The Grand Forks stoke

PhotoPilot

PhotoPilot

New Member
I've spent a good bit of time over at Flight Support, but today I parked on the Bravo ramp and spent my day on your campus in meetings. Part of the day was devoted to a very thorough tour of your facilities and I was VERY impressed. You UNDers are living large with some great resources!

From your distance learning and production equipment to the new ATC sims and altitude chamber, you've got some of the best facilities I've ever seen. The best part had to be the Ryan Room: Of all the things I thought I'd see at a collegiate aviation campus, those would have been last on my list! :) (If you don't know what's in there, they're big, fuzzy, and some looked very, very angry.)

Now, if only I didn't have to fly through the hail storm of Warriors and Arrows everytime I need to land at or depart from GFK, life would be a lot easier! :)
 
PhotoPilot said:
I've spent a good bit of time over at Flight Support, but today I parked on the Bravo ramp and spent my day on your campus in meetings. Part of the day was devoted to a very thorough tour of your facilities and I was VERY impressed. You UNDers are living large with some great resources!

From your distance learning and production equipment to the new ATC sims and altitude chamber, you've got some of the best facilities I've ever seen. The best part had to be the Ryan Room: Of all the things I thought I'd see at a collegiate aviation campus, those would have been last on my list! :) (If you don't know what's in there, they're big, fuzzy, and some looked very, very angry.)

Now, if only I didn't have to fly through the hail storm of Warriors and Arrows everytime I need to land at or depart from GFK, life would be a lot easier! :)
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ITs probably one of the main reason why I came here was because of the great facilities, and peopel bash everything about us, on top of that I still think we dont cost as much as some other schools out there. Thanks for the compliment. When I hearedthis from my CFI in So. California, that he graduated here(now a KSywest FO), I Was like "UND WTF?!?!" when I went online got packages from this school and actually Visited April 2005, I made my final go to attend here. our whole commercial av program (just for flying is 46,000) and the gen eds, tuition aint that bad at all, so it is a good deal going here, you get to fly all sorts of well mx'd planes, and fly in every kind of weather.
 
PhotoPilot said:
I've spent a good bit of time over at Flight Support, but today I parked on the Bravo ramp and spent my day on your campus in meetings. Part of the day was devoted to a very thorough tour of your facilities and I was VERY impressed. You UNDers are living large with some great resources!

From your distance learning and production equipment to the new ATC sims and altitude chamber, you've got some of the best facilities I've ever seen. The best part had to be the Ryan Room: Of all the things I thought I'd see at a collegiate aviation campus, those would have been last on my list! :) (If you don't know what's in there, they're big, fuzzy, and some looked very, very angry.)

Now, if only I didn't have to fly through the hail storm of Warriors and Arrows everytime I need to land at or depart from GFK, life would be a lot easier! :)
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Thanks, yeah, it's pretty impressive, I guess...but I guess I take it for granted now that I've been here for a year and a half. But like Chris said, it really isn't that much more expensive than other places, and it's kinda worth it, I suppose with well maintained aircraft, etc...My only complaint is the place, but the aerospace school itself is pretty good.
How's your road biking going, btw?
 
be it known, ive never once complained about the quality of the aviation dept here. i am seriously jaw-dropped every time i see the gear here and what i am getting to learn and do with it all(and subsequently do the quick math in my head for dollar values!!!)

the place sucks, absolutely.

the aviation school, top notch. absolutely.
 
Do you work for Cirrus? I see your location is Duluth and I noticed a xxxCD tail number out on bravo ramp yesterday, that's why I ask.

UND's aviation progam is great! I'm really pleased with the quality of education I am getting here.
 
I didn't observe any instruction, but, if the facilities and ASN resources are any indication, you guys are stylin'! Grand Forks didn't look so great, though . . . :)

AngelFuree said:
How's your road biking going, btw?
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Slow, Angel. Slow. I'm just getting back to flying and weights after knee reconstruction surgery. Hopefully my knee will be strong enough to get on the fixie this spring. As it is, I'm in bike withdrawl.

CAFFEINE said:
Do you work for Cirrus? I see your location is Duluth and I noticed a xxxCD tail number out on bravo ramp yesterday, that's why I ask.
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I do. Honestly, it's pretty darn close to my dream job . . . though it wouldn't be too bad working at UND based on the looks of the place.
 
Yes agreed, thanks for the review I agree the school is great but indeed the town is bad, including the fact that it is far from anywhere, I was always curious about the satellite schools but I don't think their facilities are as great as the main campus. I really wish this place was closer to a major city, mountains, and an ocean too. More to do and more flying experience in different terrains. Yeah but we have the generic boxed farms and flatness that I keep telling people looks like a computer software or game designed in 1994.
 
airplanerik said:
Like......California?! :D
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Yeah, but GFK isn't soaked in smog, angry drivers, and rediculously inflated costs of living and housing!!! :)

I sure miss Fresno . . . or not!
 
PhotoPilot said:
Yeah, but GFK isn't soaked in smog, angry drivers, and rediculously inflated costs of living and housing!!! :)

I sure miss Fresno . . . or not!
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austin texas. amenities of a city of a million souls, loads of culture and cultural diversity. incredible parks system, hill country, lakes, outdoor activities year round (without requiring snow survival gear!), the ocean is 3 hour drive away, mexico is 3 hour drive.... great weather year round... the ultimate university institution... great food... great music...incredibly good value for cost of living and housing.... the list goes on for miles

:)
 
Like mentioned before. I think Deluth Minnisota would be a pretty optimal location as well. Driving from here to the west coast would probably make me gag myself to death compared to driving north, south, or east.
 
UAL747400 said:
Like mentioned before. I think Deluth Minnisota would be a pretty optimal location as well. Driving from here to the west coast would probably make me gag myself to death compared to driving north, south, or east.
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Duluth is pretty nice. My wife and I spent years in Michigan's UP, so this is right up our alley: Outdoor activities year-round; descent population and a college town, ergo good cultural opportunities; Lake Superior out our front door; close enough to our families that we can visit for an afternoon, airplanes and weather permitting; and on and on.

Personally, GFK would be a little too 'Northern Plains' for me, but KDLH is just about right.
 
PhotoPilot said:
I do. Honestly, it's pretty darn close to my dream job . . . though it wouldn't be too bad working at UND based on the looks of the place.
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What do you do at Cirrus? Could we a tour if we come out to Duluth sometime?!:)
 
airplanerik said:
What do you do at Cirrus? Could we a tour if we come out to Duluth sometime?!:)
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I'm a pilot in the Flight Standards and Operations department. In other words, I develop training for new products and equipment, create SOPs, develop the monthly Pilot's World, train company pilots, etc., etc. It's a varied and rewarding gig that never gets boring! :)

As for a tour, of course we could arrange one! It's a pretty cool factory that's definitely worth seeing! PM me if you're going to be out this way and I'll arrange it for you.
 
PhotoPilot said:
I'm a pilot in the Flight Standards and Operations department. In other words, I develop training for new products and equipment, create SOPs, develop the monthly Pilot's World, train company pilots, etc., etc. It's a varied and rewarding gig that never gets boring! :)

As for a tour, of course we could arrange one! It's a pretty cool factory that's definitely worth seeing! PM me if you're going to be out this way and I'll arrange it for you.
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Cool!
 
PhotoPilot said:
Yeah, but GFK isn't soaked in smog, angry drivers, and rediculously inflated costs of living and housing!!! :)

I sure miss Fresno . . . or not!
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Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa wait a minute. I love how everyone's stereotype about CA is Smog. We don't have SMOG in California OTHER THAN LOS ANGELES. Go to LA and it is smoggy, but go anywhere else and it is so clean. The reason why LA has smog is because the city is so populated with cars and is in a valley - the smog likes to settle there.

LA is full of it - go to San Diego and it's cleaner than the Simplot and sugar beet factory infested sulfur dioxide pollutants that fill our lovely Grand Forks airspace.

Angry drivers? Pretty much only in LA, as a general rule. Better and more skilled drivers than the midwest? I would say THAT'S true!

Cost of living - go to Salary.com and check out the RELATIVE costs of living. If you are a working professional you may be surprised that your cost of living relative to your income may be cheaper than if you were to live in Grand Forks - check it out and you'll be shocked!

Now Duluth - I could see myself living there if I got a job at Cirrus. That place has quite a few things to do. Very nice town.
 
ding ding ding! winner again.

sure an apartment may cost more dollars in cali.... but the WAGES you would be earning for the same job would often be proportionally greater, or even exceed what you make relatively speaking in grand forks!

for one, moving here from austin, i found the housing costs to be about the SAME, the QUALITY to be muuuuuuch much much lower...and the WAGES to be ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE.

so in reality, it is more expensive/taxing on my wallet to live here, because i do not earn as much for the same jobs i was doing in austin.:mad:


the people who insist on, "oh dontcha know but its a lot cheaper to live here yah youbetcha" are either, misguided/misinformed, or irrationally defensive of the ****hole they live in called north dakota. (i find the irrational defensiveness to be common, presumably from them being told their place sucks so much, and so often, and having it be well, accurate!)


JaceTheAce said:
Cost of living - go to Salary.com and check out the RELATIVE costs of living. If you are a working professional you may be surprised that your cost of living relative to your income may be cheaper than if you were to live in Grand Forks - check it out and you'll be shocked!
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I'm not defending GFK at all - I wouldn't live there for anything!

But, regarding CA, you've got to be kidding! :confused: I lived there! The entire Central Valley - from the Gorman Pass to Redding, from the Costal Mtns to the Sierra foothills - is PACKED with smog. Wages? At least for pilots, there isn't an appreciable difference in wages according to location, so a place like Duluth, Indy, Grand Rapids, Nashville, etc., is much more livable in terms of cost of living. I just bought a nice, two bedroom house with a garage, fenced-in yard, and view of the harbor for twice my yearly income. If I was in SFO or on the central coast, the same thing would have cost around 750,000 bucks and there's no WAY a pilot out there is going to pull $375,000/yr.

Angry drivers? They're everywhere in the US, there just happen to be more drivers and highway congestion in CA in general, so it's more apparent. I'll gladly conceed that point!

My wife and I are not misguided, misinformed, or irrationally defensive of where we live, Tex. I'm here by choice because I prefer it over other places I've lived. My personal preference is for a clean, uncrowded, wilderness-accessible location that allows me to have a high QOL. Having a different opinion doesn't make me irrational or uninformed - it just means we have different ideas of what we want. :)

I love traveling and spending time all over North and South America, but I'm always happy to come home to the shoreline of Superior and the woods of the North Country. I hope that, no matter where you prefer to live, you can find the same thing.

P.S. With that in mind, I hereby change the name of the thread to "The UND Stoke"! :) :)
 
PhotoPilot said:
But, regarding CA, you've got to be kidding! :confused: I lived there! The entire Central Valley - from the Gorman Pass to Redding, from the Costal Mtns to the Sierra foothills - is PACKED with smog. Wages? At least for pilots, there isn't an appreciable difference in wages according to location, so a place like Duluth, Indy, Grand Rapids, Nashville, etc., is much more livable in terms of cost of living. I just bought a nice, two bedroom house with a garage, fenced-in yard, and view of the harbor for twice my yearly income. If I was in SFO or on the central coast, the same thing would have cost around 750,000 bucks and there's no WAY a pilot out there is going to pull $375,000/yr.
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The central valley has smog because of it's geographical and agricultural makeup - the CA central valley produces 1/4 of the entire USA's food...all that tractor tilling of dirt and pesticides from crop dusters keeps a layer of dust that retains the smog close to the ground. It really is bad there... but the rest of CA is super clean in terms of air quality.

You're right about pilots wages - Unfortunately, pilot wages don't change wether you live in Flint, MI or Rancho Santa Fe, CA.
 
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