarded the Top Musician/Citizenship award. I was also selected as a semifinalist for the National NUFSICISUM (read it backwards) award. This ward requires leadership and musical qualities, in and out of music departments.

Through cadets, I was awarded the Pilots of 848 RCACS award, Spirit Award, Most Outstanding Cadet and the most prestigious of them all, the Lord Strathcona Medal. The pilot award is for cadets that have earned their pilot license (glider or power) in the last training year. The Spirit Award recipient is selected by the cadets and officers voting. The Most Outstanding Cadet award is for cadets that are all rounded, show commitment and have good leadership qualities. Lastly, the Lord Strathcona medal is for the cadet that demonstrates considerable leadership qualities, provides an enthusiastic example, has a high level of physical fitness and is reliable.

Lastly, I will be starting university with the first year being covered due to the scholarships I have received. I have received an entrance scholarship based on my GPA, a District Authority Award, a Teachers Association bursary and a local Rotary Club Bursary.

I am extremely honoured to have ended highschool on such a high note and will be remembering all the memories I have made here. But most of all, I am ready to move on to the next chapter of my life.

This summer, I will be working for Cadets Canada to enhance the program as well as develop better learning tools. As this is my last summer with cadets I cannot wait to pursue the opportunity I have been given.

I also plan to complete my mountain rating as I would like to build up my flying hours.

That’s it for me! Hope everyone has a fantastic summer and stay safe!

Thank You FMA, Bose and Bose Aviation!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well and staying safe during these unprecedented times.

I just wanted to give a huge shout out to FMA, Bose and Bose Aviation for a fantastic token of appreciation by gifting me a Bose Aviation A20 Headset. I absolutely cannot wait to be up in the air again.

My next fight is next Wednesday, which is my check ride since I have not flown in over five months. It will also be the ride where I get to try out this new headset.

I can’t imagine the amount of noise it will cancel!

Once again thank you all for the support, and thank you FMA for continuing to give me more reasons to fly!

Living my Dream

It is finally the beginning of my journey. I am now officially a private pilot. The first one in my family. When I started back in April, I did not expect to be done in approximately six months of training. But, today I am happy to say that driving 45 minutes each way, five days a week has definitely paid off and has given me a chance to see that hard work and commitment really does pay off.

I would like to thank the FMA solo program for giving me a chance to get started on my flight training as soon as possible and thank everyone part of the FMA community for giving me encouragement and advice as I had improved on my flying skills. I cannot wait to meet and interact with the FMA solo recipients of 2020.

In the future, I hope to stay in touch with you all and update you as I continue my passion for aviation.

Done! …Almost

Hello Everyone! As I had mentioned in my last update a while ago, I had my 150NM solo and my flight test left. Due to weather, my flight test date got moved around quite a lot and I finally ended up doing it a few days ago and passed it with a mark of 90%! The test consisted of a 2.5-hour ground session and a 2-hour flight. Though the tester wanted to get all of it done on one day, we had to split them into two separate sections, once again, the weather got in the way. The initial ground portion consisted of me being tested on my knowledge about the different systems of the aircraft, my ability to make a nav log for a cross country flight, my ability to make weight and balance charts and calculate takeoff/landing distances. As the scenarios were given to me the night before the test, I was able to get everything done ahead of time and be prepared for any questions that the tester – Mike – had for me. Though I was extremely nervous before the test, I was able to answer most, if not all, of Mike’s questions. Doing this gave me a confidence boost when it came to the flying portion of the test.

There was a long four-day gap between the ground and the flight portion, and finally, on the fourth day, Mike texted me saying that we were going fly that day, no matter what. The weather for that day was extremely weary. The forecast said that the ceilings were scattered at 3100 and broken at 3500, but when we got to the practice area, it was worse than the forecast. Luckily, we found a clear patch where we were able to complete our upper air-work. When we got closer to the forced and precautionary landings part of the test, was when everything got more difficult. There were a few times where we could not see the ground while travelling towards another clear patch. Eventually, we found a patch and worked with the weather in order to finish this test. Once the practice area portion of the test was over, we transited back to the airport where we did a few stops and goes, where I was tested on different types of landings, takeoffs and my ability to handle a circuit. The scariest part of this whole process was after we shut off the plane and I did not know if I had passed or failed.

When we walked into the club, all I was told was that we would be debriefing and talking about what I could improve on and this only made me more nervous. Once, we sat down and he started talking, the first thing he said was, “You passed with flying colours!”. This was probably the most exciting moment in my entire aviation career so far. I was absolutely ecstatic!

Now that I am done my flight test, the only thing I am waiting for is a clear sunny day to do my 150NM solo. I also have my written exam to do, which I will be writing later on this month.

Finally, thank you to everyone that followed my journey and supported me along the way. I don’t know how I would have done it without all of you! This community is so encouraging and so helpful when students like me have questions or concerns! I really appreciate it!

This was me trying to explain to my instructor how the flight test went.

Thirty Degrees Didn’t Stop Me

Hello fellow musicians and aviators. This post has a special place in my heart and always will for as long as I am alive. Yesterday, October 28th, 2019, I flew approximately 1.6 hours, of which .5 of those hours were by myself. No CFI, no help, just me; and let me be the first to tell you, I was terrified. My first thought when I turned downwind looking at the runway was “well, now I’ve got to get down there”. I successfully completed three stop-and-go’s by myself at Council Bluffs Municipal Airport. I walked away from the airplane and the trusty 172 still runs so I would say that’s a win for me. I can’t thank the staff at Advanced Air enough, including my awesome CFI, Leighton Kaluza, as well as everyone in the FMA community. You’re positive feedback and advice helped me more than you know and I am so proud to be apart of such an amazing association. This was the first milestone of many more to come.

It was about thirty degrees when I took to the skies all by myself. When I landed I wanted to take a picture in front of the airplane, N6293G, in my FMA shirt but I was all layered up, however, that surely didn’t stop me! It was cold but I had to show my appreciation for those who helped get me here. Although I might need a new shirt since the tail was cut off of mine. In the picture below you can see my Mom cutting the tail off of my shirt. My mom flew up to Omaha from our hometown in Texas for work and I am so happy that she was also able to be there for my first solo. Thank you again to you all for helping me through this first portion of my journey and a huge thank you to the FMA for supporting me!

Almost There!

Hey All! I just wanted to update all of you what I have been up to for the past month with my flying and music. As for flying, I have been working on my cross country hours by flying to our neighbouring aerodrome – Nanaimo (CYCD). I have flown there once with my instructor and twice by myself. Recently, my instructor and I flew to Qualicum (CAT4), which is about a 45-minute flight each way. All in all, I have about 45-60 minutes of dual cross-country time left, as well as my 150NM solo. According to my instructor, I will most probably be doing my 150 NM solo next weekend if the weather pertains. Without the leftover cross-country flying, I have 4 hours of solo time left and my flight test to prepare for. On the days that we have bad weather for cross-countries, we have been doing flight-test prep, where we just review all the exercises that we have done thus far. Overall, I have (hopefully) got only a few more weeks of flying to go! During the prep for my test, I have also been studying for my Transport Canada written test, which I will be writing very soon.

As for music, since the school year just started a month ago, all the music is still new and we have been having constant rehearsals to get better as an ensemble and as a department. As our music department’s tradition, we let two student groups perform at each concert and they are chosen by the music directors via an audition process. My friends and I thought it would be a cool experience to audition and to make music in a small group outside of rehearsal times! The tune we will be auditioning with is called Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman.

Lastly, I am extremely excited to get my licence in the near future and have a chance to take my family up. Once again, thanks for all the support you have given and thanks for all the advice as well!