Post deleted by Doug Taylor

Re: Where is everyone?

Hey CMARTIN!
Im not far from your position.
I do have a job as a security guard at a bank that has arround 3 customers a day. So I get my self ready for the writtens.
I didnt recieve the books yet, but im reading the JEPP inst/com manual. At least I have this. I have 3 months until starting the ACP Program in riverside. I too cant wait!
I think this is a wonderful decision I made although the loan scares me from time to time.. But it isnt that much per month so Ill be alright.
I wish you the best of luck and grab some aviaition books from the public library next to you, and sit and read and read until the books arrive.

Oh, and I use FS2002 to shoot approaches. I think its pretty acurate, although I heard from more than 1 pilot Xplane has more reality put in to it.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

Yes, they do. They only cover the knowledge test material, they illuminate the traps, and serve their purpose efficiently.

Lemme rant a bit, and this is an overhead rant not directed to anybody:

One of the great arguments about flight training is, "What is necessary knowledge to be a proficient pilot?" ATP's response is proficiency comes from two sources: quality of *flight* training and quantity of flying in the very recent past. In other words, if you want to know more about impulse couplings, if you want to know what fluid is in a wet compass, if you want to be able to explain what a Wheatstone Bridge is and what instrument in the panel uses one... our philosophy is that yes, they'll make a student more "knowlegeable," but those bits of minutiae are irrelevant to pilot proficiency. Such topics render ground school cumbersome. You can teach yourself all about such things- but they don't make you a good pilot (can a person with zero flight time and a ground instructor ticket shoot a single-engine ILS?). Learn the written material, come in with that knowledge, and we'll teach you how to apply it along with a host of other ground school topics and in the end, you'll be able to take a multi-engine plane and operate it seamlessly in and out of the busiest terminal areas in the nation, using checklist-intense procedures.
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Re: Where is everyone?

A Wheatstone Bridge is a type of rheostat. If you use the resistance change to select a certain amount of time (in nanoseconds) between a pair of radio-energy flashes, you now have the VOR receiver. The first flash is an index, eminating in all directions from the VOR station. The second flash is from the dog-bone shaped wave that the VOR transmits like a sweep (hah) second-hand. The time difference between them is the number of degrees clockwise from 000 the second beam is hitting your plane: the radial! (If the index flash and dogbone wave happen at the same instant, you are on the 360 radial.) The "error" between your OBS setting and the actual time the second wave sweeps across your receiver gives you... needle deflection! Cool, huh?

I didn't need to spend 32,000 dollars to learn this- which illustrates ATP's philosophy on training.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

I'm using FS 2002 while earning my private and I think it is helpful in that it prepares you for what you should be thinking about when taking off, landing, making steep bank turns, operating in slow flight, etc. Given that, it is just a simulator, and not one that gives any motion feedback, and so you aren't using all your senses as you would in an actual aircraft. I think it will accelerate my learning process and I'm glad I got it. I've just started out in flight training. I've heard, though, that it's especially good for instrument flight when you get to that point.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

If you don't mind me asking, how much are the loan payments? I plan on going to ATP in riverside in June 2004ish. The biggest reason is that I need the next 1.5 years to save up (most of) the 32K. Having a 32K loan and then instructing at ATP for a measly 1000/month doesnt sit well with me. I am also spending the next year getting my private and 2 year degree done.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

Hey saintbebo,
Well, I am still waiting for the loan authorization but as I heard if you have good credit or/and a cosigner it will be about $316 a month, spread to 15 years..
Sounds scary
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Did you go the interview already?
 
Re: Where is everyone?

How about a loan payment, two rent payments, two car payments and insurance, a newborn and a wife 1,000 miles away on that salary?

It's measley pay, but the benefits are huge.

Incidentally, what do you plan on making your first year as an airline pilot, let alone as an instructor anywhere? After your training and IOE, you might get 17-21/hr on reserve pay schedules that *might* guarantee you 75 hours of pay a month. How about your first year as an FE with a major (FedEX)? You make 2,000/pp. That's 26,000, before taxes, flying for a multi-billion dollar company.

If you're in this business for the money, I guarantee you'll be out of the business after two years.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

Sig,
I didn't intend to give the impression that I was in this for the money. When I mentioned that $1000 a month doesn't sit well with me I guess I should have been more specific as to why. Basically I pay $8000 a year in child support and another $8000 a year in alimony. If I do the numbers, then 16K in obligations BEFORE any other living expenses doesn’t "sit well" with 12K instructing income. I realize that I will be able to get the child support lowered but I am stuck with the alimony for awhile. Even if I get creative with top raman and live out of my car, this wouldn't be feasible. I actually feel kind of trapped in my current situation, because I am prevented from beginning training until I can basically pay the 32K up front. My situation also requires that I have adequate cash reserves to continue my payments while I am in the first 2-4 at a regional.

I'm not quite sure that you really wanted me to go on this rant, but I actually feel better now that I have told you...
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I will fly for a living, I am just trying to overcome a few obstacles first.

Raymond

P.S. I am not quite certain that my decision to change careers wasn’t the cause of my divorce in the first place. Oh well, where is that post on why airplanes are better than women?
 
Re: Where is everyone?

No not yet. I have spoken with the guys in Flordia and I have decided that I will be going to ATP. I just need time to get my affairs in order. See my reply to Sig if you want details.

Raymond
 
Re: Where is everyone?

Wahey- I didn't mean to direct that at you specifically, I apologize. I am (was?) in the same boat , and ironed out every one of those nagging details before I began... took me a couple of years of hard-core planning.

Here's the real nature of my post: I'm bone-tired of fielding phone calls from people who ask THE question: How do I pay my bills when I'm done? Why can't you guarantee a job for me? Who's going to hold my hand? Will you clean up after me, wipe my nose, change my diaper????? It gets old quick, ESPECIALLY when these talon-weilding wives demand answers to all of the difficult questions before allowing their hubby to go play pilot for 32K are the ones on the phone. Enough of that...

Don't feel trapped- you'd be amazed at what some of us have done to get here. Take your time getting ready. It's very worth it!

Again, I apologize for inadvertently directing that post at you.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I'm using FS 2002 while earning my private and I think it is helpful in that it prepares you for what you should be thinking about when taking off, landing, making steep bank turns, operating in slow flight, etc. .... I think it will accelerate my learning process and I'm glad I got it. I've just started out in flight training. I've heard, though, that it's especially good for instrument flight when you get to that point.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you've just started out, you'd do well to put FS2002 away until after you've soloed at the very earliest. If you want to practice cockpit procedures, get one of the large cockpit posters from Sporty's. You're learning and practicing VISUAL flight maneuvers right now, and computer flight sims just don't have the visual fidelity to be of much use in that department--because of this, flight simmers tend to fixate on what's happening inside the cockpit when they should be focusing on outside references. You need to learn what a 30 degree bank looks like; you need to learn what pitch for Vy in your airplane looks like. Quite honestly, the only thing I think a primary student should be using a computer flight sim for is MAYBE pre-flying their cross-country flights.

I enjoy flight sims a lot, but there's something called a negative transfer of knowledge which only serves to erode the lessons you learn in the real airplane. When you get into instrument flying, a computer flight sim can help provide a useful mental exercise in maintaining situational awareness, but you're training to be a VISUAL flight rules pilot right now.

Shelf that bad boy for now, stick to the books and the real airplane.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

You have some very good points, aloft. I did tend to fixate on the instruments more when using the simulator. It's more difficult to fly "visually" with FS2002, since it takes extra effort to use the hat switch to look around outside. I think I've gotten better at it though. I had some trouble keeping level flight in my actual flight lessons and spent too much time looking at the dials rather than outside. I've now trained myself to not pay so much attention to the dials, except to occasionally verify the situation.

Still, I find that for takeoffs, stalls, setting trim for level flight, and performing steep turns, among other things, I can get some extra practice in before and after my lessons that I think is helpful (as long as I can keep my eyes outside!)

By the way, I do use a yoke and pedals with the simulator, which I think are necessary to get much benefit out of it.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

Carlos:
Another thing I didnt like in FS2002 that when you do sideslips for a landing it doesnt work good.
I mean I apply rudder to keep the nose on the runway and try banking to counteract for wind and the plane turns to the banked direction.
So,, .x/w is deffinately not an option.
 
Re: Where is everyone?

Christian....don't know if you remember me... I asked you about Comair about a month ago-thanks for that info....I see you went with ATP-CONGRATS. I did not know much of ATP, but I can see why you are choosing them. Anyways just wanted to thank you for the lead on ATP. I am definilty considering them strongly. Maybe I'll see you there. I am thinking about the JAX location. Still have not toured the place, but I was wondering if you did and what you thought.? Also, do you know how much the rent costs?
 
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