The Dream is Alive, Baby!

I am as excited as ever to fulfill my dream of becoming the Captain of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I have dreams about it (day & night) and can hardly contain myself once I get on the subject. Those who know me (both of you reading this) know that I'm a very passionate person. I thought that music was my only passion until my lovely wife suggested the idea of becoming a professional pilot. Well, I've "come out of the closet" with my passion for flying.

I'm excited to finish my commercial certificate this summer. I'll also be pursuing my CFI, CFII and MEI. When I first started flying I didn't think that I would ever enjoy teaching flight lessons. Having come from the profession of teaching I felt a great deal of hesitancy to enter a new realm of education. Teaching is HARD WORK. However, I've come to my senses. Having discovered my passion for flying, I can easily see myself teaching others to do it. Teaching is also the best way to learn. Having to stay on top of flight students with basic flight principles, techniques, procedures and FARs is the perfect way for me to keep my knowledge current.

I will fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I have no doubt that I will be able to accomplish that goal.

AOPA Sweepstakes Plane

OK everybody, I've been meditating for several months now and feel that I have been sufficiently prepared for the life-changing event of being the winner of the 2009 AOPA Sweepstakes plane, a beautiful Cirrus SR22. I have spent many months preparing a mental list of all the accomplishments that will be made available to me after winning the plane. One of those on the list of course is finishing my commercial and CFI, CFII ratings.

So, now would be the time for anyone on the fringes of my friendship to start sidling back in this direction if you want a close look or maybe even a FLIGHT in the beautiful aircraft. I, of course, will NOT accept bribe money. However, generous cash donations will be graciously accepted.

It IS the 21st century after all...

Diamond Aircraft is now manufacturing their DA20 C1 aircraft with the Garmin G600 panel. This should come as no great surprise as the announcement for this change is months old. The Garmin G600 is an amazing piece of technology. It's a combination of the standard six pack of instruments displayed in amazing clarity on a monitor placing all of the necessary information to the pilot in a smaller space allowing for a more efficient scan. For complete details and more photos on the amazing Garmin G600, visit the Garmin website.

As for me I'm excited that the technology revolution has finally seemed to pick up momentum in aircraft. The choices for GPS based avionics and glass panel displays are still few, but the prospect of even better technology is thrilling. Just one example of such innovation in airplane avionics is Garmin's recent introduction of SVT or Synthetic Vision Technlogy which paints a GPS generated three dimensional image of the actual terrain outside your aircraft providing even more situational awareness and giving pilots more information and resources to make the safest and best decisions.

Though my enthusiasm for these new avionics is strong, there is still a part of me that will find it difficult to say goodbye to the "steam gauges" of yesteryear. Having completed my private pilot certificate and my instrument rating in a plane that had the "old panel" avionics makes me somewhat proud of that heritage, and seeing that technology disappearing makes me worry that new pilots will not fully grasp the scope and wonderment that these new avionics packages offer. I have no doubt that pilot skills will still include dead reckoning, pilotage and intensive study of charts, approach plates and weather reports necessary for accurate and complete flight planning, I just hope that having all of this information displayed in color and 3D in front of pilots won't make them lazy (*cough* Northwest flight from San Diego to Minneapolis).

The significance of having this kind of technology available on one of the world's most used training airplanes means that most new pilots will have no exposure to the kind of instrumentation that has been around since the 1930s. I just hope they won't become the kind of "instant gratification" people that a lot of kids are these days being able to get information on pretty much anything anywhere, anytime. So in homage to my early training days, I've included the pre G600 and post G600 panels of the Diamond DA20 C1. For more pictures and information about the DA20 C1 please visit the Diamond Aircraft website.

Another trip down to the airport

Well, I went down to the airport on a whim today. I was feeling like I needed to DO something. So I did. Michelle and I drove down with 4 of the 5 kids and I went to do some PR with people. The first contact I made was with an old acquaintance. Not only did this person remember my name, but he was very encouraging as to my unique situation. I had forgotten how much I enjoy being at the airport. This person and I talked for a while and then I left feeling much better about things.

As we drove away, I noticed the white truck belonging to another pilot friend of mine was parked in front of his company hangar. We drove over and I boldly walked into the open hangar door. This friend was more of a distant acquaintance, but after a few minutes he remembered who I was and we got to talking. In the hangar were two planes. One was of course the Cessna Citation CJ3 that I had seen before. The other was a Cessna 425 Conquest.

The conquest is a formidable aircraft. It weighs less than 12,500 pounds so you don't need a type rating to fly it. It is equipped with two Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines throwing out 450 shp each. This friend was telling me the joys of flying the Conquest and how it handles in the air and during landings. I'm a big fan of the trailing link main gear, and the Conquest is apparently no disappointment there.

The cockpit is comfortable and wide. Standard instrumentation (old school steam gauges) but a comfortable addition of three GPS devices (two Garmin and one Avidyne). And the seats were deep and plush. I've flown an airplane with leather seats, several times in fact, but these seats were absolutely COMFORTABLE.

I have not ruled out any opportunity of flying as a career whether it's with the airlines or with a private company. Today's excursion was sufficient to whet my appetite for getting into the cockpit of a turbine powered aircraft.

The two photos included are the Cessna Citation CJ3 and the Cessna 425 Conquest.

So close...yet so far away.

That's right, by the book I'm finished with my commercial multi-engine instrument pilot certificate. There's just one small hang up...the examination. Had I the money at the time and a decent instructor, I could have finished months ago. I have all of the required time. I am comfortable with all of the systems of the DA42 and am excited at the prospect of finishing.

Well, as rosy as that all sounded I haven't been in a cockpit for nearly 6 months. So I'll have to spend some time getting my chops back up. Cockpit time is ten times more valuable than car time. If you went 10 days without driving it's no big deal, you still remember how to drive and can do it well. If you went 10 days without flying it's like going 100 days without driving. You'd still be pretty good at it and things would come back to you, but you'd have to drive a bit to get used to it again. So now imagine going 6 months (approximately 180 days) without flying. That's like going 1,800 days without driving which is the equivalent of 5 years. Imagine how good you'd be driving then!

So, as an update to my adventures on my way to flying professionally, I'm still working hard at paying the bills, but don't have any excess money to pay for flight time (approx. $250/hour). But I know it will all work out in the end. I really prefer having a picture in every post so the one displayed here is a beautiful aircraft known as the Embraer E175.

Doctor or Captain?

It was a tremendously turbulent time in our lives when my wife made the suggestion of becoming a pilot. Up until that moment I had never even considered the possibility. My life had been full of concerts, recitals, choirs, orchestras, marching bands, jazz bands, pep bands, string quartets, vocal quartets...whew! I could go on, but I won't.

At the time of my decision to become a pilot I was also very thoughtfully contemplating going back to school for my Masters Degree from Boston University. I had planned of course to follow that immediately with my Doctorate. So instead of Dr. Findlay (as per the British drama 1962 - 1971) it's going to be Captain Findlay.

I have often heard being a pilot compared to being a doctor. I certainly believe the required knowledge base and familiarity with a great number of procedures and possible situations grants the comparison. "Use it or lose it" is an adequate phrase when describing the kinds of things you have to know as a pilot. Hence, in the airlines you are given a flight review every 6-12 months. Please understand that I don't speak from experience, but from what I've heard you jump into the simulator and they throw a myriad of possible emergency situations at you. If you don't perform well...well you can say goodbye to your job. That should make all of you travelers out there feel a little better.

For example, the emergency landing into the Hudson River. I don't mean to discount the quality of the captain or the crew in handling that emergency, but ANY PILOT should be able to do the same. We train, and train, and train, and train, and train for situations like that. We should remember the procedures. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Those are the cardinal rules to remember.

With this purpose (use it or lose it) in mind, I have planned to complete my CFI, CFII, and MEI ratings and hopefully gain a teaching position at a flight school. This will enable me to practice my skills and continually refine my abilities. Teaching, as everyone knows, makes the teacher better much more than the student (this IS experience talking, trust me). When I have an active private violin studio, my violin skills go through the roof (in the most humble way of course), but when I go for a summer without teaching my skills regress...horribly.

Anyway, I've babbled on long enough. I just wanted to give my 3 readers a feel for where I'm coming from and what I expect to get myself into. And share my hopes of staying current with all of my newly-learned abilities. Of course, if I should happen to find a job flying a Gulfstream or a challenger jet who am I to say "no?"

The airport

Did you know that Salt Lake International Airport (SLC) is the number one airport in the country for on time arrivals/departures. Yes people, we should be proud! I had the opportunity as recently as earlier today to go up to the airport and drop off my sister-in-law and her family. What a treat it is to be in the immediate vicinity of such amazing aircraft.

Mark my words people, I WILL be the captain of a Boeing 787 one day. For those of you who don't know the significance of that last statement, allow me to enlighten you. The Boeing 787 is the latest in modern technology for commercial airliners. It's composite construction, new engines, unique nacelle design, and impressive (redesigned) passenger cabin are among the improvements coming with the 787. The part that interests me the most of course is the cockpit.

All you have to do is look at it to understand what I mean. I won't go into details about what makes it so great, but I will say that the technology that is becoming increasingly available for all aircraft (small as well) is monumentally increasing safety and situational awareness. I can't imagine how those guys flew back in the 60s and 70s with just the standard 6 pack, a few VOR receivers and NDB.

What do you think? Wouldn't you enjoy being seated in such an ergonomic passenger-friendly environment?