This post contains the notes for a quickcast podcast episode. If you don’t want to use iTunes, the audio file can be downloaded using this link.

This is quickcast Day 6 from EAA’s Oshkosh Airventure 2011. In this final Airventure 2011 quickcast, David Allen from the Pilots Flight PodLog and  Steve Visscher from Plane Crazy Down Under join me discuss my pick of the day and my pick of the show. Don’t forget to head over to the Pilots Flight PodLog to listen to David’s pick of the day as well as Other People’s Airplanes to check out the video work we’ve been doing.

This post contains the notes for a quickcast podcast episode. If you don’t want to use iTunes, the audio file can be downloaded using this link.

This is quickcast Day 5 from EAA’s Airventure Oshkosh 2011. In this quickcast David Allen from the Pilots Flight PodLog joins me once again to discuss my pick of the day. Don’t forget to head over to the Pilots Flight PodLog to listen to David’s pick of the day as well as Other People’s Airplanes to check out the video work we’ve been doing.

This post contains the notes for a quickcast podcast episode. If you don’t want to use iTunes, the audio file can be downloaded using this link.

This is quickcast Day 4 from EAA’s Airventure Oshkosh 2011. In this quickcast David Allen from the Pilots Flight PodLog and Grant McHerron from Plane Crazy Down Under join me to discuss my pick of the day. Don’t forget to head over to the Pilots Flight PodLog to listen to David’s pick of the day as well as Other People’s Airplanes to check out the video work we’ve been doing.

This post contains the notes for a quickcast podcast episode. If you don’t want to use iTunes, the audio file can be downloaded using this link.

This is quickcast Day 3 from EAA’s Airventure Oshkosh 2011. In this quickcast David Allen from the Pilots Flight PodLog and I stay up late and discuss my pick of the day. My pick of the day is an amazing time lapse video by Jo Hunter of futureshox.net that was shot here at Airventure 2011.  Don’t forget to head over to the Pilots Flight PodLog to listen to David’s pick of the day as well as Other People’s Airplanes to check out the video work we’ve been doing. (FYI…we have been dealing with some bandwidth issues that we have to solve in order to upload the latest episodes)

The photo and video above are republished with permission of the owner and all rights are retained by futureshox.net. 

This post contains the notes for a quickcast podcast episode. If you don’t want to use iTunes, the audio file can be downloaded using this link.

This is quickcast Day 2 from EAA’s Airventure Oshkosh  2011. In this quickcast David Allen from the Pilots Flight PodLog joins me once again in the myTransponder mobile studio to discuss my pick of the day.

This post contains the notes for a quickcast podcast episode. If you don’t want to use iTunes, the audio file can be downloaded using this link.

This is quickcast Day 1 from EAA’s Airventure Oshkosh 2011. In this quickcast David Allen from the Pilots Flight PodLog joins me in the myTransponder mobile studio. David will be joining me on all the daily quickcast for the duration of Airventure. During the quickcasts we will discuss my pick of the day. I will also be joining David on his daily quickcast for the Pilot’s Flight PodLog to talk about his pick of the day so be sure you’re following his podcast feed too. We will be publishing multiple episodes at the same time due to bandwidth issues so be sure to refresh iTunes so you don’t miss an episode.  Of course, you can also play the episode from this webpage by using the player above.  Enjoy!

This is a regular blog post and this content will not post to the podcast feed.

On Sunday July 24, I departed KAVP at 0400 EDT. After nearly 16 hours on the road I arrived at KOSH and joined the masses at EAA Airventure 2011. When I arrived at Camp Scholler, David Allen from Other People’s Airplanes and myTransponder’s Rod Rakic greeted me and led me into our site. The social media gathering was well underway at Firebase myTransponder with at least a dozen aviation podcasters and social media leaders gathered at the campsite. The hanger flying continued well into the night with Pilot’s Journey’s Stu Stevenson, Airpigz‘s Martt Clupper, Airplane Geeks‘ David Vanderhoof, the In the Pattern Podcast’s John Conway, Steve Visscher and Grant McHerron from Plane Crazy Down Under, and late arrivals, The Finer Points‘ Jason Miller, and The Pilot Cast‘s Kent Shook all taking turns telling riveting aviation stories, any of which may or may not be true.

During this week I will be working with David Allen to bring you daily video updates from the show. There will be several segments in the daily that will include interviews from each aircraft area on the field, other people’s podcasts, viewer’s choice, 100 seconds for 100 years of Naval aviation and the myTransponder photo of the day. If there is something that you would like to see covered in the viewer’s choice segment let us know either by twitter or by commenting on the Other People’s Airplanes facebook page.

In addition to the daily videos, David and I are going to make an effort to push out some audio content on both The Pursuit of Wings and Pilots Flight PodLog feeds. I will also be posting photos that I take around the field to my personal Flickr account as well as the myTransponder Flickr group. Basically, our stated goal for this week is content, content and more content.

If you are on the field I would love to meet you. Send me a tweet or stop by the myTransponder mobile studio located at 48th and Lindbergh in Camp Scholler.

pursuitofwings.com is not sponsored, endorsed or partnered with EAA or Airventure and use of the banner image above is not intended to imply any such relationship. 

This post contains the script for a podcast episode. If you don’t want to use iTunes, the audio file can be downloaded using this link.

Welcome to episode 4 of The Pursuit of Wings. This episode is the over hyped, much anticipated and very tardy recording of my instrument check ride.

I have been told by many people that the instrument rating is the most difficult rating to get. I would agree but given that it was only the second check ride I’ve taken it doesn’t really mean anything coming from me. I began my instrument training with a bit of trepidation but mostly excitement. I am the kind of person that thoroughly enjoys getting my but kicked around the sky while learning a new flying skill. I love the feeling of landing, opening the cockpit door and pouring my sweat soaked body of out of the plane. The mental exhaustion that follows a long flight of death gripping the yoke and forgetting to blink for an hour reassures me that I did my best. When I am finally able to put all of the pieces together and demonstrate the new skills with some small level of competency I am filled with a strong sense of accomplishment.

As I’ve previously mentioned, because my employer moved me to Japan on very short notice I was forced to finish my Part 141 instrument course in just a few days. In two days, I completed my two final lessons, passed the final stage and end of course check flights, as well as the stage, end of course and FAA written exams. On the third day, which was the day prior to my departure for Japan, I scheduled my check ride.

The morning of my check ride brought beautiful weather to Eastern North Carolina. I made my way to the airport and setup the classroom in the FBO where the examiner would conduct the oral portion of my check ride. I laid out all of the required documents and forms as well as all of my charts and references on two tables. When the DPE arrived we completed the most important part of the check ride, the exchange of money and he looked over my logbook and forms. He quickly pointed out that my instructor forgot to endorse my logbook and without the endorsement we would not be able to fly. I ran down stairs and out onto the ramp just in time to catch my instructor taxing out for a cross-country flight with another student. I flagged him down and got the endorsement.

After the DPE finished checking my paperwork and determined that I was now qualified to take the check ride we began the oral portion. Several years had passed since I got private pilot certificate so I was feeling some check ride jitters. Despite completely forgetting a few bits of basic knowledge that I would have otherwise been able to recite, it turned out that I didn’t have any reason to worry. The oral lasted about two hours and was less like a quiz and more of guided conversation. We discussed several hypothetical scenarios, how I would react and the applicable regulations.

After completing the oral we took a break so I could get a snack and finish my preflight inspection of the aircraft. When the DPE came out to the plane, I gave him my standard passenger brief and we got in. The only part of the flight the cockpit audio does not include prior to engine start and the shutdown checklist because the avionics were turned off and the recorder was plugged into the backseat intercom.

A few notes about the cockpit audio. First, I would not recommend listening to this episode while using headphones. The audio quality is not the best thanks to some intercom and hardware issues and there is a great deal of noise in the cockpit during this flight. Throughout the flight there are several audible tones that can be heard on the intercom and although I’ve done my best to maintain the volume level some of the recording is quite loud. The day on which I flew my check ride was a particularly nice VMC day and the airspace was unusually busy. Additionally, because we were flying IFR you will hear quite a bit of noise that that is part of the instrument approaches such as the Morse code identifier for the navigational aids, as well as the marker beacon and the gear warning horn. You may notice that the marker beacon can be heard for quite a while during the approaches. I am aware of the mute function for the beacon but during the check ride I never thought to reach up and push the button. Although there is nothing wrong with listening to the beacon until it shuts itself off, it doesn’t make for great podcasting and it’s not something I do on a normal flight.

In an attempt to convey the very hectic and taxing instrument approach environment I have cut out very little of the cockpit audio. In fact the only audio I removed was extended periods of silence and long periods of navaid or beacon noise. There are several parts that contain lengthy stretches of staticy beeping. I apologize if it makes for unpleasant listening but I feel that it is the noise level conveys an important aspect of instrument flying, it’s noisy. Along the same lines, I left in almost all of the radio calls between air traffic control and other aircraft because while flying it’s all coming into your headset even if it’s not directed to you. I’ve heard people compare flying in IMC to trying to drink out of a fire hose and I would agree with that analogy. The workload for a single pilot flying on instruments is significant and radio work is a considerable part of it.  Additionally, I have included all of the unimportant chatter from the DPE. I believe that his idea of a “realistic distraction” is to make small talk and ask questions during the busiest phases of flight.

The last thing you should know, is that the flight took place in and around Albert Ellis Airport, KOAJ, and I was flying a Cessna 177 Cardinal RG, tail number N7586V.

Without further ado, lets start the flight.

Cockpit audio. (sorry, but you have to listen to the podcast)

Although all three approaches that I flew during the check ride were based on radio navaids I used the Garmin 430 GPS to back up my approaches. The Cardinal is not equipped with DME so it is also beneficial to using the 430 for the distance information it provides. In the next clip you will hear DPE ask me if I was using the GPS or the ADF to navigate.

Cockpit audio.

In the next section of audio you will hear the DPE asking how I am making my turns. During the conversation about Morse Code he had covered up my gyro instruments which forced me to make utilize the compass.

Cockpit audio.

You may have noticed that I did not even acknowledge the DPE’s comments about fonts. I had two reasons for ignoring him, First because at the time I had no idea what he was talking about and second because couldn’t believe that he was talking about fonts while I was trying to fly an instrument approach.  I later realized he was referring to a logo in the cockpit.

Cockpit audio.

Up until the DPE asked me what I was doing I was flying a perfect localizer approach. Despite briefing the ILS I descended right though my glide slope and was heading for the MDA. Fortunately he pointed out my error before the glide slope reached full-scale deflection and I was able to level out and re-intercept it and continue on the ILS approach.

Cockpit audio.

Well, that’s it. After we parked and I shut down the engine the DPE told me that I did well and that I had passed the check ride. Total time including the oral and post flight paperwork was a little over four hours. To anyone that is thinking about getting their instrument rating I would highly recommend it. Not only do I believe that it makes you a much safer pilot it also opens the door to a whole new type of flying. After I began instrument training I found out I had a new favorite aviation word, “actual”. I find flying in actual IMC to be absolutely thrilling and the act of deliberately flying into one side of a big white puffy cloud and blasting out the other makes me down right giddy. Every time I have the chance to go play in the clouds I feel like I’m getting away with something that I’m not allowed to do.

I would like to note that although the DPE did tell me that I could inform ATC that I was on a check ride if I wanted to, I was planning to tell them regardless. I have been a longtime listener of Jason Miller’s The Finer Points podcast and in preparation for my check ride listened to episode 99 “Flyin’ with Fred Abrams” several times. If you haven’t heard it I highly recommend you go check it out and download the other episodes while you’re at it. In episode 99 Fred Abrams talks about taking your instrument check ride and how to utilize ATC to help you during the flight. I think that it is great advice not only for a check ride but also holds true for any flight.

Thank you for listening to episode 4 and for joining me on my instrument rating check ride. If you enjoyed this episode I hope you will join me again soon for the next edition of The Pursuit of Wings.

If you would like to look at the plates for the three approaches we shot during this flight I have attached them below.

NDB 5 KOAJ | ILS or LOC 5 KOAJ

This is a regular blog post and this content will not post to the podcast feed.

I recently read a tweet from a very accomplished pilot, Karlene Petitt (@KarlenePetitt) that read, “Should a police officer change careers to become a pilot What do you think?” Her tweet also contained a link to her excellent blog, Flight To Success.

I quickly responded by saying, “I believe that you have to chase your dream. I’m leaving my career after more than 13 years to try and start over as a pilot.”

Karlene replied and suggested that I post my response as a comment to her blog for Tom, the police officer in question, to read.

I visited her blog and I read the letter that Tom had written to Karlene asking for career advice, as well as her advice and the comments of several of her readers. After reading Tom’s letter I decided to reply and post my feelings on the career change topic.

I have included Tom’s letter to Karlene below, followed by her advice and last is my reply to Tom. There are several well-written responses to Tom’s question and I strongly urge you to visit the original post,  Should I Become a PIlot, to read those comments that follow the post.

~

Hello my name is Tom.

I’m 26 single with no children living with parents in NYC.

I have a bachelor of science in police studies.

I work in law enforcement in NYC making around 2200 per month after taxes about in my 4th year.Excellent benefits sick days mutual days-meaning more then 2 days off, paid vacation days.

I was thinking about becoming a commercial airline pilot.

I read many blogs online wanted to know if its worth to make the switch.

I didn’t like what I read that you spend 60K-80K to have all the certificates then you work as an instructor making around 20K and then if hired by the regional airlines you make less then 30K as a co-pilot.

In addition the job I learned isn’t stable nothing guarantees that you will work in the airline forever.You might have furloughs at least 1 or more times in career starting your salary again from the bottom from a different company and pulling a second job on the side.

In my current job i can retire in my mid 40s having a monthly pension of about 4000-6000 per month tax free for life…then comes social security in later life which brings more money.I can also have a second job in my 40s just to have something to do.

Is there a possibility that I will live life comfortably in my older age if I choose to work for the airline industry and retire at age 65

Please reply back with your suggestions/opinions.

~

Tom, this is a great question.  The only answer I can give you is… you have to do what you love and the money will follow. And if it doesn’t, you’ll still be happy.  The decision to become a pilot  cannot be made because of the money. The industry is far too cyclical to count on a set income like you can in the police force.

To become a pilot takes far too much money and time… you basically give a piece of your life … to do it for the money.

The only way you’ll succeed, and be happy with the choice you’ve made, is if you have a passion for the industry. Whatever that industry is. This advice goes for any career that is highly specialized and requires a huge investment.

What would I do if I were you? Go take a couple lessons and see if you love it. If you do, then you could continue to live with your parents, use your paychecks to fund your flight training while working. You won’t have to make the decision to change careers until you are ready for, and accept, that first flying job.  You’ll also have a clearer picture where the industry is.

Or, at the age of 26 and you can retire at 45… spend the next nineteen years building your flight time. Join a flying club. Build hours.  Become an instructor. Teach on your days off.  Part time, at 400 hours a year, you’ll have 7600 hours when you retire from the police department and still have a 19 year career with the airlines.

If it’s a guarantee you want then maybe a flying career may not be the ticket.  But remember… there is no guarantee. You never know what’s around the corner. I recommend do what you love, and you’ll have a happier life.

Life is about the journey. Follow your passion and you’ll make the right decision. Could that passion be flying? You’ll never know until you do it.

Good luck on your decision!

~Enjoy the Journey~

Karlene

~

Tom,

You asked some great questions but I think that you have to consider that changing careers is most likely never a smart decision. If you think about the fact that you have invested both time and money into your current career and that you would probably not be able to carry that investment into your new career, it’s not a wise choice. I’m not a professional pilot, but I’ve never met one that has said anything along the lines of, “If you looking for great job security and a solid retirement plan you should become a pilot.” If that is what you are want, you should probably stick with law enforcement. On the other hand, most of that same group of pilots has told me how much they enjoy their work and being part of an industry where the majority of people love what they do.

I believe that you either need to make enough money that you don’t care what you do, or you need love what you do enough to not care how much you make. For me flying falls into the latter category and I’m presently planning to abandon what will be 13.5 years in my current career in order to pursue a career as a pilot. I can’t tell you why I’ve waited this long to change careers other than I had to build up the courage to take the leap. Chasing your dream and giving up security is a very hard thing to do.

Call it an early midlife crisis or whatever you like, but I have to do it. When it comes to changing careers, the longer you wait the harder it gets. If you have a sliver of doubt that you are in the wrong line of work, now is the time to find the right one.

Many people have told me that I’m making a mistake and that I shouldn’t quit my job. I have a wife and son and I take offense when people apply the word quitting to what I’m doing. I take my responsibilities as a provider very seriously. I’m not quitting because that would imply that I’m giving up. It’s actually quite the opposite. I’m going to have to work harder for less money and fight to make it, but I believe it’s worth it. Flying is fulfilling and satisfying versus my current job that leaves me feeling empty and morose. When I return home after a day in the air, I am a better husband and a better father. If I’m unhappy at work, it is too easy to come home and share my discontent with my family.

Flying can be challenging but even after my most difficult flights I find that I am happy. After hours of getting my butt kicked around the sky and pouring my sweat soaked body out of the cockpit I feel exhilarated. Triumphs and failures are part of flying, but few things in life can top the aerial adventures of a pilot. Flying is a magical experience that has the intrinsic ability to refresh your soul. Whether my last flight is good or bad, fun or challenging, I’m always eager to fly again.

My worst day of flying is better than my best day in my present job and is a sign that I need to make a change. While I have told me that I am crazy to walk away being more than half way to retirement, but I think that it would be crazier to stay.

Take some time to think about it, but don’t wait too long. Good luck finding a career that meets all your needs, not just you’re the financial ones. Remember the most important thing is to not let your job get in the way of your life.

-Damon

The material above is republished with permission.

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