I'm back

Well, it has certainly been a long time. Based on the date of my last post, the last time I accessed this blog was in January. I can only attribute my sudden absence to the higher workload I faced in the second half of my Senior year in High School with getting ready to graduate and move onto the next phase of my life, college. It is somewhat ironic that I decided to return to this blog now, just at the end of my first semester at the University of Michigan, when I've seen the most work ever. However, I received an email inquiry from a reader, asking me how my road to becoming a pilot has progressed. Obviously, a lot has happened since January, so I'll start with that.

In January, I already had my Private Pilot's License along with an Instrument Rating. At that time, I was conducting many cross-country flights to build flight time toward my Commercial License. In order to obtain my Commercial License, I had to obtain at least 250 hours total time, in addition to a bit of instructing time to learn new maneuvers and become familiar with new regulations. As I got closer to obtaining my Commercial License, I learned what it was really about.

First of all, the Commercial License allows a pilot to 'fly for hire'. Yes, up until a pilot receives his Commercial License, it is illegal to the pilot to receive any compensation. 'Compensation' is also a term broadly defined by the FAA or whoever writes the Federal Aviation Regulations. It can be defined as monetary compensation a pilot may receive in exchange for his services, or it can even mean the flight hours the pilots gain. In general, if the pilot benefits in any way, any way that can be defined as 'compensation,' that pilot is treading on thin ice. Many people tend to confuse the Commercial License with flying big airliners, but that is far from actuality. When a pilot obtains his Commercial License, he often trains to become a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) but may also fly tow-banners, fly crop dusters, conduct photo flights, traffic reports, etc. Personally, I want to become an instructor.

Second of all, the Commercial License exam tests your knowledge of applicable regulations. The coverage of the new regulations associated with a Commercial License is vast. One must be able to differentiate between the rules that cover a flight under hire and a flight not under hire. For example, if a pilot is carrying a group of people for hire and the route of flight involves flying over water out of gliding range, are lift jackets required? The answer is obvious, and it is yes. But what if the flight is still overwater but is not for hire? For example, if I were just flying a group of friends somewhere and we were all splitting the costs? The answer is no, life jackets are not required. That doesn't mean, however, that they aren't recommended. Does having a Commercial License mean that I can charge anyone I want to fly somewhere? No. I must be working for a commercial operator such as a flight school. Those are a few examples of the regulations that I must be familiar with.

The Commercial License also tests a pilot's ability to control an aircraft under advanced maneuvers. A few of these new maneuvers were called: lazy eights, eights on pylons, chandelles, slow flight, steep turns, power-on and power-off stalls, power off accuracy landings, soft field and short field takeoffs, and more. The majority of these maneuvers are tested during the checkride with an FAA examiner, and the pilot taking the checkride only gets one chance to get them right. Therefore, it takes a lot of preparation and practice to get them right. Furthermore, the pilot is held to higher expectations and official standards during these maneuevers. For example, when I complete the lazy eight maneuever, my altitude and airspeed is only allowed to vary so much (about 100ft and 10kts, respectively). If those limits are broken, the examiner can fail me. To get an idea of what these maneuvers look like and what they involve, look here: http://www.av8n.com/how/htm/maneuver.html. That website is dense, so keep scrolling down until you see the names for the maneuevrs I listed if you don't want to read everything else.

Lastly, by the time a pilot takes his Commercial License exam, he is expected to have a better ability to make smart decisions. This decision making capability should have developed significantly during the period that the pilot was building time, hence the reason why the FAA demands at least 250 hours total time. Everyone makes mistakes, and pilots are expected to learn from their mistakes, determine what they could have done differently, and then never make the same mistake again. As a pilot builds more time, the more experience he gains and thus the better decision he makes, which is why the guys in the front seats of an airliner are paid the big bucks. To put the decision-making process into perspective, one of my instructors told me that, "A good pilot is a pilot who makes decisions to avoid situations that require superior decision making."

So, I spent months building flight time, learning the applicable regulations, and preparing myself for the exam and checkride. I passed my written and oral exam and I took my checkride in November in Ann Arbor. Like I mentioned above, the checkride involved various maneuvers that I had to ace the first time, and I passed! My next step is to begin training to obtain my Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) certificate sometime in the next few months. Then I'll be able to teach, fly, and get paid at the same time and I'll have another good summer job and a part-time job during college.

I'll do my best to post again soon. I have a few ideas about what I'll write about; maybe fear of flying or the airline industry. If you have an idea for a topic that you think I should cover or if you have any questions/comments, send me an email at mike_stangy@msn.com. Lastly, don't forget to check out my youtube and flickr pages (links on the right side of this page). Thanks for reading!