|
I reported everything I knew about when I flew. On one solo, the guy running the desk at the FBO claimed he saw me smoke the mains (i.e. lock them up) trying to clear the runway but I never remembered locking the brakes at all.  Another time (on a stage check) we found a flat nosewheel after we landed. The CFII asked me about it and I could've sworn it was up when we left. There was another "Do I need this?" instance where I trudged back to the FBO to make sure I was good.I also took off for some quality time in the box once and got a low voltage annunciator in the climb to downwind. Not sure of how urgent it was, I killed everything electrical I didn't need and was able to glance at the Ammeter long enough to see a 60 volt discharge. Landed, cleared the runway, found a breaker had popped, reset it and it went to a 60 volt overcharge. Taxied it straight the hell to the maintenance ramp.
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2017 15:43
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 06:39 |
|
|
What's the logic in  behind working the ramp before actually getting flight time at a company? A form of "payin' your dues"/getting your foot in the door or vetting the employees to see who's worth it?Being from  and watching Ice Pilots NWT when I was still thinking of going the pilot route (though I think even in this thread, it's been said they're a less-than-desirable place to work), the concept of "Well, go live in Hay River and meet the flights as a rampie, then be a rampie in Yellowknife, then serve coffee to the folks in the back in the sked there and then maybe we'll let you fly" format seemed totally foreign/rear end backwards in terms of getting time built to go somewhere else eventually.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2017 15:33
|
|
|
I probably should've called ahead, but the extent of my FBO call-aheads when doing XCs for time-building was telling tower or approach "8JA's goin' to Lane/Signature/Million Air". A call in advance would make sure you don't get grossly overcharged, though. One of our 172SPs had a registration which was in Signature's system as a Lear 35 and the desk girl at IND was hearing no different. Thank gently caress I had a credit card to pay the $285 ramp fee in spite of insisting I was flying a motherfucking four-seat piston prop and even POINTING TO THE AIRPLANE ON THE RAMP TO THE RAMP GUY .  (I called them when I got back and whoever I talked to said "Wait, a 172's a single-engine, right?"  Our FBO manager had to fax them a form with the N-number, S/N, type, and a bunch of other stuff for them to update and I got a refund of $260.)e- Also, pay your landing fee. I went on another XC and almost got stuck paying for whoever took that plane in there the last time and jumped the ramp fee. Our FBO picked it up when I called and had the two desk clerks talk over the phone. CBJSprague24 fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Mar 23, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2017 16:39
|
|
|
sleepy gary posted:What was she going to do if you didn't pay the $285? I have no idea. I'd have been even more screwed if I didn't have a credit card to put it on, and I'd imagine some of the other students didn't. I didn't need fuel, as I'd fueled enough to get me over and back (only about 100NM) plus 30 minutes. I guess it would've ended with "If you'd come out here with me, I'll show you my headset, my logbook, my Vertically Challenged Person's seat cushion, and the bag of snacks I bring along with me, all sitting in this Not A Learjet At All airplane." That's why I called them as soon as I got back and downloaded the form for our FBO's line manager to fill out and shoot back to them. I was making sure it didn't happen to anyone else. I handled it as best I could, but I'd have flipped a poo poo if they didn't refund the difference. Two Kings posted:Crazy. I feel like that could have been solved with a quick google search or asking a line guy. Could've searched the FAA N-number database, too. I get not being able to recognize airplanes, but Cessna 172SP /= Lear 35.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2017 23:58
|
|
|
My boss in the aviation department at the college is a retired Air Force heavy transport driver (C-5, -141, -130, -17) who got out in 2014. He said he looked at going to Atlas when he got out, but couldn't get a domicile anywhere near where he lives and passed.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 18:32
|
|
|
i am kiss u now posted:Back several years ago, I knew someone who at least claimed to have gotten a ride in the jump seat as a non crew member or airline employee. We were training at a now defunct flight school partner for an airline and our badges had the logo and what it on them. Students weren't eligible for flight privileges but instructors were and our badges looked similar. Needless to say he claimed to have shown up at an airport, flashed his badge and talked his way into the jump seat. This was like 2005 or 06 and I'm guessing things are far tighter now than even back then. I think this was also common at this airport and the gate agents were familiar with this process of instructors hopping on flights and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Was this the school where Being Airline Owned Means Everything and the student IDs were horizontally-opposed with the words "This ID not valid for flight privileges" in a red box at the bottom?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2017 05:15
|
|
|
i am kiss u now posted:Yes it was. Oh, wow, another Academy alum! That was a fun place to fly until they pulled the plug on our base (and by "pulled", I meant "ripped out of the wall angrily"). I never heard of anybody trying that at our satellite. We were even told not to wear our uniforms into passenger terminals because if somebody really wanted to be an rear end, we could be arrested for impersonating pilots. A couple CFIs, who lived in Cincinnati and WERE entitled to bennies, would often hop Comair flights from CVG to get to work if they didn't want to drive in, which sounded loving amazing.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2017 19:46
|
|
|
i am kiss u now posted:Bummer. I can't really claim to be a full alum. I made it as far as my instrument and then stopped. I was at the Jacksonville satellite doing it in conjunction with the university program. I see they've rebranded or changed names or something but that was long after I left. I loved doing my private there; I had awesome flight and ground instructors and it was a very cool environment. I'm not a full alum either- I did Private in 2005-06 and started Instrument there in 2006. Admittedly, I sugarcoated my experience a bit in my last post on the off chance we'd crossed paths. It's interesting how our stories are similar. I was at Dayton and we had two very different "eras" of quality and CFIs which tie into each of ^those^ ratings: Base Manager #1 and the 5 CFIs who were there during Private were fun guys for the most part and I loved every minute of it- I'm still Facebook friends with them. I remember going to Outback after the first night of the Air Show with three of our guys, plus Cannon and Mike from Jacksonville who brought a plane up to help out with marketing and discovery flights. quote:The first part of my instrument went ok but my instrument, classroom ground instructor was horrible and so was my commercial ground instructor the next semester. They had the program structured so that you did your private in the first semester, instrument in your second and commercial in your third and so on and so that's how I started my commercial ground before my instrument rating was complete. I decided to transfer out after the 3rd semester having completed the ground portion but never starting the air portion of my commercial. There was so much red tape and bureaucracy to finish my instrument that I was completely turned off. Base Manager #1 and 4 of 5 CFIs left for the airlines (the one who was left was promoted to base manager #2), and were replaced by guys who spent time at Sanford and were a mixed bag of decent dudes and dicks; the entire feel of the school changed. The guy I finished Private and started Instrument with was a bit of a narcissist (and, apparently, still is) who had issues with making GBS threads on students with them in earshot, but the Check Instructor who did my Private checkride was a good guy. For all the promises of Cirrus metal, we never had more than 2 152s, an Arrow, a Seminole, and a pair of ratty-assed 172s in which things which were supposed to work didn't. I wasted an afternoon on a DME arc lesson in which the DME equipped in the plane we flew apparently hadn't been working for a while, my CFI knew, and nobody'd done anything about it. That, combined with other iffy experiences, was the gently caress-it point; I think I did one more PCATD lesson before taking a semi-permanent hiatus. (After talking to my college advisor, who said "that's messed up", she set up a meeting to address the issue with the Chair of the college program, at which point he told me they'd won Diamond Awards for maintenance and it was basically my fault and "maybe you'd be better off in the A&P program"; as fate would have it, I now have an office across the hall from where I was verbally disemboweled. I called Base Manager #1, now in an admin role at the Academy, and he also said "yeah, that's really messed up, that never should've happened" and even refunded the cost of the lesson). After I stopped there, things apparently got worse: at one point, both 172s were down for maintenance (i.e., ain't nobody flyin' Instrument for a while) and the base had no A&P (our original guy left and I think Sanford was flying dudes up). The CFIs in the second "era" all went to the airlines in the 2006-07 hiring frenzy with little backfill. They were down to Base Manager #3 and two local college alumni CFIs, so Base Manager #1 actually returned to pinch hit and help get students through. Having been friends with one of the alumni CFIs, I thought of going back to fly Instrument with him but held off in part because, by Summer 2007, there were rumblings across Facebook PMs that something was terribly wrong behind the scenes. Sure enough, on 9/11 (of all days), the college Chair held a meeting in which we were told the Academy was leaving thanks to an escape clause in their contract (claiming enrollment was too low when it wasn't), that he'd negotiated them from a December '07 exit to June '08, and a new partner would take over with new Diamonds. When Base Manager #3 said "At least we'll have planes that work now" out loud, everyone laughed, and I felt much better. ...unfortunately, the Academy kinda didn't hold up their end of the bargain. On a Monday afternoon in January '08, three dudes from Florida showed up in a Penske truck and said "Everyone out, we're closed" with students actively waiting to go on flights. Base Manager #3 was fired on the spot for having been in talks with the college's likely new flight training partner for the same role, the two CFIs were taken to dinner and offered positions at the main campus, and Base Manager #1 went back to his desk job. All one of my friends needed was his Instrument checkride; he and his parents were making sure they didn't leave town without him passing and, after threat of a lawsuit, he did his checkride with one of the three visitors from Florida while the other two packed the building up. (Apparently, it was a less-than-nice day and he got puked on by the Check Instructor late in the flight.). I saw my friend the CFI two days later and, when asked if he wanted to hang out in our Commercial ground, he replied "I sure as poo poo don't have anything else to do!"  In the end, it was probably for the best, as the current training partner has run like a well-oiled machine in spite of those Diamonds never happening (I finished Instrument there) and is now managed by the college's CFI who was doing some of the ground schools for the Academy through the college who knows her poo poo. quote:A good chuck was also JAX approach not letting IFR students do approaches for something like almost a month for some reason I can't remember. This is interesting because DAY Tower & Approach were always easy to get along with. One of their guys saw me in the blue uniform at a McDonald's after a lesson one day and struck up a conversation about where I was in training and which planes I flew (he had the tail numbers of the 152s and 172s backward, but that was understandable), seeming like a cool guy.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2017 16:20
|
|
|
Air Cargo Carriers had a Shorts 330 somehow veer off and into a valley off the runway today at CRW.  http://avherald.com/h?article=4a88f341 I know one guy who used to work for them, but he's doing corporate stuff now.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2017 17:57
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 06:39 |
|
|
i am kiss u now posted:"cleared to destination airport via direct, expect the RNAV/GPS 33 approach" Allegedly a few DCA planes were GPS-equipped as I remember seeing references to GPS in the binders we got, but  if it actually existed.One of my friends was up for his Instrument checkride the day before NDBs were no longer required. He was told "If you really want to go today, that's fine, but if you don't mind waiting until Monday, you won't have to do an NDB."
|
|
#
¿
May 11, 2017 16:05
|
|
