Mazzie Flying Service

Re: Mazzei Flying Service

I can tell you who stuck it out. I started as a student in Sept. 01. Finished instructing in May this year. PM me with questions.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

And I was there from Sept. '03 to Aug. '04. 7 months as a student, 4 months as an instructor. Great place to learn. No way that I could have gotten to where I am now without the excellent education I picked up there.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

9/12: Went out with my instructor today to show him how good my landings were looking and of course they weren't. We actually only did two power off 180's but I was long on both of them, within PTS but still long. We then did a short field landing and that one went good. Overall, got 1.3 hrs today. I then took my CFI and FOI written exams and got an 86% and 93% respectfully. Not bad since I only studied for them one day.
NO MORE WRITTEN EXAMS.
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Afterwards, we went over the Arrow to get me ready for tomorrows flight in it. Looking forward to it.

One interesting thing that was brought up today is that I may get to do my ME in a Seneca and only have to pay the price of the Seminole because the owner of the school wants my instructor to get more time in the Seneca due to 135 operations they do in it. Sounds cool to me, hope it goes through.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

I had a great experience there too. I just got hired into a 747 cargo job and wanted to find some of my old buddies. I need to get back to FAT and pay a visit to everyone. Let's try and drum up an "alumni" post....
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

9/13: Got my first flight in the Arrow. Very nice plane, smooth and fast. I now know which plane I will rent next time I take my family on a trip somewhere. Afterwards, I soloed in the Tomahawk practicing my commercial manuevers and landings some more. Doing good on those.

9/14: Went up to Madera in the Arrow to work in the pattern and run through some emergency procedures and then we returned back to Fresno. We then immediately went out in a Tomahawk together to go through all my manuevers and he said that I was ready for my stagecheck. Tomorrow we have one more flight in the Arrow and then I do my stagecheck Friday. Next week I begin the multi-engine. This training is really beginning to pick up again after my troubles getting through the commercial manuevers and landings.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

9/16: Today went out in the Arrow again to review all the manuevers and emergency procedures before my stagecheck. When we got back my instructor signed my complex endorsement. I then had my oral exam portion of the stagecheck. I passed with three lookups. I have my stagecheck flights on Monday and then Tuesday I begin my multi-engine training. I'm going to a wedding in San Francisco this weekend with my family. It should be fun exploring the big city.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

9/19: Today was a long day. Went up solo in a Tomahawk to practice everything once over before my stagecheck. I then went up in the Arrow and passed the stagecheck with a few comments (of course). We then did a fast turnaround up into a Tomahawk for that portion of the stagecheck and...well let me say that I at least was passed on. I left the alternate source in the alt position. The upper latch was not secured on the left door during flight. I blew through the first 360 on steep turns and did a 450 degree turn and I didn't apply the brakes on the short field landing (was expecting a touch and go). I did get praise on my power off 180 because I hit the target dead on, very proud of that fact since this manuever was killing me for so long. I also hit my target dead on during the short field landing, I just expected a touch and go so I didn't follow through on actually stopping. Tomorrow night I am going on my night dual cross country followed immediately by my stage IV check so that I will be a caught up and ready to begin multi-engine training on Wednesday.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

9/21: My night cross country was canceled do to thunderstorms last night. We had ground school on the Seminole instead. Today we went up in the Multi-engine. My instructor showed me slow flight, stalls, steep turns, and emergency decents. All the manuevers were nothing new except the emergency decent, that was very interesting. I think we hit a 30 degree down pitch. Tomorrow morning we have the Multi for 4 hours and we will cover all the other manuevers during that flight. I plan on making up the night cross country tomorrow night.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

9/22: Had a good lesson in weight and balance today. We were going up in the Seminole for 3-4 hours so I decided to top off the fuel tanks. When my instructor showed up I told him what I did and he asked if we were going to be within the envelope. I computed it really quick and discovered that the CG was about 1 inch forward of the limits. We ended up having to put 150 pounds into the cargo area to get the plane within limits. I learned to compute weight and balance before fueling up on an unfamiliar plane. So after the 30 minutes wasted looking for ballast so that we could takeoff we went up and I learned single engine operations. We did it all (Vmc Demo, Engine loss on takeoff, single engine Instrument approaches, restarting inflight. I must say that I am not afraid of losing an engine on that plane unless I was to go flying over the mountains. Tonight is my night cross country to Oakland.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

9/22: Did a night cross country evaluation flight to Oakland. We got as close as 5 miles out when the fog rolled in and the airport went IFR. The tomahawk we were in was not properly equiped to shoot an approach so we diverted to Byron. We got to Byron with about 6 gallons of fuel left. Wouldn't you know it but the 24hr fuel pump was down due to a power outage and Byron is literally in the middle of nowhere. There was a local Notam on the fuel being out but since we did not plan on going to Byron we did not check the local Notams for that field. We figured out that we had about 15 minutes of fuel to burn and still have our required 45 minute reserve so we took off for Tracy (11 miles away). The Airport Facility Directory did not specify whether Tracy had 24hr fuel but it was at least next to a town so if they didn't have fuel we could at least get a motel room for the night. Luckily they did have fuel and we were able to make it back to Fresno.

9/23: Today was a fun flight. We went West to Harris Ranch. Harris Ranch is a truck stop/restrauant/hotel in the middle of nowhere off of I-5. I never thought a truck stop would have thier own runway, granted it was 2500x30. We then went to Hanford and on the way did some Vmc Demo's. At Hanford we did some engine out approaches. From there we went to Selma. Selma has a 2000 foot runway so we got to practice some good short field takeoffs. The taxiway was literally a 20ft wide gravel strip with 10ft tall weeds growing out of it. Needless to say, we taxied back on the runway. Afterwards we did some steep turns followed by a single engine ILS approach into Fresno. Looks like I am only about 40 hours away from having my commercial course complete.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

Did you buy Jeb lunch at Harris? BTW, it may be small, but they fly a CitationII in there on occasion.
 
Re: Mazzei Flying Service

[ QUOTE ]
Did you buy Jeb lunch at Harris? BTW, it may be small, but they fly a CitationII in there on occasion.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, after he told me that he took his wife there on Valentines day I didn't think it would have sounded right for me to ask. He said the same thing about the Citations landing there, pretty amazing.
 
9/26: Went up in the Tomahawk and the Seminole today. Did very well on my commercial manuevers. Power off 180 right on the numbers. Did a landing at Fresno with a direct 16kt crosswind with no problem. In the multi-engine we stopped the engine and feathered it. Pretty cool to be flying with one engine shut down. We also did an emergency decent followed by the Localizer approach single engine.
 
9/27: Dual flight today in the Multi engine. Did an IFR flight to Madera and had a simulated engine failure during the flight. He said that it was my best approach yet. We then went through the Vmc demo a few times and engine out procedure. I then went up solo in the Tomahawk to go through the commercial manuevers. No problems there. My poweroff 180's were about 25-50 feet from my target, I'll have to work on that.
 
9/28: Today was single engine PTS review. Have a little fine tuning to do on my lazy eights and I should be ready to go. I rode with another instructor today so I got a good evaluation. He said everything is PTS and just gave some pointers to make the manuevers even better. My big area now is coordination. I sometimes slip on my right hand lazy eights and I skid on my left hand lazy eights. I have also caught myself stepping on the top rudder during steep turns. Overall I should be on track to be done with the course in about two to three weeks.
 
9/29: Today was a repeat of yesterday for the most part. Went up dual followed by a solo flight. I was given some great advise on my lazy eights and I think it will help me a lot. My landings were starting to lose their precision so I spent my entire solo flight working the kinks out of my landings. Now I am off to study for the ATP written. I scheduled myself to take that written next Thursday. I figured take that exam now while I have the free timeto study. Once I am an instructor I will be busier than I am now.
 
Dude, you're wasting time and money if you take that test now.

You're going to have to study the same stuff again prior to an interview, so you may as well postpone the test too and take out two birds with one stone.
 
9/30: Did a cross country flight today into the mountains to work on short field landings. We then went to Castle to make the cross country loggable (50NM from Fresno). A C-130 was working the pattern at Castle, he would be on the go when we started our turn to base and by the time we were on the runway he would already be turning final. We then went up in the multi-engine to go through a practice checkride and it went very well. I nailed the glideslope on the single engine ILS approach. If my review flights go well on Monday then we are going to burn up the rest of my hours and get me setup for the checkride.
 
10/3: Ok, got a goal in place. Next Friday I should be done with my Commercial course. This is going to require about 6 hours of flying per day but most of it is x-country burning the time up and PTS reviews. Today went up Solo to review my commercial manuevers. Everything went well. Was then set to go up dual in the single but we had fouled mags so we had to return to the ramp. We spent the lost time putting together the plan to get me done at the end of next week. We then went up in the multi-engine and did a mock PTS checkride and all was good.
 
10/4: Today was another PTS mock ride in the Seminole. We are going to burn off my remaining time by doing some cross country flights because my instructor feels that I am ready for the end of course checkride. Thursday we are going to San Fransico on an IFR flight and tomorrow I am going up to the mountains solo in the Tomahawk. So far I am on track to be done with my commercial next week. I am also starting my CFI ground school this Friday so things are moving along nicely.
 
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