Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond...)

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND LEADING ME TO FALCON AVIATION:

My dream has always been to be a pilot. It's not been easy. I'm 35 now, but finally pursuing the dream... Here is the brief background on how I got to this point after all these years.

After graduating high school in 1991, it was clear flying was out at that time. I had walls full of posters and shelves full of model aircraft. But that's as close to the dream I would get for awhile. There was just no way for me to pursue the flying dream with my options back then. But the dream never left me...

I completed college by 1996 with a Business Degree. Then went to work at a CPA firm. Not exactly flying, or something I enjoyed. But it was a start since I knew a degree was important to get things rolling in my life. Oh, I did however, manage to get my Private Pilot at a local FBO by saving a little money and a little help from my grandfather. Unfortunately, I had no money to pursue further ratings. So after about 45 total hours I had to let the flying fall to the waste side. I didn't fly again until 2007!

I went on with my professional career. My goal was to pay off my college loan, pay off the car, and save enough money to be in a position where I knew flight school would be a reality. Back at this time, I was looking at Comair Aviation Academy (DCA now), Mesa, and Westwind. Yeah, how things change! Thank you Jet Careers! Anyway, this goal was my sole motivation that would drive me for the next 10+ years! It's been my sole motivating factor for success.

I left accounting in 1998 after my second year out of college. Why? It was clear to me that the pay was not going to be enough for me to be debt free and accomplish my flying goals anytime soon. Oh, and working those 50+ hour weeks in the CPA firm really left no time or desire to focus on flying. So, a career change was needed if I was to get the money I required to accomplish my flying dream. And I knew one thing. In sales people make big bucks! So I went on a job search focusing on big money positions in sales.

Jackpot! In 1998 I went into the Executive Recruiting industry. And I was right. There is a lot of money in sales! By the end of the year 2000, I was still a young 27 years old, not to mention about ready to clear my first $100k year in income. Things were coming together nicely and my sights were on my flight training goal.

On a side note: Want to save money for flight school and be debt free? Or just be rich? Get into the Executive Recruiting business and work hard at it. It's a 60 plus hour a week job to do it right and do it well. But it's also a $150k to $200k a year job for the highly motivated (and if you stay it in for 10+ years and don't get burned out or lose our mind working 60+ hours a week, it's easily a $300k+ job per year long term).

Anyway, in order to advance my recruiting career and accelerate my income and flying goals, I moved from Ohio to Boston, MA. It was clear that in Ohio my income would top out in a small office at around $120k. But in Boston, it was clear I would be able to make over $200k within a year or so after getting there. Well, that never happened... Life's funny like that sometimes!

I moved there in April 2001 and was off to a great start. By August of 2001 I was well over $100k in income and would come close to my $200k goal in my first year there. Well, then 9-11 happened. It wiped out my industry since I supported the banking and financial industry in New England (mostly NYC and Boston). My income stopped, immediately!

At this point, my cars and my motorcycles were paid for. Okay, I admit, I did have a few too many toys. But it's hard to not spend when you make a lot and work alot. The toys make you feel good for awhile and give you some sense of accomplishment and sanity when working 12 hour days. Kind of was my short term reward for doing well, but I was still on track to make my flight school goals. After all, I only had about $10k of student loans left which I'd have knocked out in about 3 more months. Then I'd save the cash needed to retire from my exec recruiting industry insanity and pursue my flying dream.

Well, in 2002 due to 9-11, I did not even make enough money to pay for my rent in Boston. My rent was $2,525 a month in the city! Add basic utilities and parking fees and you are well over $3,000 a month just for rent in a 850 square foot apartment. Suddenly when your income stops, that amount becomes a large sum of money! So I had to live on credit and take out large cash advances on credit cards. I also sold everything I owned to get the cash back out of it. I now lived day to day and my dreams seemed to be crushed.

Life was not good anymore!

Anyway, by mid 2003, not much recovered in my recruiting niche in the Boston and NYC area. I was very pretty depressed. I now had a roommate so rent was a little less, but it was crowded in that little apartment. I only owned a bed and a computer since I had to sell everything else. And I was approaching $80k of credit card debt very quickly. I seen the end of the road in front of me. So I had to make a drastic move.

Being very creative, and usually pretty smart, I put together a plan. So I moved to Texas. Why? After a little research, it was clear to me San Antonio Texas needed a person like me. The law of balance was in effect. New England was in a crunch, but Texas and the Southwest was doing very well. It always seems, if one area is doing bad, there is always another area doing well. So remaining on your toes and flexible is important.

I needed a plan. The plan was to bring my business to the Texans. Plus it was dirt cheap to live there compared to Boston. So that too would help my negative cash flow issues. I put my computer in an old car I bought that barely ran and drove to San Antonio, TX. A fresh start!

Wow, how things came together. I got to Texas in August 2003 and by mid-2005 I was making over $100k again. Plus I grew my business from the local Texas market to a national market. And since I was burned out and stressed out after the whole Boston episode, I started a new niche in the industry. I focused on executive recruiting within business aviation and only working as a specialist on select positions within that niche. A niche that treated me very well.

So even though I never did like the recruiting industry (remember, I only did this for the money to pay for flying eventually), I did at least enjoy the fact that now I spoke to aviation professionals throughout the country all day long.

By early 2007 I was debt free. Goal one accomplished, finally! Ten years of hard work and interesting times, and I was finally debt free. Oh, and I learned to live more modestly. Lets say I was quite humbled by my experience in Boston. I did get my Harley back as I paid cash for it. That was my reward, my one and only reward for doing well. And while I wanted a big bike, I settled for a little Sporster. A much more modest reward that cost half of what the big bike I really wanted did, but flying was the mission. This bike is a cheap hobby that's paid for when I am a broke pilot. So it works out well. And the bike has to last me 10 years!

So step two. I bought my new truck for cash. I needed to buy something new that wold last 10 years and was versatile enough as my life changed. After all, as a pilot starting out I'd not be able to afford much of a car for the first 10 years and I need something reliable to keep maintenance costs to a minimum. So this works out well.

I was living quite well in San Antonio with a great group of friends I met and a cool girlfriend. And I was able to pay my debt down at a rate of $6k to $8k a month. Which meant, once the debt was gone, as now it was, I was able to save that much each month in cash. And that's where I was now.

So step three. In May 2007 I toured several flight schools around the country as I horded my money away. Skymates. White Air. Falcon Aviation Academy. Air-Ben Aviator. Wright Flyers. A few others. I decided that Falcon Aviation Academy in Georgia best met my personal goals from what I seen during my visits (I stayed 2 full days at each place lurking in the background and talking with everyone).

And my forth of five steps at this point was the toughest. The money decision. How much really is enough? Well, knowing what happened to me after the Boston move, I did not want to get greedy and risk anything going wrong. I could have saved money very quickly to stash away enough to pay for me to live 2 years and all of flight school without worries. But I did not want to delay since in June of 2007 I was in a position to take out a loan for $30k (reasonable in my opinion since I actually had more than that saved up in cash anyway at that point already). I had enough money stashed away to live on for almost two years plus pay for about another $15k of training on top of the $30k (I planned on $38k to complete their program though CFI, CFII, MEI... so overestimating a bit $45k sounded reasonable). I did not want to work another 10-12 months at 60 hours a week to also be able to pay for training in full. From past experience, who knows what could happen if you wait. And I was very burned out after my life adventures and all this hard work. So I took action as I decided, I did have enough to be comfortable and was in a good position now to make my transition.

Side note: Through all this experience, I learned that debt is bad. Debt means you are owned by someone else. And being owned by someone else limits your options. And when your options are limited, you can not make the best choice.

Side note to the side note: I also learned though, you can leverage debt to advance your life. Some debt is not bad since if you still have a lot of equity (fairly liquid cash), you are still not owned by anyone. There is a point where debt can make you money by improving cash flow that you can re-invest in yourself and/or business. But it's a careful calculation, since again, too much debt or a down turn of events can have you owned by someone else real quick. So unless you are very business savvy and have a true understanding of economics, stay out of all debt. Own your life. Don't be owned!

Now, on with step five. The last step. The first week of July 2007, at 34 years old, I left my old life behind to start a new one. I first left my girlfriend since she could not come with me (she knew for quite some time I was talking about this, but of course no one ever believed I'd actually do it!). I also left my friends behind (man I miss them). And I closed the doors on my aviation recruiting business (to this day, many people are shocked I left a business where at 50 years old I could have retired and never worked again... of course these people are not addicted to the flying drug like many of us are). All of step five was in July 2007.

The final move. The last week of July 2007, I relocated to Atlanta Georgia to pursue flight training at the school I decided had the best program to match my goals professionally. Falcon Aviation Academy.

There is so much more than what is above. But it gives you an idea of what I been through to get started as a career pilot. It's not easy. But with perseverance and focus, you can do it! Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can.

And so it begins... (sorry Josh, I had to use your tag line!).... my flight training journey at Falcon Aviation Academy.

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

PRIVATE PILOT - 30 days:

So, here I am. At Falcon Aviation Academy. I live in Atlanta since I need to remain sane by enjoying myself on weekends, but I fly full time during the week out of Peachtree City (their main location).

I started on in August 2007 and was finished by September 2007. Yes, 30 days. Ah, but remember, I already had a PPL. I got it way back in 1992 per the above post. Now, when I started here though, I did not fly a plane for well over 12 years. No GPS back then. And all the airspace and things were different. And since my brain was fried from my executive career, I pretty much had to start over to get back up to Private Pilot standards. It took me 16.5 hours of time, but at 16.5 hours I felt like I was back up to par and could move onto focusing on my instrument rating.

My experience in the first 30 days? Interesting.
* I went through 2 different instructors since CFIs were leaving for the ASA hiring spree.
* The aircraft, 99% dispatch rate. I believe only one time I could not fly due to maintenance. So this was good.
* The weather was cooperating nicely for that month, although it was quite humid in Georgia. Something I was not use to.

Overall, while I was frustrated with changing instructors and now my second one was already leaving in a week too, I was happy. I did notice that each instructor was very different. So I'd venture to say Falcon does not have a standardization class for CFI's. But it was clear to me, everyone they hire is very professional and all the instructors are top notch. The quality I expected from an instruction stand point is clearly here. And for the first time in a long time, I was truly happy and the stress of my old life was slowing going away. All in life was finally in order. I was actually pursuing my dream!


* Private Pilot refresher = 30 days and 17 hours in the Diamond DA20
* Books and Supplies for the Professional Pilot Program: $1,380
* Cost: $2,410

Total cost for PPL Refresher plus Program Supplies: $3,790

Note: My supplies cost may seem high. But it includes all books to study, charts, my 1st class medical, and my David Clarke X11 headset (no need to buy an $800 head set, but I do advise it since the cheap ones are not comfortable).

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Wow, great story and thanks for sharing it.

What's been going on the past year?

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Standby. Much more coming since I just got my Cmmercial Single yesterday and will start Cmmercial Multi next week. Just waiting for an instructor to be assigned for me so I can start. Fingers crossed that happens quickly so I can knock out the Multi rating ASAP and begin working on my Instructor Ratings.

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

INSTRUMENT RATING - 90 days

Well, working at this full time it should have cost me about $7,400 (the 2007cost structure I locked into) and taken 60 days. It took me 90 days and about $2,000 more. Why? Two reasons:

1) I opted to do the whole program in the Diamond DA40 to get G1000 glass cockpit time and get out of the little DA20 since I'm 6'2'' tall and 200 pounds, making the DA20 pretty cramped for me. The program quoted cost splits time between the DA20 and DA40. So that handles the cost increase.

2) The time delay. Well, this one is a whole different issue. If the DA40s and weather cooperated more, I would have easily got done in 60 days. But the weather had me down for 2 weeks straight as ceilings were below landing mins for 2 solid weeks (a rare thing, but hey, it happens). On top of that, the DA40s (at the time they only had 3) were booked solid so if yours went down for a day or two you were out of luck. And my dispatch rate was literally only at 50%. The DA20 seems rock solid, but the DA40s had some serious reliability issues from my personal experience which caused half my flights (literally) to be cancelled due to a maintenance item. So I was only able to fly 3 blocks of 6 blocks per week just due to maintenance alone. But both weather and maintenance I can not blame on Falcon. These things happen. And I am glad to say, the planes were always safe and very well maintained. So overall, I have no issue with this.

3) Another part of the time delay, which is the one things I was not happy with, was that I was continuing to be flipped between instructors. Pretty much the theory should be, if you are an instructor and you want an airline job, take me on as a student and you'll be hired in two weeks!

So combining all those items together, her is my hindsight. I should have done the majority part of the training per the syllabus in the DA20. Then I would have got done on budget and in about 60 days since those planes are work horses; and that's even with the two weeks of bad weather and being the student without a permanent instructor.

Overall though, no flight school is perfect and things could have been much worse. Oh, and I heard much worse out there! So even though being flipped around from instructor to instructor is frustrating, it does allow you to fly with many different people. I learned something different from each one. So just like in most things in life, for every bad thing something good also comes from it.

Oh, and the quality of instruction was always top notch. And I still really enjoy flying the DA40 (100 times better than any training Cessna in my opinion.. I flown 150s, 172s, and 182s). And quite frankly, delays for maintenance on aircraft that are close to brand new planes as you can get along with weather are things that simply happen. Falcon runs a very safe operation, so I would never complain about that.

The training itself went like this... I did this on the Part 141 syllabus. So the program was structured as having to follow each lesson plan (but that's the only structure).
* I took 2 weeks of ground school with a great ground instructor. Learned a lot from him.
* I started with one instructor and a couple weeks later was without one again.
* I fly with random instructors for a couple weeks before landing with Travis (my favorite instructor of all time... kudos to him for sure!).
* I did the longest stint I ever had with an instructor so far, with Travis. It lasted about a month. Then he took a job as the base manager with Falcon at PDK (congrat's on the promotion man!). On that note, take note. You can actually work your way up with Falcon and have a career with the organziation if you so desire (options are good things).
* At this point, I was over 3/4 of the way through with only a few more approaches left to do per the syllabus and a cross country or two.
* I then flew with one other random instructor before being put with a retired airline pilot who was recently hired as an instructor. I finished up my instrument with him and passed the test.
* So onto my commercial single engine rating I went, without delay since it would be done under Part 61 and now it was time to do some cross country time building.


So at this point, being November 2007, what's my overall feeling on Falcon?

The Good...
* I love it here at Falcon, nice place (very busy).
* The DA40 is a joy to fly and I can only imagine the 42 is even better.
* The field (FFC) is busy, but not busy enough to keep you waiting too long.
* The instructors are outstanding, top notch.
* I am very excited to eventually instruct for them since I like what I see.
* If you have an issue, they will do all they can do to resolve it, they do care.

The Bad...
* Sometimes I feel lost due to very little structure (I'd rather call this Falcon FBO versus Academy, as it's simply like a very busy FBO in structure).
* They can't control mother nature, and the weather here means you never want to book a flight before 10am and there are a lot of days where you have 500 foot to 2500 foot ceilings making training tough (Northern Georgia weather simply sucks sometimes!).
* The DA 40's are in MX a lot (they seem to be the Harley of airplanes, love them but they have their issues just like my 'hog').
* They seem to have some operational issues where things are not yet standardized, but it is clear they are working on this. It seems to simply be from growing pains. So not really a bad thing, but still a frustration at times since it has affected me directly, but I see this improving. This place is only getting better, which is a good sin.
* Things could be much worse though if the operations items were from something other than growth, but these pains are from them growing in the right direction (so while there are 'pains', there is an exciting side to them for Falcon as a whole which will affect me in a good way eventually... mostly as a CFI here once I get to that point).


INSTRUMENT TIMES/ COSTS:
* 90 Days (all of September, October, and November 2007)
* 46.4 hours in the DA40
* Total cost (includes check ride and chart updates): $9,910


Total of all costs through Instrument: (PPL to IR): $13,700


PS - If you I did my complete private program at Falcon (versus only my refresher), add about $5,000 more in my opinion to the total. So the cost in that case to date would be $18,700 for everything.

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

COMMERCIAL RATING - 100 Days

So, in December I began my commercial single engine training. I opted to do this under Part 61 since I needed only 125 hours to hit my 250 hours minimum to take the exam. And the Part 141 program required only 5 hours less, but with the Part 141 syllabus you have to do things in the order of the syllabus which could be limiting given my experience with Georgia weather and instructor challenges. So I opted for the flexibility of Part 61. As I found out most people are doing there.

Even with my little extra time required and one major check ride bust, I still came at exactly the quoted cost for the 141 Program (under my locked in 2007 prepay program rate). And the program is quoted at 90 days and I took 100 days (not bad when having to wait due to another instructor change, having to wait over a week for my final stage check, and then wait almost 2 weeks for my FAA check ride... which I then had to finish up the following week due to my bust).

Oh, and the good news was that I was done flying the DA40. I really enjoy that aircraft, but the maintenance issues were driving me nuts. So I was actually refreshed to get back into the DA20 for some solo work since I knew the dispatch rate would be much better. And the DA20 is a comfortable aircraft with me in there alone... just too cramped with two people my size. Amazingly, through the whole commercial program my dispatch rate was 100% on the DA20. Just something to love about that plane after all. Zero maintenance issues. That saves time. And time is money when training.

The Georgia weather was still a challenge, but I was able to take an aircraft and burn off 5 hours of flight time a day or more on good weather days. Keep in mind, that puts the aircraft out for about 7 hours total and the days are short in winter. Also, Falcon does not allow night flights outside of those required to meet your your rating. So if you are off by 11am, you need to be back by 6pm (and good luck getting off before 11am when you have a layer of ice on the composite plane and the temps are still below freezing until around 10am). And this South Texan is not happy about that, brrrrr!

So how did the program go? Fun!
* For a solid 6 weeks I pretty much flew the wings off the DA20 on daytime VFR cross country flights (one day putting 9.8 hours on the hobbs).
* I flew from Peachtree City (KFFC), just south of Atlanta to places like: Myrtle Beach, St Simmons Island, St Augustine, Cedar Keys, Pigeon Forge, Asheville, and many more cool places. I even witnessed a twin engine Cessna plane crash on a go-around at Hilton Head which closed the airport for a few hours (luckily the pilot and passenger were okay, even though the plane went head over heels in the grass between the runway and taxiway).
* Oh, it does get a little boring though when doing a 3 hour leg in a DA20 alone with nothing more than Flight Following to keep you company. Too bad no XM radio like in the DA40.
* Also during that cross country time building, I did the required dual and solo cross country times and night flights per the Part 61 syllabus.
* Being only 45 days in, I thought I'd have this rating knocked out in 60 days! I thought too soon...
* 45 days and already only 16 more hours to go to reach my 250 hours minimum for the FAA check ride. Since I needed 10 in a complex aircraft, I was simply going to do the last 16 hours in the Cessna 182RG.
* Well, like usual protocol I become use to now, my most recent airline pilot instructor was now fully booked with other students since I did not need to fly with him for the last 6 week. He was simply booked solid with other students for the next 3 weeks out when we looked.
* So I had another delay in getting set up with a new instructor. I had another instructor assigned within a couple days, but then trying to book time on the only C182RG was a problem. The plane was booked solid for almost 2 weeks out. On a side note (see below... I got bored so I started a business to pay for the rest of my training in cash! Ah, how the past can come back to benefit you).
* So after almost a 2 full week delay, me and my new instructor went up so I could get checked out in the C182RG giving me the required complex endorsement. And the 182 also adds a high performance endorsement.
* Unfortunately, it took me 45 days to build 20 hours of flight time in the C182RG. So that slowed me down a lot. Working with availability of the instructor and aircraft was a challenge. And the other challenge was weather once again in addition to the annual inspection taking the aircraft down for a couple days and a couple other maintenance issues (nothing major like the DA40 though, so the couple maintenance delays on this aircraft were reasonable).
* Well, with only now averaging 2 blocks of flight time a week, I finally hit the required 250 hours. And my stage check went perfectly (had to wait a week for this since they are so busy). Pulled off all required maneuvers like cake walk. Actually, even better than I expected.
* The practical test was scheduled for almost 2 weeks out, first slot available. The ground portion took 4 hours and went great. The flight portion went for 2 hours, but the examiner did not like the points of reference I used on my 8s on Pylons. Then my soft field landing was more like a short field to him as it was not soft enough. And my Power Off 180 came up 600 feet short since he wanted me to execute it from a normal downwind, versus a close in downwind (something I never practiced). So, I got the pink slip and had to go back the following week to redo those three maneuvers. Amazing how I could go from perfecting everything to falling apart at the wrong time. Well, no one is perfect so I'll get it right the next week.
* So I was assigned a different instructor who was available on short notice for a quick hop with me. A quick 0.8 hobbs meter flight. Iwas able to nail three power off 180s in a row from a normal downwind and easily complete 8s on pylons using the row of rivets on the wing the examiner wanted to see as my reference point. So, that was enough to get resigned off for the test again.
* The next day, went back to redo my maneuvers with the examiner. But wait. Wow! The wind is right down the runway but at 15 knots with gusts. And the wind at just 1000 feet AGL is 30 knots! Yes, a cold front just passed and low pressure dominated the area. So while is was a clear day, the winds were strong. Even so, the 8 on pylons went smoothly. The soft field landing was soft even with a gusting wind. And the power off 180? I turned in immediately upon pulling power at the 1000 foot marker and was pushed pretty far out, even doing a 30 degree bank all the way around (maximum I would bank in most any case when in the pattern). But crossing the numbers with no flaps and almost in ground effect, I went one notch at a time holding off the plane inches above the runway per flap as we slowed and the flaps increased lift momentarily; enough to keep us floating at nearly a stand still with a 15-20 knot head wind. We touched down about 10 feet short of the 1000 foot marker, but with that wind it was clear every ounce of energy management was squeezed out of the aircraft and the examiner said he could ask for no more as it was perfect.
* Commercial ticket in hand.

So now it's onto the multi-engine. And since I live in downtown Atlanta and Peachtree City (FFC) is a 45 mile drive each way, I am going to do the multi at Falcon's Peachtree Dekalb (PDK) location. Super busy controlled airport, but the experience there will be great. And, that's where my favorite instructor is after all. While he won't be my instructor, I know he looks out for the students and makes sure things get done right. So I'm excited about getting to PDK for my next step in my journey.

Oh, and did I mention. It's been 24 hours since my flight test. So not much time has passed. But if you been reading my posts. You know what I am doing right now. Yep, that's right. Waiting for another new instructor who can get me started on my multi-engine in the DA42. Fingers crossed I can get started next week pending instructor, aircraft availability, and weather of course.


So what are my thoughts right now?
Well, it's clear doing this program full time is tough. Even if you have all the time in the world like me, all the other variables will inevitably cause delays along the way. Remember, I left to do this full time since I saved my money and have no job (well, had no job). So patience and good spirits are certainly required.

Oh, and a business you can work from your home where you have no set schedule; perfect for making money and passing the time! I burned through my $15k I had saved up for training in cash, as you can tell below. And I still have enough money to last me for over a year without working. So all that is well. And Sallie Mae's loan for $30k is what is finishing me up. But, with all the delays I got bored since one can only study so much in your down time. And the knowledge stuff as a pilot is nowhere as hard or complicated as what I had to do in college. So my business crept back up on me.

My reputation in the executive recruiting industry tends to precede me in a good way. After all, I was quite successful and many people wonder what happened to me since they still really need my service. Well, some are savvy enough to still be able to find me even after my move and phone number changes. So I been asked to help out a group of investors back in January. So in my free time, I been burning up the midnight oil doing the old business on my own terms. And what happened over the last 60 days with this? I'll keep it simple. I am putting in around 30 hours a week working for only this one group who I respect highly and they treat me well, along with value my services. I'm already working on winding the business back down since I know once I get into the CFI program in a month or two out, that will require a lot of time up front so I can't be distracted by other commitments. And over the last 60 days I made over $70k in revenue with no expenses at all, so that's pure profit that I'll get taxed on which is going to hurt.

This certainly proved, at least I always have something to fall back on if I need too. Hence why it's great to have a degree and experience in something outside of aviation as it keeps your options open. But most importantly, for now, I'll collect that cash in a few months once the invoice is paid on the terms we agreed upon. Then Sallie Mae will be paid off in full, which is good since while that debt did not affect me much as it was not enough in relation to my equity to be owned yet, having no debt is always the best place to be. And I'll be right back there already! Oh, plus I get some extra money to help supplement my income while being a starving pilot since even after I pay tax on the revenues and pay off Sallie Mae, I should still net a few grand. So back to being debt free again already with the future still looking bright. Isn't it funny how things work out sometimes?

Advice to others. If you want to fly, put a plan in motion to achieve your dreams. Once you follow them, it's amazing what doors you never expected may open up. And it's not a race to get to the goal. Simply keep progressing toward it and enjoy the ride on the way there.


My to date training summary:

COMMERCIAL RATING TIMES/ COSTS:
* 100 Days (December 2007 to mid-March 2008)
* 103.2 hours in the DA20 for Cross Country times
* 19.9 hours in the C182RG for commercial maneuvers and complex/ high-performance check out
* Total cost (includes check ride and chart updates): $16,100


TOTALS FOR PROGRAM TO DATE:
* 7 Months (August 1st to March 13)
* Total of all costs (PPL to CSEL): $29,800


PS - If you I did my complete private program at Falcon (versus only my refresher), add about $5,000 more in my opinion to the total. So the cost in that case to date would be $34,800 for everything.

Total logbook times to date:
Single Engine: 256.2
Mutli Engine: 0.0
Glass Cockpit: 50.2
Day: 242.3
Night: 13.9
Instrument (actual): 0.8
Instrument (hood): 39.1
Simulator: 0.0
Cross Country: 133.6
Dual: 105.8
PIC - SEL: 221.9
PIC - MEL: 0.0

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

HEY!!! TAKE THAT BACK!

Great write up Joe, keep it up man. You'll have that CMEL and CFI ratings quickly. I highly recommend doing your MEI as your initial too by the way.

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

I didn't reference my log book while writing since I went off memory, but it does look like you were that random instructor....lol!

Oh, but there is also Spruce and Donny G in there too before I ended up with Don for a bit. So I guess that makes it three random instructors during that transition from Erin to Don Z.

All of you are rock solid instructors! Oh, and glad all is well with you at ASA too. We'll have to meet up some evening later this year for dinner so you can help me learn about life at ASA once I get to a point of making decisions between the regional route or charter route as my post CFI stepping stone to flying Part 91 corporate someday since I have a lot of connections in Part 91/ 135 departments

Fingers crossed I get assigned an instructor on the twinstar to start next week. I'll give PDK a call tomorrow if I don't hear back today. Looks like there are 2 twinstars there for now, and enough instructors to go around so I should be able to knock out the Multi-Comm in a 2-3 weeks time (they say 14 days, 15 hours on the syllabus).

And yep, I plan on the MEI as the initial. I figure I might as well stick with the Twin Star to go to MEI right after I add on the multi-rating since that aircraft will be fresh on my mind after doing the 15 hours for the add on rating in it. Oh, and I may also get checked out in a Seminole too that rents for $180 per hour. A 5 hour check out once I have my multi and I can rent the plane. So that could be some cheap time building (cheap when compared to the twin stars that go for $100/hour more, meaning outside of training and teaching I won't be renting a twin star for a day anytime soon).

Cheers,
Joseph
The Flying Hermit... :nana2:

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Hey Texas,

Let me know sometime if you would like to go across the street to The TRACON for a tour. I am usually at FFC (except for the next few weeks because of the closure) on Mon., Tues., and Wed. around 4ish. My son, still in High School, flies three times a week and just soloed yesterday at CCO.
Thanks for the update as I am pondering as to whether to send my son to Middle GA for the Pro Pilot Program or just to FFC for the Career pilot program.

PS - You'll usually see me in a Red Sox or Titleist GA Tech hat
Cheers

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

So now it's onto the multi-engine. And since I live in downtown Atlanta and Peachtree City (FFC) is a 45 mile drive each way, I am going to do the multi at Falcon's Peachtree Dekalb (PDK) location.

Be extremely careful at PDK. Lots of CRAZY things go on over there and it seems that half don't talk to the TRACON or PDK tower for advisories after they get more than a few miles out. The area Between MGE - FTY - PDK is like the Bermuda Triangle. You go in....and you don't come out. Keep your eyes open at all times, there is traffic everywhere out there.

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Man, since I live in Midtown Atlanta and will b at PDK now, I wish I typed this up sooner (yeah, I was lazy when it come to getting my experience up there but I thought a summary of each rating would be better than a daily diary). Plus I will do a summary on the Multi and then each CFI rating too as I complete those. If I typed this up sooner, I would have most certainly taken you up on the tour offer! If I ever know that I'm getting back down to FFC, I'll PM you a couple days notice to see if we can coordinate that tour. Thanks for the offer!

For a high school person, I would advise a 4 year degree program. It'll save the trouble of having to be a nontraditional student later in life. So I'd go to college (any 4 year college to get a bachelor's degree) while working on the flight ratings part-time for the first two years of college and then being a part-time CFI for the last two years of college. Then in 4 years he'll have a degree (check that box off), have all his flight ratings (check that box off), and should have well over 1,000 hours with a good amount of multi-time from the training and flight instructing (so check that box off when applying for jobs too!).

Now as far as which is better for him to train at. I don't know. I know nothing about Middle Georgia. But I did just look at their website (wow, wish I could have found a place like this back in 1991 when I got out of high school and been able to convince my parents to help me with this versus the silly accounting degree I pretty much never used). Looks like Middle GA has a 4 year degree program and you get your ratings too. I would advise that route as a career counselor (that comes from an almost ex third party aviation recruiter who knows the truths on hiring since I don't have to give politically correct answers like HR people do).

Oh, and some say an aviation degree is bad since it limits you. Not true! You can not only fly, but you can also get into FBO Management, Airport Management, and other jobs where the pay at the top end is much more than pilots will ever make (I used to regularly place people who are in their id 40's with 20 years career experience of which the last ten been in FBO Management and they were around $120k to $150k on base salary plus incentives that could bring them upward of another 20-40% in bonuses!). So the degree will keep your options open since you never know if you'll loose your flying career or ultimately not enjoy it as much as you hoped. As I recruiter I didn't care what their degree was in, it was about career path and personality that qualified them for jobs beyond the entry level. But the BA/ BS degree was required just because it helps round a person and gives some business maturity (I may get reamed for this, but flight ratings in the view of us corporate folk do not help with business maturity... so that answers the age old question of why do they require a degree...).

So take that all for what it's worth

I believe I have seen you before. I'm about 6'2'' tall and drive the light Blue Toyota Tacoma. I normally flew from around 11am to 6pm or so (never too early since I had almost an hour drive each way to FFC and the ice in the morning meant no one was flying until 10am anyway). My flight bad is bright red. And my names Joseph. So nice to meet you! And best of success to your son. Falcon's a good place. But for him, I'd lean toward the degree program at Middle, GA. And better yet, if his prior flight experience gets him some credit at the school, don't let him take the easy way out. I'd still advise he take some other courses in the airport management and/or FBO / Repair Station management areas if possible (it wont actually help his college transcript but it will help him gain some important knowledge in case a future career change is ever in order).

CHEERS!
Joseph

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Gladly man. If you have any questions about CFI stuff, just let me know.

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Nice writeup sir!

Kinda like your story, I started with no PPL and 39 hrs from a decade ago. Just finished my CMEL/SE yesterday. I have not added it all up in a while, But it looks like it has cost me around $23-25k. That is slightly less, BUT I have flown old equipment versus the beautiful glass stuff you have been in.

Keep up the good work and updates!

Cheers!

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Thank you. Looks like we have close to the same goals too!


Oh, and a quick update. Guess what I am doing right now?

Yep, if you read my blog, you know. I'm still waiting.

No call Thursday. No call today. Remember, I just got my CSEL so I need to now get with another instructor to complete my CMEL. I was told I'd be called by one on Thursday to get started flying on Monday. It's now 9:30pm on Friday. No call.

So, in usual fashion, I will have to go up to the airport again in person to hunt me down an instructor. Just the way things are done at Falcon. You have to be aggressive in your training to get things done. I don't like it, but it seems to be the only way.

If I did not start my business back up (which I am winding back down already), I would have lost patience by now. I'm not one to just sit around as you can tell from my career history. But like I said, no where is perfect. When you take the good with the bad, I'm still happy overall with my choice. And I am very excited to begin instructing with Falcon in the near future. I know I can make a positive difference in not only customer service, but also in operations. So long as they are open to ideas and input on how to improve. If not, hey, I'll just do my job and shut up. After all, I'll finally be working for someone else and sometimes it's best just to do the job you are paid to do.

So I now sit and wait until Monday. Then head up to get things accomplished in person to prevent any further delay. :banghead:

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

TORNADO

So I live downtown Atlanta (the southeastern end of Midtown Atlanta). A tornado just turned my neighborhood into a war zone last night!

Since when do these things crush high rise apartments a couple blocks from me, rip through the inner city trashing skyscrapers, turn a few historical homes down the street into lumber piles, and dent the heck out of my truck with flying debris (at least my windows did not bust out like many cars did in the parking garage... and glad it was in the garage since many of the cars on the street were turned over!).

So since I been in Atlanta:
* My apartment been robbed (Peachtree City)
* Truck tires slashed twice (Atlanta)
* Truck broken into once, nothing of value taken (Atlanta)
* I was stabbed when preventing someone from stealing my Harley (Atlanta)
* I seen drugs more times here than I ever seen before (Peachtree City & Atlanta)
* The homeless aggressively panhandle which involves them touching you on the shoulder and following you while asking for money over and over as you walk away... I call it harassment but here they city calls it the way the homeless conduct business (Atlanta)
* And now a tornado destroys the far end of my block (luckily it missed my loft) while damaging my truck in the parking garage on the other side of the property (which is 1/3 of the way to where buildings and houses are crushed). And darn it, the twister completely demolished my favorite weekend pub down the street.

How unlucky can I be sometimes! Oh well, the good news is I'm still safe and hopefully will get set up to begin flying at some point next week once I to the airport on Monday to expedite things like usual.

Oh my. So now a day of clean up begins (why else would this night owl be up at 7am!). And I hope everyone tied down the planes if winds got high just north of the city and an hour south of here!

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Good write up!

Say hi to Olamide in PDK for me!

-Craig

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Joseph,

I hope everything turns out alright.

Reference your other post about instructors. My son, still in HS, flies three times a week, weather permitting. Once he gets out of HS he will probably switch instructors. His current instructor is a new ATC at Atlanta ATRCC in Hampton (as well as my daughter's boyfriend...but that;'s another story) and will not have the time to train him on a full time basis. How easy, or how accessible, are the instructors for someone looking for full time instruction?

Again glad you're safe and hope all turns out OK.

Keep the dirty side down.

Jon

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Dang! It was a nice beautiful evening at about 8pm yesterday down here in PTC/Newnan. Then at around 10:30pm my wife told me a tornado just went through downtown - I'm like . . .No it didn't, there was nothing out there.

Sure enough, pull a radar loop. . .and wammy.

Glad you're safe and unharmed.

You know you want to come up here and work Craig. . .come on man.

Just get it over with.

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

I can only speak from my experience. Full time is defined as:
* Flying two blocks a day, each block being a two hour block.
* You study before each lesson for about an hour or two.
* That's about 8 hours of actual "work" per day.
* During cross country/ solo days, one long cross country a day or two standard blocks a day as solo time.

This full time concept is also how Falcon advertised the program when I joined them. I am not sure how they currently advertise. I am sure this is still the goal for them though. It's just not the reality, at least not today (tomorrow it could be). Now, I was told this was absolutely possible to do under those full time expectations when I visited the school a good six months prior to starting the program.

Now, as you know, things change quickly in aviation. They were not as busy back when I visited. If I remember correct, back when I visited the school's Newnan facility was just in the planning stages. And the international student load just recently arrived (a huge factor in their growth). And I seen a decent amount of aircraft sitting around on a nice flying day. Things changed quickly.

Here is my experience:

* There is pretty much always a plane available for all the solo work you want if you plan out a few days in advance with scheduling (I always plan my own flights out about 5 days in advance which works well). So you can accomplish the solo flight time goals or even exceed them. I exceeded them doing many 5 to 8 hour actual hobbs time days on solo days (two 3 hour blocks for local flights or a long 8 to 10 hour block of time for cross country time building to "get it done").

* But when you need an instructor, from my experience, no instructor can train any student here full time (as defined above). And those that say they can, within a week they get overbooked and can no longer do so (personal experience). Falcon just has too many students and not enough resources when it comes to instructors. It's simple math. When you have instructors with 5 or more students and all are wanting to fly full-time blocks (the numbers don't work out). So at most your instructor will be able to schedule one block a day five days a week with you (not even one block a day six days a week since that cuts into someone else's time, as I tried squeezing this in before and those flights always been cancelled on my behalf). And I been shot down several times on my idea of having two different instructors (one for morning block and one for afternoon).

Realistically, plan on 5 scheduled flights a week. To me that's doing this half time. And then figure in instructor changes, weather in Northern Georgia, maintenance downtime, and days your instructor needs a day off for personal matters such as medical, interviews, a simple extra day of R&R... you will average less than 5 days a week (more like around 3-4 flights a week). So if you put in extreme effort during your solo times to make up for lost time, you just turned an advertised 6 month Professional Pilot Program (PPL, IR, CSEL, CMEL, CFI, CFII, MEI) into a 10-12 month program.

Is this all bad? Not sure. You can work a flexible job which helps the budget. Or you can attend college part-time or maybe even full-time depending on your major and the college's scheduling flexibility. And a BA/ BS college degree I would highly advise. And you can do all this successfully.

Some other notes: I know they are working to hire more instructors (heck, there is quite a few new ones buzzing around lately it seems... but then just as many have moved on to ASA). But with the Regional hiring spree it is hard for any flight school to keep instructors around right now. That's really the only major issue Falcon has right now from my student perspective. Unfortunately this also makes things pretty impersonal too at times since I like to form relationships and bond with people. Just not possible to do when flying with a new instructor each month. But on the flip side of all this, I do respect the fact they don't hire anyone off the street as a CFI. They seem to only hire quality instructors. Hence why even through all the scheduling troubles, quality has continued to remained high. And I'd rather take a little longer knowing quality is good than speed through with a marginal instructor.

So that's my experience. And most likely why 3 days later I am still waiting once again to be assigned an instructor to get me moving on the multi-engine rating. So that's three more flying days lost so far. Plus probably a couple more next week, if not the whole week lost, looking at available aircraft and instructors in the online schedule right now.

So, looks like I'll be studying Twinstar systems and working the business most of next week. I can only imagine the poor instructor with already 5 to 6 students full time being asked to take on another full time student (me). As an instructor, I would also have to decline taking another student as there just might not be enough time to do so.

Oh, and being a business executive and operational professional, I do have the solution to help much of this (what I'll call) continuity of training issues and program management challenges. I know other domestic student I talked to in IR and CSEL ground school had similar issues as me. My plan would help things greatly, but not solve the instructor shortage. And, after all, I'm just a student that will then just be a CFI (and love that since I know I can fly a full schedule and build quality time fast, so the back end as a CFI looks great!). As a student (or when an instructor for that matter) I am not paid to go offering advice on structuring the company into two separate training divisions with two separate business models to more effectively manage the domestic and the international programs to insure continuity for each student through a more structured program. Of course this would create a couple new administrative positions while restructuring some current ones. This is usually the last thing most businesses want since administrative positions do not directly add to the bottom line (only indirectly do they do this and that's hard to measure). I better stop thinking before I go secure a consulting assignment with a flight school or start a new business, this time a flight school...lol.

PS -
Now, in all fairness, in speaking with other students at many other small and large flight schools, this is not a problem unique to Falcon. This is a complete industry challenge. You can also see this as an issue on these forums. The same is clearly the case at Aviator right now when I lurk in their forum. And also White Air recognizes the problem of lacking instruction resources, but they take the approach of now not accepting new career students until 2009 (I give them kudos for this... but of course that also means their goal is not to have multiple locations with hundreds of students... sometimes staying small is good too!). And quite frankly, even me with all my business knowledge, can not solve the instructor shortage in the industry. After all, even the increases in pay to $25/hour at Falcon for CFI-CFII-MEI and at other schools offering $40k+ salaries, people still jump to Regionals to make half that money for the first few years.

Also, like I said earlier. Aviation changes quick. All this can change immediately if Regional hiring slows. And that will happen. The question is, when? Next week? Next year? No one knows that answer for sure. And there are so many other factors that can cause international student training to slow down. Our flight school prices are increasing faster than some other places in the world and user fees could really affect things too if those happen. The dollar is weak and getting weaker, but what if that changes? What if people fall back into fear of a true recession or a terrorist attack? After all, gold investments are increases as fast as oil cost. And gold is a good predictor of things to come historically. Just so many variables. None of which we can control. Aviation is like the stock market. Do your research. Then make your best educated decision on where to invest your hard earned time and money. Then hope for the best. And most of all, enjoy the ride!

Re: Falcon Aviation Academy - My Journey (2007-2008 & beyond

Here's something I have just noticed while looking at the schedule for next month.

They are moving all but 2 DA-20's to Newnan, making it almost impossible to schedule time for my son.

Anyone know what gives??