New Pictures Up!

[Catherine]

Okay....I cleared out some old and put in a few new pictures today, will add a few more as I dig out some that I really like. I put a picture in of the outside of the Decathlon from the day that Lui and I did our spin endorsements over at Indiantown and I put in a shot I took out of the plane while I was flying inverted! Too cool!

Also there is a picture taken while I was backseating a flight when we had some nice IFR weather here one weekend and a few other neat ones as well.

As usual, the pics are at: http://pages.prodigy.net/need4speed/Ari_Ben_Photos/
Just look for the ones with the May 2006 date on them!

I finished up my MEI ground school on Monday and now I'm just waiting to start flying! So back to my studying!

[blakman7]

Sweet pics Catherine. I plan to go to AriBen if everything goes alright with my loan which is not looking so good at this point. Hopefully I will see you there. Looking forward to more pics when you get them. Happy flying.

[SharkFisher]

wow awesome awesome thanks for posting

[Florida_Flyer]

Wow, flying with Tom Bent on the spin training! For me that was the biggest day since losing my virginity. Awesome! Had Tom, managed to clean my breakfast off the windshield when you went flying Catherine?

[Adam2006]

Thanks, for the pics. Now a few Q's. Where are the "shallow waters," is that the keys? Also, how often do you fly? As I hope to do the program in 6 months as well. And finally, can students backseat freely to observe and learn? Thanks.

[Catherine]

Hey blakman.....well, I do hope everything works out for you and I get to see you here! Thanks and best of luck!

Thanks sharkfisher!

Yes it was, FF....absolutely awesome. Yes, he'd managed to clean up all of the unpleasantness along with all of the oil that spewed on poor Fred when he was doing his spin training. I never came close to even having a bit of nausea even though Lui and I had big greasy breakfast at IHOP on our way there. We took good care with my camera...Tom had a guy who lost a portable radio that fell out of the little pocket in the plane and went through the top window while they were doing a slow roll! Hope nobody was below them when that happened! If I can ever find another $80 to spend on something, I'll skip going clothes/shoe shopping and go flying with him again! Well, at least that once...I'm getting a big shopping urge lately and can't get my fix...

Hi Adam and thanks! The shallow waters picture is on the way to the Keys from the western side of Florida down to Key West and probably about 25 or so miles north of Key West on Victor 601. I have some from the Eastern side after passing Miami that I found and will be putting up this morning where the water looks like milk and it looks like something out of a science fiction movie that I got on my 2 hour day VFR for my multi-commercial. There are so many absolutely cool things to see just about any which way you head down to the Keys. Right now I've only flown a couple of times in the last couple of weeks as I have only about 5 hours of timebuilding left and I had to complete my instructor writtens and get my spin training before I could fly with Jessica, but those are now done (100% FOI and 95% FIA, yeah!) and we start flying on Tuesday. Before that when I was doing timebuilding and working on my commercial multi I was flying as much as 7 hours a day at times. The most I did on a timebuilding flight was somewhere just short of 8 hours and I was absolutely dead tired after that. One tank of gas is a pretty good evening of flying and I tried to make the most of it, flying in the right seat and shooting approaches, although I did try to go to airports I'd never been to before just to add to my experience entering and dealing with new airports as well. If I broke it down, dealing with weather, losing a week due to about 100 noseeum bites on my legs, etc. I'm averaging about 1.1 hours a day and I'll have to do about 15 more hours of timebuilding to get my 200 total hours in the Duchess. The flying is a blast, I've had a great time doing it and it almost seems unreal that I'm down to my last few weeks as a student. I'm pretty close to being on track to when I wanted to be finished even with the delays as well. We have several students who are also finishing the program in about the same amount of time as I am now, so it can be done....a bit of luck, a LOT of hard work and keeping yourself motivated will keep you on track.

Students are always encouraged here to backseat and learn. I have two roommates who are basically at the same point in the program (instrument) and they are doing lots of that and feel that it helps a great deal and since it's free to the backseater, it's a chance to learn and observe without the pressure on you to perform so you can learn more yourself. It did help me during instrument especially.

[Adam2006]

Thank you Cat, and congrads on the writtens. Do you plan on instructing there?

[Mountain Flying]

Did you beat the 3 min record for the FOI?

[Catherine]

You're welcome Adam....and thanks! Yes I do plan on instructing here when I get done.

LOL...I was pretty close to the record! Josh set me up, walked out, walked back a few minutes later and asked if everything was working okay and I was like...uh, yeah...I'm finished with the test. I didn't actually time it, so I don't know how quick it was. Sheesh...even with the discout, $80 for 5 minutes of my time! Luckily it has more value to me than just the time it takes to finish it!

I got sidetracked and flew for about 3 hours today with Josh and got a few more pics, so the new pics will be up tomorrow or something....

[USMC-SGT]

Cat-
I am going there when i get back from Iraq..had a quick question..i see in some of your pics the 76's have garmin 430 and nice digital NavComs and in some others there is no GPS and real antiquated NavComs. First question is how many 76's do they have total and out of all of the planes how many of them are equipped with modern NavComs and Gps like the 430? It in no way makes a difference in me going, i was just curious because no one really talks about the avionics in the planes and while looking at all of your great pictures it sparked my interest.

Also...i havent taken the FOI test...what is with the 3 min deal...is there something you all know that you should share with the rest of us, or is that test just that easy where it doesnt require the stress and cramming that the rest do. just another thing i was curious about.

and hell, while i am on a question role here might as well keep going...what is the average age there in approx..i will be 25 when i am there, is that fairly normal or will i be one of the older or younger ones there, just curious.

Thanks for the help....sorry to clutter up your post cat with all of these random questions but for what its worth i did see your pictures and they were great! I take the time to look at any and all aviation related pics. Spin training i would reccomend to anyone regardless or the rating. I did one hour in a Citabria to see what people say supposed "real flying" is all about and 30 or so hours later i am still spinning almost every other flight! it is a lot of fun!

ok im off the soapbox now..ive rambled on enough

[Florida_Flyer]

About half of the ten or so servicable BE76's have 430's. For time building, the 430 is a nice thing to have, but you can live without it. The best thing is that it's a Nav/Com, which means that you have crystal clear radios. Some of the other aircraft have jurassic radios which have a lower sound quality. For the purpose of the instrument test, the 430 is a liability. The FAA says that if a GPS is fitted then you have to do an approach based on it. Problem is, in the 141 syllabus GPS approaches are not taught for the instrument. However, most of the examiners are reasonable enough to let you get away without doing a GPS approach. Another "feature" of Aviator, avionics is bust ADF's. These are expensive to replace but are required for the 141 syllabus. This can make it tricky to get an aircraft with an avionics fit to take 141 lessons. For you though USMC-SGT, this makes little difference as you have the single-instrument. You'll take the multi-instrument test with Ball (ex USMC) and only have to do one ILS, some landings and single-engine work and you'll be done. No ADF, no problem.

The three minute FOI thing? The FOI test is pretty easy so guys try to pass it with a 100% score in three minutes. Pointless but challenging I guess. Age wise, you're probably a little below average.

[USMC-SGT]

Florida-
that is good stuff, thanks alot for the help. I was actually even thinking of since i am already eligible for GI i might even just do the ME rating before i even get there and shoot the approaches during the checkride just to get it out of the way and lighten my workload when i arrive. I plan on arriving IFR single and Multi with around 160 (extremely hard to even begin to estimate but this is a low est.) hours and all of my writtens taken so all i will have to concentrate on is the both Commercials, and CFI/I and MEI. I am still planning on accomplishing this in 3 months which i do not think will be an issue. Quick question..who is ball? Is he the usual DPE? That would be great to do checkrides with a former Marine, i have never met a former Marine that i didnt get along with..this is sounding better everyday! I am ok with being on the younger end of the age scale, hopefully with age comes maturity as i will be there for a while and would be nice to work with some older career/goal oriented people for a while.

[doubleo6point9]

Thanks for the pictures Catherine. It's been about a year and a half since I was down there working on my mulit-comm-inst add on followed by some time building and those pics brought back some good memories. Also gotto admit that even though i've moved on to a regional I still miss flying the duchess around Florida.

[Catherine]

I have added 5 new pictures this morning....since our cookout idea fizzled early yesterday morning we decided instead to fly to Key West for the day so I wasn't really at the computer yesterday at all.

USMC-SGT Nice....if you get here before I've moved on you'll have to catch up and say hi!

Along with what FF mentioned, we have 2 more Duchesses that should be online soon, one that will have a Garmin 430 (I believe it's that one) as well and one of those two has an RMI in it.

Although you aren't taught GPS approaches during the course, I was taught how to do them in one evening with another MEI that I flew with during timebuilding. They are ridiculously easy compared to almost every other kind of approach once you have your instrument rating. I've done quite a few since then and really enjoy them. I ended up in a plane with the GPS during my checkride and didn't have to do an approach with it, the DPEs we use here understand that we do a bunch of our ratings often in planes that don't have them, so if you know how, great, if not, fine. There are a few of the old radio planes that are harder to hear on, but I've not had much trouble hearing calls, maybe because I used to have ATC on in the background on my scanner to help motivate me and I've listened to it so much.

Bill Ball is but one of several DPEs that we use at the school here.

I would say your age is about average...we have a bunch of newer people here who are fairly young, but there are enough who are over 25 to bring the average up to that, but I doubt it's much higher. You'll fit in just fine, I'm sure! There may be a bit of a generation gap between the older group and younger group on some things, but that doesn't stop friendships and parties or anything, it's just another difference in our lives and origins to share.

I never knew about the "3-minute challenge" before I took the FOIs, but FF is right, it's easy....there aren't that many questions in the whole test bank and they are easy, so it's no big deal...more of a fun what can you do with it test.

No problem on the thread hijack, the pictures are here to show people why I'm enjoying myself here and stimulate conversation as well as just to show some neat things I've seen! That's great that you've already been doing spins and stuff, it's absolutely awesome!

If you are here on the VA then you could maybe accomplish all those things here in 3 months if you have the writtens out of the way as multi-commercial is very similar to multi-private, but you have to have 200 multi-hours to instruct here, so you may end up needing to some timebuilding the way I understand it all, so you might need some more time for that. If you can get all the writtens out of the way you'll be in good shape to be able to just study the oral portions and do the flying which will make things easier for you.

You're welcome 006.9! You were here about a year before I got down here then! Glad to bring back some good memories for you and it's great to hear that you've made it into the regionals!

[blakman7]

So is there any response out there in regards to the post that was about backseating and taking people for a ride during instruction?

[CommPilot76]

blakman7
Who did you want to take back seating with you, On instruction flights you can only take other students with you, You are NOT allowed to take any one in the aircraft with you that is not a flight instructor or student at the school.

[Florida_Flyer]

He's right, it's an insurance thing!

[Adam2006]

Heya all, did anybody get financed without a co-signer? I plan to apply once all three of my credit scores are in the 700's. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you Cat, Comm, and FF for the continued info. Thanks again for the new pics, keep em coming.

[Catherine]

I did....no co-signer for me, but I have a good bit of credit history as well that's very good. I don't know where they start drawing the line on credit decisions for students.

[kailuaboy]

speaking of loans... I think im in the land of Key bank... I think their HQ is here in Cleveland. I swear I saw a building (looks like the empire state building) that had a KEY on it. then I saw another building on I-480 that had a couple of Keys on it too.

I dont like that. I know I owe them money, but why do I have to be reminded of it every day?

[Catherine]

Hey Ivan! Congrats on the job! You snuck out of here without even saying goodbye to me! Very sneaky!!!!!

[Brazilian_Pilot]

I'm kind of worried about my loan also. I know that on my own they wont loan me a penny, but my mother is going to co-sign for me. Hopefully it will work out just fine.....

[lowery21]

Cool pics cat. What's going on in the background of the first pic? Extending 14/32?

[Catherine]

Hiya Chris!!!

That was the week of the airshow and they were flying up and down 14/32 and had it blocked off to us pretty much the whole time, they did some pyro and such and just wanted to make sure the public wasn't close to it.

Thanks on the pics....and I actually read just a little bit about that company that makes the plane you're flying now! Very cool company and neat airplanes!