Aerial Mapping

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That is what I gather, it has a signature spot but does not explicitly state to send it back but it does say it confirms your reception of the letter so indirectly yes. I scanned it to keep a copy though.
 
Frank_Rizzo said:
That is what I gather, it has a signature spot but does not explicitly state to send it back but it does say it confirms your reception of the letter so indirectly yes. I scanned it to keep a copy though.
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Exactly what I was thinking.

Them 3 days off are a nice addition.
 
I'm assuming we sign it and send it back to them.
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Just got mine today too. That's what it looks like we're supposed to do. Copying it first is a good idea though like Champcar said.
 
Congrats guys. I was invited out for the interview but just couldn't come up with the money for the plane ticket out there. Carol was one of the nicest people i've spoken too and i'm sure it will be a fun 7 months! JC is the best networking tool out there!
 
got mine today as well. those 3 days are a nice addition, was pretty surprised by that. would really like to know when training is though...
 
Mine also came today... I second on knowing the training dates, makes getting tickets and plans much easier, October is coming fast.
 
I have a feeling that after we sign and return them, they will send us training materials and stuff, or at least solidify plans as to when training will be.
 
Honestly I don't think training will be that much. I'm guessing a day at Pictometry, one flight, and the checkride.
 
Honestly I don't think training will be that much. I'm guessing a day at Pictometry, one flight, and the checkride.
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Yeah that's a good point. I don't imagine any of us need substantial training as far as flying goes anyway. I think Carol was talking about doing some 'test' runs with the equipment and everything but yeah that should only take a day or so. Do you think they'll do the training immediately before we launch? Makes sense I guess.
 
Honestly the hardest part of the job isn't the flying but keeping track of all the receipts (gas, oil changes, maintenance, hotel, car rental, fed-ex, charts and any expenses when you are on the road), trouble shooting the equipment, in air restarts of the system, saving partial missions in a new set of drives, keeping track of the drives, coordinating with ATC to fly in different airspaces...

Coordinating with ATC is a must. Just yesterday I had to fly some FP's (flight plans or missions) right above four very busy airports in SOCAL. In two FP's I was flying in and out of the class B of the Miramar Marine Base and parts of it took me right into the final approach path for F-18's, C17's, C130's...and just 3 miles south of Miramar you have Montgomery field a busy GA airport. So at times I had to talk two towers at the same time.

After 5 hours in between F18's and Cessnas I went to San Diego Intl. The FP here had me at 2500 flying E-W lines beginning at 4 miles west of the SAN all the way to 4 miles east of the airport and a total of 26 lines to be flown. Some just to the north, some just to the south of the rny and some right above it. So I would be holding at the MZB VOR and the twr from time to time would give me a 5 minutes window to fly the line at the departure end. Eventually ATC gave all the Airliners a 2000 feet altitude restriction after take off. So there I was flying the lines and watching Airliners climbing right towards me but then leveling off 500 feet below. It was a bit scary but really nice! :D
And the south end of this SAN FP had me in N. Islands Airspace, right above their tower.

Anyway before I even take off yesterday I had to coordinate with SOCAL app, SAN twr, Miramar twr, Montgomery twr and N Island twr. That includes calling all the tower chiefs and explaining to them what you are gonna be doing at what time and faxing them a copy of your Fps is always a great idea. Usually you won't have to coordinate with that many people, yesterday was out of the ordinary. But you'll have to coordinate when flying restricted airspaces, class Bravo and sometimes even class Charlie.

As far as flight training goes you'll only train to fly the "light bar" and intercept the next line after you are finished with the previous one. The light bar is a piece of equipment taken out of F16's installed in the dashboard coupled with a GPS and a computer sys with a bunch of numbers that gives you all the info you need to fly the line and once you understand that you are pretty much good to go.

I hope that gives you guys more or less an idea of what the job is like. I really love it! And it's gonna make you a sharper pilot. Just think about it...the lines are like a localizer that never ends. Sometimes you'll fly a 500-800nm loc. needle.
 
Just think about it...the lines are like a localizer that never ends. Sometimes you'll fly a 500-800nm loc. needle.
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haha oh god...:banghead: Nah I'm just kidding, it sounds like it's going to be a great learning experience and very unique way to hone skills and build time. Thanks for the excellent write-up!!
 
thanks for the post, helped out a lot. does the light bar setup look like a localizer and is it as sensitive?
 
rdsoxpilot said:
thanks for the post, helped out a lot. does the light bar setup look like a localizer and is it as sensitive?
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It looks nothing like the localizer. It's a small black rectangular box with lots of numbers on it. It gives altitute, heading, distance from the line in x and y axles as well as direct distance. It also tells you how long is a specifc line in nm, how many miles to finish the line, how many miles to next waypoint and how many waypoints in the line.

It's way more sensitive than a localizer. For example you can get this reading: +0.001 . It means you are off by 0.001 mile and you should correct to the right. To the right because of the + sign. A - sign means you should correct to the left.


It's not so complicated after the second time you do that. Then after a while it becomes second nature.
 
TheAlchemist said:
It's way more sensitive than a localizer. For example you can get this reading: +0.001 . It means you are off by 0.001 mile and you should correct to the right. To the right because of the + sign. A - sign means you should correct to the left.
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Yeah I'd say thats sensitive.
 
Hope this help's!!!

1 pair of jeans(work)
1 pair of jeans(hanging out)
1 button up long shirt
1 button up short
5 T-shirt( 2 long, 3 short)
7 Socks,7 underware
1 good pair of long johns( Under Armor)
1 pair of sneakers for all around use ( Gray or Black)
1 pair flip flops (Hotel use)
1 sweat shirt
5 undershirts ( wife beaters)
2 shorts ( basketball type)
Good Hat& Gloves
Flight jacket( Army Navy Store) Best all around!!
Don't bring any toothpaste or any hair gels (Pick it up in ROC at a wal-mart) This keeps TSA from taking yourstuff! I'll post more later!:bandit:
 
Don't bring any toothpaste or any hair gels (Pick it up in ROC at a wal-mart) This keeps TSA from taking yourstuff! I'll post more later!
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For anyone who's done this job before, how long is the training process and are we expected to pay for our own hotel during that time?
 
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