Crap!!!

Last you heard from me I was moping around.... I had just gotten my fresh 1st Class medical and planned on starting my training on Jan 2...then shock-of-shocks!!! I had to delay my start until I completed a professional level certification called a PMP, so as to meet commitments my boss imposed upon me, and which would delay me until March... I was distraught..after all, March was YEARS AWAY!!!

Well here we are in March already.... I successfully completed the PMP exam on the 1st attempt a week and a half ago....and I attended my 1st ground school class there on Wednesday, just 2 nights ago.... I also have a 172 booked for 3 hours this coming Sunday, so will FINALLY be back up in the air! WOOO HOOO!

I'm still not sure If I'll be able to successfully make the jump over to the Regionals, as my wife still has concerns with me giving up my day job considering that I'll be 45 on April 4th ...BUT, she has agreed that i can plug along and get all the necessary certs (ppl, multi, comm, ifr, cfi) and then get an instructor gig to build time. Once I've got the time built, I "may" take a year sabbatical from my project management career to fly with a Regional and see if that gets it out of my system... baby steps kind of... if it does, then great, we'll by a Turbo Lance or Saratoga to build insurance time, then step-up to a twin, I'll fly for fun and give flight instruction on-the-side...BUT if a year with the Regionals only proves that flying for a living is what I NEED to do, then we will take up that battle at that time...like I said... baby steps....gotta ease her into it :D

I'll keep y'all posted on my progress, but its just GREAT to be back!

Cheers y'all
 
Well, was in the 172 yesterday (actually 2 weeks ago now) for the 1st time back up at the controls in 10 years...

It was a blast! Its amazing how much I remembered about actually flying the plane, while I've forgotten a lot of the technical aspects. Flying th plane is actually easy...

We spent an hour doing slow turns, descending and climbing turns, and holding a point. It was natural, and after 10 minutes it was like riding a bike, power, attitude, trim, or attitiude, power, trim for descending and climbing and maintaing altitude and or speed... it was great! The instructor even commented that I was right on the ball with my coordinated turns :rawk:

To be truthful, I was exceedingly happy just to be able to hold a desired altitude, as I figured i'd be chasing it and oscillating up and down... taxiing for take-off was the hardest part as I'd forgotten how much movement of the rudder was needed to stay on the centre line.. you'd have thought I was trying to stay in "my lane" on the right side of a road! lol

Anyways, got the next 4 classes booked out with the instructor, so should atart picking it back up again soon... only thing that bugs me is the landing fee of $40 each time, as its an International Airport... Calgary (YYC). But, I'll chalk it up to the cost of education in a busy internatioanl airport to learn the radio work and traffic routing norms of operating in that kind of airspace, then I won't be scared to do it myself when I'me certified...

Anyways, thats all for now. Cheers.
 
Well, another change!!! 2 things happened actually....:banghead:

I've been busy trying to find work as a PM down in the US as we lived there for 5 years previously, and we're gonna move back there whether I end up with a flying job or not.

So just after my first flight, it looked like I had an offer coming with a company back down in Houston (where we used to live). I closed down my account with the flight school (which I'd just opened) as I figured I may as well simply restart with an school down in Houston.... As you can guess though, the offer fell through!:banghead:

In the week and a half between closing my flying school account and the job offer falling through though, I received the bill for the 1st flight... not including the $40 landing fee for the international airport the club flies out of, the bill for 1.5 hours on the Hobbs and .5 hour pre/post flight with the instructor, came out to $355 with tax!!! Absolutely bloody crazy! :panic:

SO my wife has said that if I hold on the flying until I get a job as a PM down in the US, then I can buy a plane right away and use it for my training, as this would be cheaper than these kind of costs... can you get a private rating in a turbo Lance, or would I need to buy a Warrior or Arrow to start? :confused:

Anyway, the wife has decided that she'd like to fly too, and although she is willing to let me take a year off to fly regionals, she's pretty much convinced me that with the kinda $$'s I make in my PM career, as well at this later age (45 in 2 weeks :-) that I'll never come close to ever reaching the same $$'s thru flying, as well as having 4 young kids that may want to know their dad as they grow up and who'll probably want to go to college, that I kinda think now I'm going to stick to flying privately, but get my CFI ticket and just teach part-time as my input to the flight community! AS long as I'm flying, thats the main thing! :rawk:

So if anyone knows of any opps for an IT PM in their company, or who knows someone else who does, please feel free to ping me.. the sooner I get back to the US, the sooner I can get started on this dream! :D

Cheers.
 
Sounds like the plans are coming together nicely.

And yeah, I hear you on those user fees. Hopefully that never happens here. But I'm afraid some day it will since Congress keeps pushing to implement user fees.

As far as work, San Antonio has a lot of companies that may need your expertise. Check out what you can dig up on AT&T, Valero, Tesoro, USAA, Clear Channel Communications, HEB, and Rackspace

Those are all very large companies with their headquarters there and I know they all have many PMs on staff as both contractors and full time employees. You may also look into the Toyota plant there, but not being a headquarters they may not have many PM needs.

And if you get there, Wright Flyers in San Antonio is a solid school. And there are several other smaller schools there too you can learn and/or instruct at.
 
parmandjack said:
Well, another change!!! 2 things happened actually....:banghead:

I've been busy trying to find work as a PM down in the US as we lived there for 5 years previously, and we're gonna move back there whether I end up with a flying job or not.

So just after my first flight, it looked like I had an offer coming with a company back down in Houston (where we used to live). I closed down my account with the flight school (which I'd just opened) as I figured I may as well simply restart with an school down in Houston.... As you can guess though, the offer fell through!:banghead:

In the week and a half between closing my flying school account and the job offer falling through though, I received the bill for the 1st flight... not including the $40 landing fee for the international airport the club flies out of, the bill for 1.5 hours on the Hobbs and .5 hour pre/post flight with the instructor, came out to $355 with tax!!! Absolutely bloody crazy! :panic:

SO my wife has said that if I hold on the flying until I get a job as a PM down in the US, then I can buy a plane right away and use it for my training, as this would be cheaper than these kind of costs... can you get a private rating in a turbo Lance, or would I need to buy a Warrior or Arrow to start? :confused:

Anyway, the wife has decided that she'd like to fly too, and although she is willing to let me take a year off to fly regionals, she's pretty much convinced me that with the kinda $$'s I make in my PM career, as well at this later age (45 in 2 weeks :-) that I'll never come close to ever reaching the same $$'s thru flying, as well as having 4 young kids that may want to know their dad as they grow up and who'll probably want to go to college, that I kinda think now I'm going to stick to flying privately, but get my CFI ticket and just teach part-time as my input to the flight community! AS long as I'm flying, thats the main thing! :rawk:

So if anyone knows of any opps for an IT PM in their company, or who knows someone else who does, please feel free to ping me.. the sooner I get back to the US, the sooner I can get started on this dream! :D

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Here is a Desktop Engineer position in Plano (north of Dallas, TX) that requires PM experience from Monster.

http://jobview.monster.com/GetJob.aspx?JobID=69974730&aid=71819829-2138&WT.mc_n=MKT000350
 
To everyone who posted info here to me regarding jobs as Pms, and tho all those who emailed me... THANK YOU!!

You guys are great!!! I'll start investigating the opportunities you all mentioned...

Thanks again friends! :)
 
Well thanks for keeping us posted. It's always helpful to read other career changing type's stories. Sorry things didn't work out for you here in Houston. Best of luck.
 
Jack;

You're nuttier than a fruit cake, but I hear ya. I'm in a similar situation. Making decent $ in IT with a stable job, wife, two kids but trying to plug away at flying. I turned 42 the day you turned 45 (happy birthday). I got my "green light" to get my PPL on my 40th from my kind wife. She HATES flying.

Anywho, after having dreams of taking out a $60K loan for a "zero-to-hero" program, I came back down to earth and realized that putzing around my local patch and eventually getting my CFI isn't such a bad plan. I'm now on my local airport advisory board and spend as much time as I can at the airport.

Hang in there and take it a little at a time.

Tom
 
parmandjack said:
.. can you get a private rating in a turbo Lance, or would I need to buy a Warrior or Arrow to start? :confused:
Click to expand...

Yes. You could get a private in a twin engine if you wanted. Insurability will be an issue however in high performance stuff like a turbo lance. I suspect with an instructor you would be OK, but for solo flying that would be a problem.

If you are looking to do your training in a plane you own, you are probably going to have to start with fixed gear plane. (172, Warrior or Archer etc. )
A fixed gear, high performance plane might work for you. Back in my instructing days we had student pilots buying Cirrus SR22's (300 hp) before their private was done. As I recall they needed more dual beyond the private rating, but I don't think it was too bad. BUT Cirrus' have fixed gear and the insurance companies liked that. Of course check around with insurance companies to find out how much of an issue it might be.
 
Another problem with a Turbo Lance is the fuel $$$$$$. As I recall she is going to burn, on average, 19 to 20 gph crusing. (Less with a normally aspirated lance/saratoga.
 
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