DCA Diary

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Commercial is a ton of fun, enjoy it!

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You guys are weird...I hated that stuff!!!

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AMEN, BRO!!!
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I am now on the track to becoming a commercial pilot. I started commercial ground school on Monday. Monday it was weather hazards. Tuesday we were all assigned a particular weather service chart and give a lecture on it. Yesterday we finished weather services and went over navigational equipment. This morning I had my first flight. It wasn't pretty! All my VFR manuevers blew.
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I felt like I was a student pilot all over again. I've got a night flight tomorrow and the last day of week one comm. ground school.
 
Those maneuvers come back quickly, you do tend to lose them a bit in instrument. Landings too. At least I did. Good Luck.
 
Well yesterday was not a good day for me. First off I go out to the parking lot at our condo, and find that some jacka$$ stole my rear passenger windo panel to my jeep. So I have this open hole and then it begins to pour before I can run to get a trashbag to cover it up. Some a$$ didn't have one for his jeep, so he took mine. That is all he took! Had to call Seminole County Sheriff's Office to come out and make a report. I don't even know why Lake Mary has a police department, they barely have jurisdiction in their own city. Anyways I had to miss groundschool. Yesterday was not the best day to fly. Had some pretty good cells pretty much all afternoon. I think tops were at 550. I was supossed to go flying last night but the weather pretty much put the brakes on that. I have the weekend off and will try to get the flight done on Monday night.
 
some jacka$$ stole my rear passenger windo panel to my jeep. So I have this open hole and then it begins to pour before I can run to get a trashbag to cover it up. Some a$$ didn't have one for his jeep, so he took mine. That is all he took!


Ahh, yes...wonderful Sanford. What a ghetto...
 
alright.. so he forgot the "quotes"... whatcha gonna do - sue him? wait... it is florida.. the sue happy state...doh!

sorry bout your jeep, man... that sux! I know what it's like to have those downpours and no protection!

the only thing I ever liked sanford for was the used bookstore in downtown.. had some good deals in there for trading!
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I don't even live in Sanford! That is the reason why we chose Lake Mary near I-4 and Heathrow. It's a really nice neighborhood and it's quiet. We think that it is someone who live here or is a friend of someone who lives in our neighborhood.
 
Have ya seen the Lake Mary police HQ? It's like the nicest building in Lake Mary! I guess they spent too much money on the building and not enough on the cops. Sorry about your jeep, that sucks.
 
Commercial is not going well. I feel like I'm trying to cross a fast moving river and the current is sweeping me away. Lets see. I did my night dual local flight. Everytime I went to do slowflight or stall I could feel my instructor on the controls. He was controlling the aircraft more than I was during the manuevers. That night I had to cancel the next days event because I had personal business to take care of. Anyways my instructor, the flight sup and I debated back and forth for twenty minutes about still trying to do the event. I had notified him several days before so I wouldn't be put on the schedule. They did anyways. I was scheduled to do two dual cross countries back to back on top of ground school yesterday. I only got to do the first event. It didn't go very well. I din't use enough ground reference points( I used too many navaids), I didn't have two top of climbs( taking into account of the bravo shelf), I didn't have a wiz wheel, which I haven't used since private back in 2001 and that was only twice! I don't even remember how to use the damned thing! It wasn't pretty. I had no problem finding my way with the route as I planned it out. I flew up to Cross City for a touch and go and then on to Gainsville to refuel. In Gainsville I notice a clanking sound in the right wing when the aileron was moved. We had to call DCA and ask them what to do. They let us call the local mechanic to come out and take a look. He came out and looked and it turned out to be nothing. The aircraft had an inop auto pilot and the wing leveler actuater had some slop in it. The return trip was uneventful and we got back close to 2100. We were suppossed to turn around get another plane, preflight, and fly a night duel cross country to Fort Lauderdale. I called my wife to check in, only to find that she was at the E.R. with my son. I had to cancel. I think I'm going to have to take a LOA(leave of absesence) for a week or two to get some personal things taken care of. We'll see.
 
First, I am sorry to hear about your family's E.R. situation. I hope everything works out well there.

Don't feel bad about not doing both x-countries on the same day. They SHOULD be done on different days, especially if you are in ground school. Did you learn from the first one? I can tell by your post that you did. If so, you need a little time to apply those lessons to the next flight. In addition, you will need to apply some different techniques for a night operation.

I'd like to address the instructor (IP) on the controls. Your IP should be demonstrating the maneuver before asking you to try. Maybe, if you need additional help, he should allow you to 'follow-along' on the controls while he demonstrates. But, he should not, as a general rule, be on the controls while you practice maneuvers. He should be 'ready' to take control should the need arise, but with hands in lap. You might want to speak frankly about this with him, or ask for an instructor change. At the very least, fly with a different instructor once to get a feel of a different instructing style.

Regarding days off: be sure you have a written request submitted and approved before you assume you will not be scheduled. If you are not getting the customer service you think you deserve, ask your instructor to take you to the customer service people or go there alone. You have an occasional family need to address and that MUST come first. After all, if you are constantly worried about them or creating tension at home, you cannot concentrate on training. An LOA can be a good thing, if you need one.

I used to be an instructor at DCA. If you want to talk, pm me.
 
I've started in a new direction in my training. Being in the full time program has been really stressfull on my family economicaly. It has nothing to do with paying for the training, that's taken care of. With just my wife working, we were doing okay, but my wife lost her job, so it put us in the hurt locker. I decided to take the initiative and applied for a job at DCA in in the Maintenance Dept. I was interviewed and offered the job. They actually told me that I was overqualified for the position, due to my extensive training I recieved from the Navy. Yesterday I went to Customer Service and asked to be transfered over to the "Flex" program. I explained my situation and they were happy tp help me. Being in the Flex program gives me control of when I want to fly, and not having to wait till 5 PM to find out the schedule for the next day. I can plan out my whole week. It also still lets me be a DCA student and still having the option to become an instructor and get my interview, which is awesome. Once I got all that taken care of, I went across the street to HR and became an employee. My schedule allows me to fly in the mornings and I have Thurs - Sat, off. I can do two events on those days or get any night time flying done.
 
So now you can break 'em in the morning and fix 'em in the evening. Awesome.
(Just kidding - I hope!)
Patrick Murphy
Director of Training
 
Nah, I'll keep my hands of the the planes as far as as mintenance wise. I'm just a parts coordinator. I will make sure that they all have the right parts when they need them. my first day was yesterday. It was new and challenging, but it is going to be a piece of cake. I'm just waiting to get into my routine, so I should be resuming training this week. I'm moving into night events, so it will probably have to wait till Thursday, my first day off.
 
Well now that I've been on the job for two weeks, I'm ready to get back in the cockpit again. Luckily the "flex" program is still Part 141 and I still get to become an instructor and get the interview. They wanted to get me started where I left off, but I haven't flown for several weeks and I'm not up to doing a night cross country just yet, so i asked for a review flight. Tomorrow I've got a 2 hrs review flight so I can get my head back in the cockpit environment. I need to go do some manuevers and do some landings. I've been sitting here in the hangar watching everybody else having fun. I'm looking forward to flying again. Back on the path to being a commercial pilot.
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I finally got back in the air today. I decided to stay in the pattern and work on my landings. Man I was sweating my a$$ off up there. Litterally! It was pretty hot and muggy today. Next time I need to remind myself to schedule in the early morning or evening, when the temps are cooler. I've got ground sessions from tomorrow till next wednesday. I've got to plan out my dual night cross country for thursday night.
 
On the "Flex" side of the flight school, did they allow students to become instructors and have an interview before? If I remember correctly, I asked about that some time ago, and I was told that you would be non-eligable for an interview. Do you know if this counts toward the minimun of 3 certificates you must do with the school in order to be eligible for the interview? (Ex. CFI,CFII,& MEI) I've got my Commercial/Multi and was looking to do the instructor program there soon, however since I go to school, the times don't usually work out well the non-flex way.
 
The "Flex" program is new and is still Part 141. You still have to wear a uniform and they would like you to attend the ground schools if possible. I still get an interview to be a CFI for DCA when I complete CFII. You can't get MEI till you have about 600+ hrs of instruction given. So yes I can still become an instructor and get my guaranteed interview after 800 hrs of instruction given. I think what hey were telling you is that you have to do at least two courses 141 at the Academy in order to become a DCA instructor. The Flex program is administered through flying services and it is broken into part 141 and 61. You'll have to call admissions to get the specifics. I don't think you'll have a problem.
 
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