About Skymates

[leary]

G'day! Former lurker here. Am seriously considering Skymates but I'm wondering about accommodation (I live in FL). Also, do you guys do much night flying? Any and all help is appreciated.

[Chewie von Nubbins]

Originally Posted by leary

G'day! Former lurker here. Am seriously considering Skymates but I'm wondering about accommodation (I live in FL). Also, do you guys do much night flying? Any and all help is appreciated.

Pick up the phone and give them a call. They got several rental places around the DFW metroplex. Hell, you might even get so lucky as to get a whole new cultural experience in living with a bunch of Indians.

Sorry about the FL thing. There is no other Country in the world like Texas! Nice place, nice school, and a whole bunch of good people there. And yes, those planes are almost all flying on any given night.

[kellwolf]

Which part of Florida? I started my PPL and IR at Air Orlando, then I wound up at Skymates after Hurricane Charley "redecorated" the flight school.

Night flying? Heck, you can do as much flying at night as you want! I did one guy's whole instrument rating at night b/c he worked during the day. It's really up to you and your instructor. As far as the rental stuff, when I was there they had three (or was it four?) rental houses they put people in. I lived in three different ones (one as a student and two as an instructor), and none of them were bad places. Not sure what the current housing situation is. Give 'em a call and talk to Ryan or Luca. They'll be able to give you a good run down on things as they stand now.

[leary]

I live near Daytona Beach, and as for the night flying thing I guess I looked at the hours and thought you couldn't fly at night - there I go again making myself look good
Chewie, whatcha mean Indians? Is this some sort of inside joke? I want in!!

[jtrain609]

He means Indians. Like, you know, red dot Indinans as opposed to "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!" Indians.

There are A CRAP TON of Indian students at Skymates right now.

[kellwolf]

Indians = dot, not feather


Yeah, I said it.

[jtrain609]

I think Brad came up with that one.

[kellwolf]

Originally Posted by jtrain609

I think Brad came up with that one.

Actually, no. I heard that in a movie YEARS ago. Can't credit Brad with that.

[leary]

Alrighty then. As someone who would, in all probability, come to skymates with zero flight training, do you think I should go with the pro program or take the seperate courses? Oh, and if anyone could clear up all this repeditiveness of SE, ME, and add-ons it would be appreciated - like what's with all these options under the commercial and multi engine courses?

ugh...so a noob

[kellwolf]

You don't actually have to pigeon hole yourself into the pro program. Talk to Ryan or Luca, and run the numbers on which would be cheaper, then go with that. Worked for me and jtrain.

As far as what order, it depends on how much ME time you want. Since most places will hire with less than 100 hours now, the PMEL isn't as much of a "must have" for timebuilding. If it were me, I'd go PPL, IR, time build in a 172 (or 152 now that they have them), get the CMEL (you'll get about 20-30 hours of ME that way), do the CSEL add-on in a 172 or 152, then do the CFI-I, MEI and CFI. That's the order I did it in. You can toss in some ME time building after your CMEL if you want, and it'll count towards the time you need for the MEI.

[Chewie von Nubbins]

Originally Posted by kellwolf

You don't actually have to pigeon hole yourself into the pro program. Talk to Ryan or Luca, and run the numbers on which would be cheaper, then go with that. Worked for me and jtrain.

As far as what order, it depends on how much ME time you want. Since most places will hire with less than 100 hours now, the PMEL isn't as much of a "must have" for timebuilding. If it were me, I'd go PPL, IR, time build in a 172 (or 152 now that they have them), get the CMEL (you'll get about 20-30 hours of ME that way), do the CSEL add-on in a 172 or 152, then do the CFI-I, MEI and CFI. That's the order I did it in. You can toss in some ME time building after your CMEL if you want, and it'll count towards the time you need for the MEI.

Kell, would you mind posting your and John's URL for the blog that you both did for your training time there....and then beyond? I stumbled onto those before making the decision to even start down this road to fly planes for a living. Reading the journey that you two embarked on was one of the key factors that let me know that...yes, it could be done and could be fun at the same time. I owe you both a couple of rounds one day for posting all of that outstanding information. Thanks!

[jtrain609]

http://www.johnherreshoff.com/blog

[kellwolf]

I didn't really keep a blog on-line during training at Skymates. I did a sorta play-by-play for my training at PCL, but I THINK that's still in the Member Announcements forum on here.

[Chewie von Nubbins]

Originally Posted by jtrain609

http://www.johnherreshoff.com/blog

Yep, 73043 still pulls to the right quite a bit. After we talked about that several weeks ago, I took her out for a bit and got her all trimmed and S&L flight. Natural tendency was for the ball to creep outside it's cage. Definitely a creeper. Couldn't imagine flying that thing on such a long x/c. Not sure if it had the 430 in it then, but man...that would have had to have been a ton of work keeping on course for that long in that plane. God bless you man.

Kell...you are right. I picked up your trail with the PCL hire. Some of those pics with snow everywhere when you started. One day I would like your autograph.

[jtrain609]

Yeah it had the GNS430 in it then, which was partially why we took that one. The pull wasn't TOO bad, you just kinda dealt with it. Every people has it's quarks and honestly I'd take 043 over 5195E in actual!

Oh hey BTW I'm coming to town on the 29th and 30th of this month, if you want to hang shoot me a PM or talk with Ryan.

[kellwolf]

Word on the 430 in 043 and double word on it in actual over the precession queen known as 95E.

Me: Don't forget to check your DG to the compass every so often
Student: I just did that 2 minutes ago.
Me: Really? DAMN. Uh....make that every 1-2 minutes in this plane. The gyros apparently suck.

As for the pull in 043, I kind rest my elbow on my knee with my hand under the yoke. The pressure from my arm on my knee holds the rudder down just the right amount.

Oh, and things are looking pretty good for me being down there on the 29-30th, too. Should be able to JS down and back from MEM without too much of a hassle.

[leary]

Does anyone know an average as far as fuel surcharge goes? I know it depends on the price of gas, but just curious. Also, is there anything one needs to buy outside of the charts and stuff you get with any given course, like study guides or books, and the cost? Thanks.

[SmitteyB]

Right now the fuel surcharge is $5 per hour, per engine.

Everything you need, you can buy here.

[leary]

what are/is your opinions/advice on college degrees, peoples?

[kellwolf]

Originally Posted by leary

what are/is your opinions/advice on college degrees, peoples?

Get one. There are numerous reasons why.

[deltzulu]

hi,guys
just want to get some information from you
how many instructors and students are there in Skymates now?
how many Indian students?
Is it viable to finish the CPL and IR in 4month?
Does Skymates allows you to fly as many hours as you wish,do they have a limit on the hours one can fly in every day or week or month?

[leary]

Originally Posted by kellwolf

Get one. There are numerous reasons why.

What do you suggest?

[kellwolf]

Well, there's a couple of ways you can go about it. Skymate's program is actually set up pretty well if you wanna go to Dallas for the summer and knock everything out at once. So, you could start school in the fall and spring, get the ratings in the summer, then CFI at a local place while you finish your degree. Another option is to do the degree first, then get all the ratings. Finally, you can get the ratings, then do an online degree, which is what I'm doing. Be warned though, you don't have anyone reminding you of due dates or of when to turn in assignments. A LOT of guys do the on-line thing thinking it's easier, but as a general rule, it's not. I pretty much had to teach myself physics and statitstics out of the book for my ERAU courses. If you're not a self-starter or good about staying on a schedule, then on-line probably ISN'T the way to go. My recommendation would be get the ratings and instruct while you're getting the degree. That way, you've got plenty of experience when you make the jump to the next level, and the degree is out of the way.

[mojo6911]

If you want a college degree, you can start at Mountain View, which is a Dallas community college. You can take morning classes and fly in the afternoon. They have an aviation program and give you credit for that. I went to Embry Riddle's extended campus, which is in Fort Worth for my BS.

I wanted an aviation degree. I figure if something happens and I am not physically able to fly, I still would like to be involved in aviation. People say an aviation degree is useless if you aren't flying. I ask those people what is a history degree worth?

The path you take for college is really up to you. I wanted and aviation degree and wanted credit for my flight time.

Originally Posted by deltzulu

hi,guys
just want to get some information from you
how many instructors and students are there in Skymates now?
how many Indian students?
Is it viable to finish the CPL and IR in 4month?
Does Skymates allows you to fly as many hours as you wish,do they have a limit on the hours one can fly in every day or week or month?

Not sure how many students/instructors we have. We have quite a few of both. You could do the CPL and IR in 4 months. You are basically limited by the schedule. First come, first serve. We try to limit people to 1x per day to be fair.

[deltzulu]

Originally Posted by mojo6911

If you want a college degree, you can start at Mountain View, which is a Dallas community college. You can take morning classes and fly in the afternoon. They have an aviation program and give you credit for that. I went to Embry Riddle's extended campus, which is in Fort Worth for my BS.

I wanted an aviation degree. I figure if something happens and I am not physically able to fly, I still would like to be involved in aviation. People say an aviation degree is useless if you aren't flying. I ask those people what is a history degree worth?

The path you take for college is really up to you. I wanted and aviation degree and wanted credit for my flight time.



Not sure how many students/instructors we have. We have quite a few of both. You could do the CPL and IR in 4 months. You are basically limited by the schedule. First come, first serve. We try to limit people to 1x per day to be fair.

Thank you Mojo,
"limit people to 1x per day",you mean 1.x or more than 10,I guess 1.x,is that correct?It' s for 7 days per week ,or just 5 weekdays?
how much is the X close to ?if x=1,it should be hard to finish the Comm and IR in 120 days.
so is 4 month difficult but possible for comm and IR,or easy ,or average?