FL030 to FL410

Well we started on January 8th and I started flying on the 9th. I was already ahead of everyone by the time I had started. Unfortunately I was too late with starting this blog so, I will have to sort of ’skim’ through everything and jump us all the way from lesson 1 to lesson 11.
My first 2 days were just ground school. They taught us how to make weight&balance sheets, fill out take off data cards, get ATIS, make sure plane is update to date on it’s maintenance forms, and how to conduct a preflight. All these things I had already known with flying other friends, so it was real easy stuff. The hardest part was undoubtedly making that knot for the tie downs! I just could not get it! maybe because I’m a lefty and everything sort of felt reversed to me, but by now I can finally do them

I was so eager to get up there and show the instructors what I was already capable of, I desperately looked for CFI to start me with my lessons. Thing is, mine hadn’t arrived yet so it was either wait until he got here, or find another one to jump start me! I chose to go ahead and just find a temporary one to get going. My temporary instructor was Adi. Him and I did all the lessons to to 5 which included some stuff on a Frasca 142. most of the stuff we did was slow flight, power on/off stalls and few turns around a point and s turns…

My real instructor arrived on Monday next week, we did my last sim and the next day we were off to lesson 7… it was really more of the same stuff… lesson nine was finally time to practice landings…. My landings were a bit harsh, I kept getting scared when I went over the threshold and when I went idle, I would pull back on the yoke a little bit trying to keep us level which bled off speed like crazy so we would come down real hard even with the flare… lesson 11 was landings again and we logged 12 landings, and I got them down real good… I land decent now. He did tell me that when I flare I’m pulling back too much which is causing us to hang in the air and drop down a bit harsh, mostly due to my death grip on the yoke… so next time we practice landings (13) I won’t be as harsh on the controls as I was, and my landings will be fine…. I can stay pretty close to the center line and that’s good. I now have 12.8 hours and 29 landings, and I’m already on lesson 12 which is a check stage… I have to wait for a check instructor now , so he can see how I’m doing, so I can proceed on. Most students who started at the same time as I did are at like lesson 6 (I think the closest one to me is lesson 7) I’m already on 12, so I’m way ahead of everyone. the CFIs know it too, I’m going like a speed train

Well that is a quick overview of all I have done so far!

Now before I just jump out there with the name of my school let me tell you that I really like my school, and I know many people hate it and not to mention they say its a trap for young people who think its the only way to become an airline pilot. They tell you that you get a ‘guaranteed interview’ which is a load of bull…. I’m sure you get your ‘guaranteed’ interview, but news to you, if you meet the minimum hours of any airline, there is a %90 chance you will get an interview anyways. Apply to couple places, and you will see you don’t need a guaranteed interview.

All that being said, I can now say where I go… Delta Connection Academy. At the same time I am also getting my AA in Professional Pilot technology and once I get that, I will try all I can to finish up my BA for business that I was getting before I made the jump. Now that is something else, alot of people told me I should have finished my BA and then get my pilot thingies, but I wasn’t happy with what I was doing and I figured I could take a break from things and finish up (i only have like a semester left). Anyways, alot think it was a stupid idea, and maybe it was, but i’m very happy with my decision right now…

Delta Connection Academy uses “Lessons” for your training… for example, for the private course there are I think like 26 courses and 2 stages… Stage I finishes up with lesson 20 which is your stage check ride. Here you must prove the chief inst. (or whoever went up with you) that you have complete control of the plane and you are ready to solo the plane for the circuit (that is a traffic pattern) or solo XC (which is cross country). When you are done with all that, your last lesson is a duplicate of a FAA test… there will be an oral followed by a flight… you will do everything that will be included in the FAA check ride. Once you are done, you can move onto the next thing which would be IFR after PPC.

Alot of people complain that DCA cost lots and lots of money… but guess what, there is a trick for that too… Wanna know it? I’m sure you do…. STUDY!!!!! if you come prepared to every single lesson knowing what you are supposed to do (and maybe just practice them for the sake of procedures on FS2004) you will not have to have your inst. show you how its supposed to be done, or keep repeating it until you get it right… When you accomplish that, and do everything in 1 try (like I have been) you will finish everything in minimum hours… if you plan it all out that comes out to roughly 35 hours… say 40…. at $104 an hour for the C152, that is about $4000… with ground school and all it comes to roughly $5000… pretty cheap for a ‘ripoff’ school huh? trust me, school is not expensive, but the studying is extensive. and I like their ‘airline wanna be’ system as well. you get ops manual, standards manual, wear a uniform and act like something…. some call that stupid, well I personally like it, and last time I checked, I’m the one going to the school, not them…

anyways, that concludes my school info and what I think about it…. I really like my school.

Cliff notes: My school is Delta Connection Academy. I know alot of people don’t like it and rant about it… As long as you study your stuff VERY extensively and come prepared for the flight, you will do fine and as a matter of fact, you will pay very competitively compared to other schools including part 61.

I started this blog because I figured it would be a nice way to keep a track of my pilot career I hope to go alllllll the way up to FL410 one day in a B787 maybe (I hope, not maybe actually hehe). Thats where the name of the blog comes from too, Most of my training is being at at 3,000 and I’ll probably retire at 41,000 one day (who knows or maybe even higher since technology will be so much better). This will be a looooonnnnggg journey from flying Cessna 152s to flying Piper Seminoles for multi engine training and so on….

Anyways, jump on the bandwagon, read it if you like, or check out the pictures I’ll try to post time to time (hard to take pictures while trying to learn to fly hehe). I’ll post my 1st few blogs to sort of catch up to where I have been now

oh, btw… I know FL030 doesn’t exist… it would be 3,000 to FL410 but that might have sounded weird, so I just did it like this. If you don’t like it, press the X on the corner of your window, and that might fix it for you

oh, and lastly, my grammar kinda sucks (maybe because my native language isn’t English, although I’ve seen a lot worse grammar from native speakers) so pardon my grammar while reading. if you have a problem with something or it doesn’t make sense, feel free to contact me and i’ll fix it up