Falcon Journey: It Begins

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by surreal1221

Thanks man. Had my last stage check/EOC in the twin today. All was well. Saw my examiner today as well, had some questions to ask him. Where he wanted me to plan my flight to, etc. Have to plan a VFR flight to BNA, but with a stop in Knoxville (TYS) to pick up two people, and some business equipment. 170lbs each, and 70lbs worth of equipment. Might have to keep off my "friend" / examiner off at TYS, lol.

Also, I found out today that Emmanuel Lewis is actually training out of Falcon. He is working on his Instrument rating (I think).

I saw him and an instructor in one of our classrooms as I was setting for a Commercial ground school, but didn't really put it all together who he was until just today. Knew he looked familiar, from somewhere, and more importantly, his voice, can't miss it.

But hey, Webster! Seemed like a pretty cool cat.

Can he even reach the pedals? Oh, you knew it was coming...

[surreal1221]

Yes, yes he can.

He can not in the Diamond aircraft though, so he will be training in one of our 150's.

Diamond rudder pedals come to you, but only come up so far. . .no seat adjustment.

And well, Cessna, you can move the seat. Which, I'm sure he has figured a way out to get all situated since he is already a pilot.

[MFT1Air]

Originally Posted by Maximillian_Jenius

Can he even reach the pedals? Oh, you knew it was coming...

. . .before I even responded, I said to myself. . .walk down a couple of posts and see if. . .

Sure enough!

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by MFT1Air

. . .before I even responded, I said to myself. . .walk down a couple of posts and see if. . .

Sure enough!

Great minds think alike, and I'm not afraid to go there!

[surreal1221]

Well guys, a number of months later. . .I'm now a Commercially rated pilot, with AMEL and ASEL ratings, and instrument privileges.

Checkride was today, essentially an all day affair. But, you guys read about that in the checkride section later tonight, or tomorrow, or sometime later this week. What I'm going to provide right now is a detailed account of hours flown, how many days of flight, and an average of hours flown per day. On top of that, I'll also provide ME and SE engine total times.

Here goes. . .

The Falcon Part 141 Commercial is a Multi engine program, with a single engine add-on. I completed my instrument rating June 15th. Shortly after that, I started the Commercial program. Falcon utilizes the Diamond Twinstar aircraft as their multi-engine trainer. I'll be the first to tell you how nice of an airplane the Twinstar is, but I'll also be the first to tell you I wouldn't really consider it a training aircraft. Albeit it handles great, performs well under single engine circumstances, and provides a very nice platform to do cross country trips - it doesn't provide the student with much guidance in terms of conventional twins (throttle, prop, mixture). While this can be viewed as a positive or a negative, I'll leave it to each individual person to develop their perception on it. In the end, my current time flying the Twinstar has been great and very educational. It's certainly a new variant of twin, and honestly, with it being the newest twin on the market I wouldn't be surprised if Cessna, and Piper (if they ever put out twin piston planes again. . .) use a similar system of engine management (with a FADEC) as the Twinstar.

With that being said...the program was great. A lot of cross country experience, a ME add-on to my private to allow me to log the time as PIC, and more importantly, to log the >50NM XC trips as PIC for ATP minimums. Throughout the program, I had very minimal delays due to maintenance or weather. The weather here in Atlanta, while hot, hasn't been as bad as I had expected it. Some periods of time we could go two or three weeks without any rain, others, we would go about 4 or 5 days with steady afternoon thunderstorms. Being instrument rated during this period really helped, especially on some of those raining days.

After I got close to my requirement in the DA42, I switched over to the DA20 to work on my SEL addon. After a few hours of dual, I ended up getting released off the chain to just go fly solo, practice, do some XC trips, and essentially just time build. Now that it is behind me, I can wholeheartedly say that it was some of the most fun and exciting flying I have done (with the exception of all of my ME time). When it was all said and done, about two weeks ago we scheduled my checkride (can read more about that in the Checkride section later).

If you guys have any questions, just ask here in the forum. If I don't feel comfortable answering it in public, you'll get a response in PM form.

But anyway - without further ado, here are the numbers.

June 20th - First MEL flight.
Sept 24th - Commercial MEL and SEL checkride. Pass.

Time period: 96 days (June 20th-Sept 24th).
Actual days flown during period: 56
Average hours per day: 2.2

ME Time: Including Checkride - 69.8 (3.0 hours were reposition flights that counted as Dual, but I was not billed for an aircraft rental and additionally did not count towards 141 requirements).
SE Time: Including Checkride - 55.9

Total: 125.7 (remember, 3 hours did not count, and .9 and 1.8 respectively were for checkrides). So - 120 hours exactly.

Now, everyone that knows me . . .knows that this is all I've been doing for the past 5 or 6 months. So, you can make your own determination about the time period, and the actual number of days flown. It wasn't a horrible summer, but with good stretches of periods of fog in the morning during scheduled flights, or afternoon thunderstorms can put a damper on scheduling occasionally.

[notawannabee]

surreal, sent you a PM...not sure it went through.. for some reason, tonight my computer is SLOWWWW.

[surreal1221]

It came through man. . . no worries. You should have one here shortly.

[Flyin_Trojan]

That's awesome brah, congrats. I'm swinging though next week. Hopefully I'll get to meet up with you if you're around.

[surreal1221]

Excellent. I look forward to meeting you. Send me a PM before you shoot down, and I'll give you my cell phone #. Or just look around for the short guy, brown hair, usually wearing a colored polo shirt and kahkis shorts - and - carrying around a headset bag with a JetCareers bag tag. lol

Or - like I said, just PM me.

[Tim]

Congrats Josh

My plans to start 2 weeks ago fell through when my company started a new cleaning contract with ASA. I worked 9 days straight and then met up with family at the beach in FL for 3 days and now back for a very long stretch. Everything with the contract is falling into place and life as I know will be back to normal soon, I hope.

[surreal1221]

No worries Tim. Just give me a heads up when you do finally make it down this way man.

[MFT1Air]

Truly. . .a heartfelt congratulations to you for a job well done. Excellent posts from you to keep all informed of your progress. I'm certainly proud of you as well.

So, CFI/CFII and MEI? When. . .or are you?

[surreal1221]

Well, actually had a change of plans today.

Going to ditch the Part 141 program.

Having enough moving coming back from the VA to pay for my MEI, CFI, and potentially II under part 61.

Taking out only a 20k loan initially, and getting funds back from the VA and paying off my account balance at the school has worked out pretty well.

One of the main deciding factors is that the Part 141 program requires 35 hours of flight training. . .which, is significant overkill for me. I have over 70 hours, and 85 hours respectively in the two aircraft at Falcon. No reason for me to spend 7k on the 141, when for 7k I can get the MEI, CFI, and II (even though Ive heard that my CFI and II will be company paid).

So. . . MEI as my initial, then the CFI add-on shortly after that. Only going to need another 3 or 5 hours in the DA42 before a checkride, just need to get use to the right seat. Besides the sight picture, it's the same plane.

Thanks for the congrats. I've just recently realized that some posts of mine get more attention than others, and unfortunately I actually feel a bit taken aback by this revelation.

[MFT1Air]

Originally Posted by surreal1221

Well, actually had a change of plans today.

Going to ditch the Part 141 program.

Having enough moving coming back from the VA to pay for my MEI, CFI, and potentially II under part 61.

Taking out only a 20k loan initially, and getting funds back from the VA and paying off my account balance at the school has worked out pretty well.

One of the main deciding factors is that the Part 141 program requires 35 hours of flight training. . .which, is significant overkill for me. I have over 70 hours, and 85 hours respectively in the two aircraft at Falcon. No reason for me to spend 7k on the 141, when for 7k I can get the MEI, CFI, and II (even though Ive heard that my CFI and II will be company paid).

So. . . MEI as my initial, then the CFI add-on shortly after that. Only going to need another 3 or 5 hours in the DA42 before a checkride, just need to get use to the right seat. Besides the sight picture, it's the same plane.

Thanks for the congrats. I've just recently realized that some posts of mine get more attention than others, and unfortunately I actually feel a bit taken aback by this revelation.

Hey, everyone always has a different take/perspective on everything. No need for the raised eyebrow. In the end, it's about the significant things you've accomplished in your "journey" in the aviation community. It's all good, believe me.

[Howard]

I just wanted to add to the congratulations! It’s been great reading your posts and “seeing” you progress through each stage of your training. You’re a lucky guy!! So now what, instructor and then to the airlines!? Good stuff Surreal, good stuff….. Hope to see u in Falcon before you “fly away”.

All the best,

Alonso

[surreal1221]

I hope so too Alonso. I'm awaiting a date for an MEI checkride right now. Since I'm so current in the plane, and I'm already familiar with the maneuvers, it'll only be another 4-5 hours in the DA42 just to get the sight picture of sitting in the right seat.

[Crockrocket94]

Wanna teach me the DA42?

")

[surreal1221]

Come on up. . . lol

[stapper2]

After being here at Falcon for a almost 2 months now, I suppose I should put in my $.02.

Other than having to move all the way from Seattle area and adjusting to that, I have no regrets about my choice of coming here so far. I came with my private license and started working on my instrument here and just passed my check ride this morning.

These guys know how to get you done in a timely manner but also take the time to give a quality education. Thinking back over this morning's ride, I feel that I was more than prepared for it(although it doesn't feel like it going in when your nervous) both for the oral and for the flight.
Everyone here is very professional, knowledgeable and very willing to help you out when they can. And that starts at the top with the owners on down to the instructors. I even have one of the owners coming up to me on a regular basis making sure that I am getting what I expect and said I wanted from Falcon (within reason of course) and making sure everything is going alright. Sure, every company has problems or issues, but they have always been willing to work with me if and when I have them.

If you have any questions feel free to ask or PM me if Surreal hasn't already answered it in the previous eight pages. Keep up the blog Josh. Reading through your stuff has helped me in some of the decisions I've made here.

[surreal1221]

Congrats again Mike. Sorry I couldn't stick around after your ride - just glad I saw you come on up to give you the congrats. I'll shake your hand in the near future.

I'm not done yet man so, who knows - maybe I'll make it to 10 pages before this journey is over with. Hoping for an MEI ride here shortly - after the air show leaves town.

Still not too sure how getting students will go. Starting to hear conflicting things, but if they don't have any PIC qualified MEI's in the DA42 when it comes time for you to start, let me know (Only 2 that I hear of right now). I'd recommend starting out in the Single, learning some of those maneuvers, and then go into some XC time building in the SE. Then hopefully after a few weeks, either myself or one of the current MEI's will be able to fly with you.

Congrats again!

[stapper2]

Originally Posted by surreal1221

Congrats again Mike. Sorry I couldn't stick around after your ride - just glad I saw you come on up to give you the congrats. I'll shake your hand in the near future.

Hey, no problem. I was just kind of in a daze anyways for a while afterwards digesting the fact that it was done and I had passed.

Originally Posted by surreal1221

I'd recommend starting out in the Single, learning some of those maneuvers, and then go into some XC time building in the SE. Then hopefully after a few weeks, either myself or one of the current MEI's will be able to fly with you.

Gonna sit down with Zach here today or tomorrow and come up with a plan of attack. I'm leaning down the SE road right now for a couple reasons, one of them being the shortage of MEI's and another being I that I would like to stick with Zach as my instructor for now. There's a couple others, but those are the two main ones. So I may be taking you up on that offer down the road unless Zach decides he wants to get his MEI shortly.

[Crockrocket94]

I know Tom at the Athens location is an MEI see if you can't get ahold of him.

[surreal1221]

We've got MEI's, it's just a matter if they have the time in type. Which, most of the guys at FFC lack.

I think they are fixing that issue though, so hopefully Mike won't have to worry about it too much.

[surreal1221]

Alright guys. I know the journey blog has nearly slowed to a crawl lately, and I'm really sorry for that.

There really is not much going on these days. It's a real slow process right now as our first wave of Indian students are finishing up their requirements (CMEL) and are actually using up the Twinstars pretty good. That, coupled with the fact that the weather has been IMC in the morning, transitioning to MVMC in the early afternoon, and then staying MVMC throughout the whole day has really put a damper on any flying for me.

Nevertheless, I'm scheduled tomorrow morning with the Chief Instructor for some MEI training, and hopefully if I'm on track a phone call to the FAA on Monday morning to schedule an MEI checkride.

Another factor in the slow down is the fact that a large airshow will be occuring next weekend at the field. The Great Georgia Airshow will essentially have the sky over FFC some of Friday evening for practice, Saturday and Sunday for the show. TFR will be issued, so no flying next weekend.

I'll of course keep you guys posted.

[killbilly]

Originally Posted by surreal1221

. That, coupled with the fact that the weather has been IMC in the morning, transitioning to MVMC in the early afternoon, and then staying MVMC throughout the whole day has really put a damper on any flying for me.

No kidding. I was there (ATL) yesterday - if you ever wanted actual, yesterday morning was the day to get some. By the time I got north of the perimeter it had stopped raining, but...wow.