A day in the life of a 90 day career pilot student

Now on with the blog...
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2/23

We got a late start today due to my instructor not being available until after lunch. Sooo, we were only able to log 4 hours today. I might have mentioned earlier (can't remembler) but ATP has a company policy against single-engine operations at night unless required for FAA training, so we're limited to the day time.

Anyway, after we got off the ground it was very nice VFR flying. We only had 4 hours to burn, so we decided to fly up to Dalton and back. Leaving the office another instructor suggested we try a little airport over in the mountains, Andrews Murphy (RHP). It was REALLY cool, mountains on both sides down in a valley. I can't imagine flying a non-precision into there! Chad made me find it w/o VOR or GPS to try out my dead-reckoning skills. My eagle scout training in map reading came in handy and we flew right to it. Then back to Dalton for some touch and go's and then back to FTY.

4.1 PIC, now up to 52.4 tt.
 
2/24

Got off to a late start due to some low fog in the morning. But then set out on a course for Chattanooga. ATC ended up routing us direct which made the trip shorter, guess they didn't know I was trying to take my time and build some IMC!
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We did an ILS into CHA which was cool. I'm slowly getting accustomed to the radio congestion and am able to hear what they're saying better.

After CHA we flew to another ATP location, Jasper, AL. At this point Chad handed the radios over to me and I pretty much did them on my own, with his occasional help when I didn't understand something the controller blurted at light speed!
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We had lunch at Jasper with another ATP instructor and a 10 month student there, and then back to FTY.

We spent an hour total actually in the clouds and I had my first experience with carb icing and even got a trace of ice on a main wheel once. Just as we were about to ask to descend out of it, the clouds broke and no more ice problems. I have to admit, I thought it was more cool than scary!
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Chad said I'm "very smooth on the controls" which has me feeling more and more confident about my skills. I'm pumped for three more days of hard core flying!
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Ready to take my instrument exam whenever weather or circumstances don't allow me to be in the air.

Till next time,
Heath
 
Wow really cool Heath ! So far, almost every single one of your posts...you guys have been eating lunch, or eating somewhere......now THAT i like
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As long as there is food involved, i'm a happy guy ! Sounds like it's a fun program...i cant wait to start
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Cool cool....its good to hear people ahead of me telling about how its goin. Hey if any of you ever get around to a city that has a restuarant called "Stones and Bones" you gotta go there...it's the BEST. Indianapolis has one and also some in chicago area.
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Leaving the office another instructor suggested we try a little airport over in the mountains, Andrews Murphy (RHP).

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Andrews-Murphy rocks my world.
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2/25

Friday

BEST DAY YET! Took off with a different instructor this morning. He said he was taking me to Andrews-Murphy, to which I didn't complain as I've already stated its a cool place to fly in to and land. When I told him I'd been there, he assured me he'd make it interesting. We did a simulated engine out and glided to Blairsville, then on to Andrews-Murphy for a touch & go. Then we just flew the mountains for a while. It was really scenic and fun. At that point, he showed me a training exercise he instructor had shown him where you fly 2,000 or so AGL directly over a river and try to keep the plane centered over the river without losing altitude. With some of the turns and twists in the river it was a great exercise in coordinating your turns and a lot of fun!

We then proceeded over to Campbell (forgot the identifier but its just west-northwest of Andrews-Murphy(RHP)) and did a landing. Another really cool mountain airport that has a really neat view off the end of the runway. 5 hours tt in the AM.

Came back to FTY for lunch, then went out again with my normal instructor and did 2 more hours with most of it under the hood practicing shooting approaches at Dalton and Cartersville.

7.1 hours and a great day!
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Later,
Heath
 
2/26

Boy am I stuffed! We made a long trip from FTY to OWB (Owensboro, KY). My parents don't live too far away, so they met us there and took us to Moonlight Bar-B-Que for lunch. All you can eat bar-b-que buffet with home-made desserts. Mmmmmmm, mmmmm, mmm! I was wondering if we were gonna be over gross on the return trip!
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The weather was perfect and smooth with the high pressure in place and I got lots of practice on the radio. 6.8 in the log book!

Back at it tomorrow, and then the time-building ends and the official start of ACPP begins Monday! I've got 10.8 left to burn. Will probably do 3-5 hours tomorrow and then burn the rest during the 90 days. Would've liked to get all 37 done this week, but weather just didn't permit it. Oh well, I've read the entire Jepp Instrument book now and the Gleim and FAA books and am ready for my Instrument, Flight Instructor Instrument, and Instrument Ground Instructor (optional, but I figure worth the extra money since I'm studied up for it) exams.

Just a quick note about some who've said ATP just teaches you to study for the exams. Not at all true. You have to have the knowledge to do the flying. They give you the gleim books, but also give you all the FAA books and more that you need to not just pass the test but learn the material. Now, the don't hold your hand and spoon feed it to you in a classroom. You're expected to read and study on your own and come to the instructors with things you're having trouble understanding. Personally, I prefer this method as I'm a quick study and can get it all in faster if left to my own devices to read it. That's what the 90-day programs all about, getting it done faster. Just wanted to clear that up. I've got 26 books that they sent me, not just 5 gleim books for the five writtens.

Until next time,
Heath
 
[ QUOTE ]
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The three hours in the Citation will be SIC.




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A bit of advice for those headed for a regional --DO NOT-- log the Citation time as SIC. The Citation 501 is a single-pilot jet, and does not require an SIC, so you cannot log SIC. Log the time as dual received, multiengine land and nothing more. Interviewers, particularly at XJT, don't like to see the time logged as SIC.

ATP used to do formal SIC checkouts in the Citation, but discontinued that some time ago.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The three hours in the Citation will be SIC.




[/ QUOTE ]

A bit of advice for those headed for a regional --DO NOT-- log the Citation time as SIC. The Citation 501 is a single-pilot jet, and does not require an SIC, so you cannot log SIC. Log the time as dual received, multiengine land and nothing more. Interviewers, particularly at XJT, don't like to see the time logged as SIC.

ATP used to do formal SIC checkouts in the Citation, but discontinued that some time ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

What about the time when you're the sole manipulator of the controls? FAA allows this to be PIC time, but should you not log it as such?

Did you get hired at Express Jet?
 
Another interesting thought about the citation time...i've heard a story about a guy that went to ATP, and logged the 3 hrs and also put it on his resume...and this pretty much caused him to almost hang himself in the interview. Because he made a big deal of it, making it stand out on the resume as turbine time, logging it, etc.......they expected him to be able to back it up...and since it was really just a very basic orientation..his knowledge wasnt the best.
 
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just wondering about one thing, what kind of sim ATL has?


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It's a purdy one. It's a full mockup of a Seminole cockpit complete with a Garmin 430, but honestly I don't know what brand or type of sim it is. I never trained on it. Instead I spent 50 hours in its predecessor, an old dilapidated seneca sim utilizing all the best that the early 90s had to offer. We dubbed her callsign 23POS.
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LOL, that's a good one!

The new one is a Frasca brand Seminole, and as GTK pointed out, it is complete with a working Garmin 430, just like the real Seminoles have. It's really nice!

Now on to the blog...

2/27

Sunday.

Went to church and then over to ATP. The weather was bad and deteriorating, so we decided to not fly. Rather, I went home to study for my Instrument exams with the intent of taking them tomorrow.

2/28

Monday

First official day of ACPP.
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We filled out all our paperwork, received our official training books and then did about 4 hours of ground instruction. After that, he released us for the day to study. Since I was ready for my exams, I sat for two of them, the Instrument and Flight Instructor Instrument. Made a 92% on both of them!
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Ran out of time to take the third one (Instrument Ground Instructor, not required, but since it uses the same question bank I figured I might as well pay $80 and get the extra rating while its fresh on my mind), will do it tomorrow.

3/1

Tuesay Day 2

We did about an hour or two of ground, discussing the Seminole systems. Then we went over to the maintenance hangar and got a tour from the chief A&P. He had a plane with the engines exposed and gave us a complete tour of the Seminole and all the workings of its engine. Very cool! We were looking forward to doing some sim work today, but they had a flurry of students and workload, so we're gonna do that tomorrow. After the ground instruction, we worked on our daily quizzes (there's 33 of them you're supposed to get done before you start the XC phase). Got the first 7 of them done and then took the Instrument Ground Instructor Exam. Made an 88, yeah!
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Now on to the Commercial Exam studying. Talk about drinking water through a fire hose!
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Hopefully, we sim tomorrow...

Later,
Heath
 
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