The Aviators Thread

First snow of the season today... depressing. But at least my heater was working

We lost Frank Borman on 7NOV. I had the privilege of meeting him briefly and found him to embody all of those great hallmarks of what it means to be a leader, a professional, and a humble servant to your fellow man.

Godspeed, Frank.

I suppose it's time to provide an update on my personal Aviators journey.



About twenty-two months ago I decided it was time to try to realize a lifelong dream of learning to fly. It wasn't easy deciding on what to learn to fly, but to make a long story short, I chose helicopters. From my present vantage point, I can accurately say that I had no idea what I was getting into.

It turned out that I had zero natural ability to fly a helicopter. Actually, probably less than zero. For me, learning was slow, and hard. On average, students take 10-15 hrs to acquire the most rudimentary skills needed to pick up a helicopter off the ground, get it airborne, and set it back down on the ground in one piece. It took me about 25 hrs. My personal mantra during this particularly frustrating period was: "Keep going, until someone tells you No".

Somehow I got through that brutal First Phase of training, and made it through the Second Phase as well. I would call the Second Phase "Grinding It Out". In those 40 hours I learned how to do all the things required for normal flight, to a reasonable level of proficiency. I should point out that my mode of learning is not very efficient: with a busy family and work life also, I have averaged about 3 hours of flight time per month. So it has usually felt like two steps forward, one step back; I have never experienced a sudden "breakthrough" to the next level.

And then there was the issue of the Medical Certificate. When I initially filled out my Medical Certificate application and took it with me to my local Airman Medical Examiner (AME, aka Flight Surgeon) I noted that I had a single case of pancreatitis over eight years ago. It turns out that pancreatitis is a big red flag as far as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is concerned. My AME informed me that he could not issue a Certificate himself and that I would have to work with the FAA directly to resolve the issue. Which turned out to be an arduous, incredibly frustrating, six-month process. I did eventually get a Third Class Medical Certificate issued directly from Oklahoma City, but to add insult to injury, the six months it took to get it are deducted from the two-year validity of the certificate.

So now I'm in what I think of as the Third Phase of training. I'd call it the fun part. I'm working on advanced flight procedures like off-airport landings, confined space landings and takeoffs, and emergency procedures like autorotation, running landings, and Vortex Ring State recovery. When I was a few months into training, I remember complaining to myself about the "bad luck" of having to learn to fly in busy Class C airspace (Hollywood-Burbank Airport). Now, I count myself as extremely lucky to have that opportunity.



At my present rate of progress I figure I'll be ready for my Private Pilot check ride in about 8-10 months from now. I'm just glad it doesn't feel like grinding anymore.

Suppose I had forgotten to mention where I was headed after my ORD layover. I'm now at the Delta training center in Miami for ATP-CTP. Figure I'd move the ball one step closer to the end goal of a more stable career in the cockpit vs being on fire doing AOG work 4k hours every year.

Had a great instructor first two days. Different guy coming on board tomorrow.

My SIM slots aren't too crappy. Should be roughly 0000-0545z starting in a couple days.

Any Delta guys here??

Now I have a new career goal: do real work up front with @Mad Dog and take pictures of each other's Speedmasters 😎