Arrow Availibility or Lack Of

As for an update, two Arrows were brought in from Crookston and Washington to supplement the UND fleet. The projected time for returning to normalcy based on availability is 4 weeks considering weather is not factor. As for other items, contract student now make up 40% of UND's flight training. A class of Tokai student will be here in 2 weeks with 2 classes of Air China students expected in March.

As for the back and forth discussion with individual responsibility, and so called preaching, "Assume nothing and you will never be disappointed." Your experience, your friends experience, even their friends experiences with flight training will not be something that is universal. It is wrong in a pedagogical sense to only blame a student's apathy for their failure. Oh yeah, if anyone thought this was a Grand Forks/UND blow balls thread, I guess you saw out of it what you wanted. I assure you, that was not my purpose for posting.
 
First off i like 400A's input

Second i wouldn't expect this to get any better since UND has been looking for years to relax the requirement of student to get Complex during the Multi Course instead of Commercial. (forget the numbers don't care too look them up. Thinking 323 & something else not sure)

Third. I think it is about time for UND to Pony up and tell students about what benefit they are getting from the contract students. Usually it is cheaper rental rates for airplanes and the CRJ sim. Right now it seems to be covering the losses from less student. Just a guess.

Hang in tough guys. Keep the your nose to the grindstone!
 
I agree that students need to take advantage of the less used flight times during the day and week. If you have the courage to get up at 5am for a 6am or 7am launch, the skies are basically yours. You want an opposite direction ILS approach or all the short approaches you can handle, then come on out in the early morning.

I closed last night (Sunday night) at the tower and I talked to maybe 5 or 6 aircraft after 9:30pm. The final traffic count for yesterday was 920 operations. Our busy day last Tuesday or Wenesday was 1600 some operations. So Sundays is definately an under used flying day.

If UND keeps talking about adding 60 more contract students every couple months, something will have to be done to balance the load out over the day and week.
 
SeeYA@GFK said:
I closed last night (Sunday night) at the tower and I talked to maybe 5 or 6 aircraft after 9:30pm.
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Haha, I was one of those. I was the last Sioux Aircraft back last night around 10:30. Thanks for the straight-in for 27R, that was kinda neat. It was a beautiful night and NOBODY was flying. Flight ops even closed an hour early because the schedule was empty. It was cold, but a great night for flying.
 
I'm new here, but I must say that arrow availability is getting a little better. I have five launches this week. Check AIMS as soon as you wake up. You'll have to schedule five days out, but there are a few spare launches finally showing up.
 
ScoutFlyer said:
Haha, I was one of those. I was the last Sioux Aircraft back last night around 10:30. Thanks for the straight-in for 27R, that was kinda neat. It was a beautiful night and NOBODY was flying. Flight ops even closed an hour early because the schedule was empty. It was cold, but a great night for flying.
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Glad you enjoyed your flight that night. I had the radar on a 60 mile range that night and it was you and a flight at FL360 and that was it! haha Gota love it. Next time you gota take me up! I'll just close down the tower early and we'll just turn it into Class E airspace and call it good! haha Ok maybe that wouldn't go over so good with the boss.....
 
I just love how everyone is preached to by the big wigs that the contract students are just like everyone of us undergrads. The reality is that the only thing we share is the airplanes. They have their daily ground school, but the rest of the day is wide open for them to schedule launches, where as the undergrad has a full class schedule as well as a work schedule on the side to work around for flight schedules. I laugh when I hear that the contract students don't receive any special treatment. You know their getting first dibs at all the launches, and on top of that they can get the book for their plane over 2 hours in advance for certain stage checks. (I've seen this done probably 100 times with the seminole, where the contract students gets the book, has the aircraft pulled, and it sits on the ramp for two hours before they actually leave for the flight.) Don't get me wrong, I fully realize that the contracts bring in all sorts of advantages for the department that we all enjoy, but you can't throw the undergrad student under the bus, because one of these days the contracts will be no more.
 
My thoughts on the contract training:

If we didn't have it, the fleet would probably still be non-glass for the most part (debate the merits of this as you wish) since if I understand correctly the contracts require TAA training and mandate that the fleet have a certain average age.

The contract students have no non-aviation classes or jobs to schedule around, so although they get equal access to the aircraft they have more availability for launches.

Management denies that contract students get special treatment, but to those of us hanging around flight ops, it's obvious that they do.

A few "bad apple" contract students from one of the early Air China groups have caused most undergrad students to dislike most foreign students almost to the point of racism; UND has sent the worst of the Air China students back to China and now has prescreening interviews in China. I've yet to see any EVA Air or Tokai students that aren't sharp pilots.

UND needed contract training to ride out the US airline industry's downturn, but took on more than the current facilities can handle. I personally think that this was due to greed on the part of the Aerospace Foundation. When we get more aircraft/FTDs/briefing rooms it should return to a somewhat normal operation. Honestly I think that the contract training isn't a bad thing, it was just mismanaged in the beginning and UND's trying to recover from its mistakes.
 
pwttogfk said:
My thoughts on the contract training:

If we didn't have it, the fleet would probably still be non-glass for the most part (debate the merits of this as you wish) since if I understand correctly the contracts require TAA training and mandate that the fleet have a certain average age.

The contract students have no non-aviation classes or jobs to schedule around, so although they get equal access to the aircraft they have more availability for launches.

Management denies that contract students get special treatment, but to those of us hanging around flight ops, it's obvious that they do.

A few "bad apple" contract students from one of the early Air China groups have caused most undergrad students to dislike most foreign students almost to the point of racism; UND has sent the worst of the Air China students back to China and now has prescreening interviews in China. I've yet to see any EVA Air or Tokai students that aren't sharp pilots.

UND needed contract training to ride out the US airline industry's downturn, but took on more than the current facilities can handle. I personally think that this was due to greed on the part of the Aerospace Foundation. When we get more aircraft/FTDs/briefing rooms it should return to a somewhat normal operation. Honestly I think that the contract training isn't a bad thing, it was just mismanaged in the beginning and UND's trying to recover from its mistakes.
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Exactly.
 
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