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Originally Posted by fiveninerzero  Hey guys.
I'm here at Osan Air Base in South Korea trying to finish my private.
I was pretty pumped up when I got my assignment here, learning that the Air Force has an Aero Club here with 7 C172's, as my ops tempo at my last duty station in the CONUS had me all over the country and in places such as Iraq.
This assignment offers me some stability knowing that I will not be TDY as much, however, it pains me to find out that there are no CFI's here, the one that is here right now is an Army Helo guy who commutes down from Camp Casey and flies his ass off!
I've been reading about how high in demand CFI's could be in certain locations and situations, but I personally didn't have that problem when I was back in the states.
So much for my goal of walking away from my year here with my certificate!
There's gotta be a straggler hiding out somewhere. Does anyone have any suggestions on finding a CFI with FAA certs in this country? Or do you think I am SOL? |
I got my private license when I was active duty Army at the Flying Club at Ft Lewis. Did it on weekends, when the weather was good enough.
It took me a YEAR... for all of about 50 hours in flight time. I've flown 50 hours in two weeks at an airline!
My advice? Save up the money in advance. Korea's a good place to save your dough, if you can. Then, save up your leave, too.
Either from Korea, or better yet, Stateside, take 30 days leave.
Fly your arse off. Find a place where you can devote a solid 30 days to flying. Fly twice a day, if they'll let you. There are places out there that specialize in "Accelerated ratings". In 2002, I went to a place in Tucson and did my Instrument Rating from start to finish in
16 days.
It was a little grueling, but throwing down the gauntlet and getting it DONE feels awesome when it's finished.
In the meantime, don't despair. At least the possibility exists. I spent two year long tours in Iraq pissed at the world because I couldn't fly and felt I was losing precious time in my career. Ultimately, it didn't matter at all, and I wound up flying with an airline a year after I got out of the Army. If I'd been Stateside sooner, I'd have spent those years instructing because the airline hiring requirements were different.
Don't sweat it. Just find the best way to make the max use of your learning potential, time, and money. Doing your training as continuously as possible in a shorter, continuous span of time is one of the best ways to do that. Stringing it out just runs up the bill.