sargeanb
New Member
Good to see where everybody's coming from! I'll keep it going...
Spring 1999: Tour several state and private universities in FL (my home state), all of them aimed toward my career goal of being a journalist except for a school in Daytona called ERAU. I'd always been extremely interested in flying but never had been on even a discovery flight. I decide I can fly for a career and write on the side, but I can't write for a career and fly on the side (a slightly more expensive hobby
) I am impressed by all the flashy advertisements and nice new airplanes on display on campus...I take the bait.
Fall 1999-Fall 2003: I earn my PVT-CFII ratings...Despite the "Riddle ratio," I go out alot, make some good friends, and have a good time. In 2001, the aviation industry begins another slump, and I decide I'll stay and get an MBA before I move on.
October 2003: Interview at ERAU for a CFI job, take a swim in the hiring pool. Throw boxes at Daytona UPS facility while I apply for CFI jobs.
January 2004: Begin CFIing at a popular FBO in New Smyrna Beach...teach there until July, when Riddle calls me back.
August 2004: CFI at Riddle full time, and start MBA on campus with tuition paid for. Meet my future wife in my first MBA class, an ex-flight attendant from Bulgaria. We are married the following year I enjoy teaching students for every rating we offer, and while I'm there our fleet endures a hailstorm, 6 hurricanes, and is obliterated by a tornado in Xmas of '06...but we carry on.
May 2007: FINALLY finish MBA after a tough struggle, sometimes working part time sorting mail on the side to get by financially. Teaching mostly Multi and CFI students by now, doing pre-checkride evaluations, and flying with summer academy kids for fun.
July 2007: Apply at RAH and no place else after a lot of research. I'm hired as an FO with CHQ on the E135/140/145, complete training by September, end up based in Greensboro NC for the first couple of months, making a two leg commute from FL, hardly ever home. Switch to Cincinnati base, decide with my wife to move to Florence, KY (just south of the airport), still in a cheap apt. Live in base, home alot, even on RSV the first few months. Enjoy making the midwest Delta runs out of CVG. I miss a JC gathering right here in CVG because I'm on a trip
August 2008: CVG closes as a base for us, but I have strategically moved halfway between three other company bases, CMH, IND, and SDF...just in case that happened I shift over to the E170 with S5, go back to training, and get based in CMH.
Present: Still making the 2 hr drive to CMH, happy I still dont have to fly to work. Flying to alot of coooold destinations with our neighbors to the north and out west, seeing some more interesting scenery. Spend alot of quality time in ORD. Still in the cheap apt...my wife and I get by living frugally, paying off undergrad school loans little by little. That's where I'm at!
Spring 1999: Tour several state and private universities in FL (my home state), all of them aimed toward my career goal of being a journalist except for a school in Daytona called ERAU. I'd always been extremely interested in flying but never had been on even a discovery flight. I decide I can fly for a career and write on the side, but I can't write for a career and fly on the side (a slightly more expensive hobby
) I am impressed by all the flashy advertisements and nice new airplanes on display on campus...I take the bait. Fall 1999-Fall 2003: I earn my PVT-CFII ratings...Despite the "Riddle ratio," I go out alot, make some good friends, and have a good time. In 2001, the aviation industry begins another slump, and I decide I'll stay and get an MBA before I move on.
October 2003: Interview at ERAU for a CFI job, take a swim in the hiring pool. Throw boxes at Daytona UPS facility while I apply for CFI jobs.
January 2004: Begin CFIing at a popular FBO in New Smyrna Beach...teach there until July, when Riddle calls me back.
August 2004: CFI at Riddle full time, and start MBA on campus with tuition paid for. Meet my future wife in my first MBA class, an ex-flight attendant from Bulgaria. We are married the following year
I enjoy teaching students for every rating we offer, and while I'm there our fleet endures a hailstorm, 6 hurricanes, and is obliterated by a tornado in Xmas of '06...but we carry on. May 2007: FINALLY finish MBA after a tough struggle, sometimes working part time sorting mail on the side to get by financially. Teaching mostly Multi and CFI students by now, doing pre-checkride evaluations, and flying with summer academy kids for fun.
July 2007: Apply at RAH and no place else after a lot of research. I'm hired as an FO with CHQ on the E135/140/145, complete training by September, end up based in Greensboro NC for the first couple of months, making a two leg commute from FL, hardly ever home. Switch to Cincinnati base, decide with my wife to move to Florence, KY (just south of the airport), still in a cheap apt. Live in base, home alot, even on RSV the first few months. Enjoy making the midwest Delta runs out of CVG. I miss a JC gathering right here in CVG because I'm on a trip
August 2008: CVG closes as a base for us, but I have strategically moved halfway between three other company bases, CMH, IND, and SDF...just in case that happened
I shift over to the E170 with S5, go back to training, and get based in CMH. Present: Still making the 2 hr drive to CMH, happy I still dont have to fly to work. Flying to alot of coooold destinations with our neighbors to the north and out west, seeing some more interesting scenery. Spend alot of quality time in ORD. Still in the cheap apt...my wife and I get by living frugally, paying off undergrad school loans little by little. That's where I'm at!
