Rant

actually some of it was due to procedures flying outside of UND, but a lot of it is from the instructing and just BS'ing with other instructors about their experiences. you can do this, try that, etc etc

things i have learned away from UND:
1. some places have no structure and it is a little scary to take their airplanes due to lack of any type of strict checkout procedures.
2. some places are extremely strict for checkouts and a UND stage check was almost easier
3. how to fuel an airplane (champ at CKN)
4. how to pull an airplane out of a hanger(CKN again)
there are a lot more, but i won't list them

at the end of the day, an airplane is an airplane, 100LL is 100LL, a C172 is slightly different than a PA28, but not too much, yadda yadda

and i don't regret learning to fly at UND, just the way i went about it, money spent, stage check system, lack of some of the experience you learn elsewhere. granted i am not in aviation to get that right seat in a jet with 200+ people behind me. i am in aviation for the love of it and am willing to fly just about anything as long as it is safe and will pay the bills

Thanks guys...

I am waiting for ground school to start really. Foltz took us on a tour of the maintance on friday so we really haven't started up. I want nothing lower then an A in that class.

And I am going to talk to my instructor tommorow. I just want to feel like I am making progress in the air.

I have been studying for my flight. I took a sectional and cut out the area where the practice areas are and highlighted them. I went through the checklist trainer and the emergency trainer a couple times, stan manual for set ups for manuevers, I did about a third of the stage 14 review online, and now I am going through the worksheet for lesson 13. After I finish the worksheet, I am going to go over Vspeeds and stan manual some more.

chair fly, chair fly, chair fly. do it, it really works

I made sure that my finish ups this semester got taken care of. If I couldn’t fly with them, I made sure that I found a CFI that could (all they really needed was a review flight or two) both left for break prior to completing their final stage check.

I’m not so sure it’s a UND thing, but more of the way a CFI is looking out for his/her students’ best interests. Assuming, of course, that this is the intent of the instructor...

you sound like one of the better ones over there. i was always stuck with the guys who pretty much just dropped me once the semester ended and the new one began. they had no time for me anymore or just didn't want to do anything they could to help me out. left a pretty sour taste in my mouth as i was always last on the list of priorities

Oh, no doubt! You’ll learn with experience, and the value of that is priceless. UND won’t teach you everything, but neither will any place. That experience is something that we can pass down through our teaching as a CFI to our students. I really feel that what I’ve learned elsewhere in combination with what I’ve learned here at UND makes instruction easier and more vivid/exciting for students as I can share stories/experiences/etc… etc… on a daily basis.

i was also never lucky enough to have an instructor who had been away from the bubble. so the only experiences they could teach me were of what they had done at UND. inbreeding is what i call it

but i do go out and use the procedures, etc i learned at und when i fly as it pertains to flying the actual aircraft. checklists and flows are wonderful, hated them at first but now it is just easy

Sucks when you have a CFI instructor like this too. Mine is just like me, flown around Chicago A LOT. He did a good job of balancing part 61 and 141 stuff when teaching me how to instruct. One of my other friends had an instructor that's only flown around here. I think about all my friend knows how to do is teach at UND. We'll see if he passes the checkride with that.

I know that is just one instructor that's never left the area, so that is a pretty strong generalization by me. It seems though that you're much more rounded and flexible if you get experiance outside of here. MSP doesn't count as busy airspace, flying over deluth doesnt count as flying over terrain , flying over the lakes in MN doesn't count as flying for an extended time over water(lake superior an exception), ect...

Flying here gives you excellent experiance flying into small remote airports and dealing with random weather events, especially in the summer, but you'd get better experiance flying in other parts of the country with other things.

Take an airplane up flying down there with TIS or ADSB on a nice Friday evening or Sunday afternoon… Or when MSP has their pushes…

Is MSP the busiest place compared to ORD or ATL? Probably not… but I wouldn’t say that it’s not a busy area.

I wasn't totally serious on that point. Although, since it is just the one airport, it is pretty easy to fly around there even when it's busy.

yeh yeh!

Update...

My flight went well today. I knew all the set ups pretty well. Finally did some ground reference maneuvers after not doing them for a looong time. We would have completed the lesson but we did not get enough time to do a power off 180s. It wasn't a big deal because we played to do 1 more flight before my stage check to make the maneuvers even better before doing the check.

After the flight, he asked if I had any questions. And I told him I didn't and that I just wish I was flying wayyyyy more. He said he has 2 students going in for their stage really soon and one about to after he gets better from mono. He then said he could talk to the guy who runs the schedules and he could see if we could find another CFI thats schedule would fit better. I said that would be great. He said he will set someone up to take over after I finish stage 14. He was nice about and told him how much I liked him as a CFI and that it was nothing personal.

I think everything went well.

So now I just need to study more and am hoping to get my 14 out of the way by the end of this week. I am going to call my CFI tommorow when he has his schedule in front of him. Hoping to get up Tuesday or Wesnesday. And then hoping to do 14 by the end of saturday or even sunday at the latest.

How hard is 14? I started filling out the review sheet online. Looks like und procedures, some far's, emergency procedures and maneuvers. What would it take for me not to pass?

Go with plan B.

Still an option but I do not think I am ready to make any immediate choices on that yet. I wait to see how the rest of the semester goes.

stage 14 (15 when i did it) consists of basic knowledge, UND policys, and then the flying to/from a practice area w/o killing anyone = pass, it is your first and last easy UND stage check

My 102/30 with Dan Malott was pretty easy.:nana2:

You will do fine on your 14. I definitely overprepared for mine. To fail you would have to screw up emergencies or V-Speeds. Something real major. Something that came out of left field on mine was the markings on the airspeed indicator. Thankfully I was able to kind of halfway demonstrate that I knew what I was talking about. My favorite question on my oral was, "Can you wear sandles while flying in a UND airplane?" It was just a bunch of yes/no over P&P and questions based on emergency scenarios.

How are you liking 221 compared to 102? Are there less flight labs and more simulator time? Hows the ground school work load?

hey! hey guys! this drink is for YOU!

well ill be damned.

it is nice to know there really is a few guys out there of the same spirit, not just the OMG COOL BIG AIRLINER JET WOWOWO kids....

hell, ill settle with "reasonably-safe-and-will-probably-only-just-kill-me-and-no-passengers"...and-pays-the-bills

cheers.