I must say, I’m having a
good time so far in my new job.
In my first week as a
full-time flight instructor, I have already managed to fly 12 hours, not too
bad for not yet having any permanent students.
Most of this time has been in our Cessna 172 aircraft. I’ve done a number of demo flights in order
to recruit students in addition to getting my night currency requirements taken
care of.
My most enjoyable flight so
far was taking our 2001 Cessna 182 Millennium Edition (a fancy way of saying
“New plane!”) to Bryce Canyon, UT yesterday.
A guy came in wanting to get some time in a C-182 in anticipation of
buying one, and I happened to be standing there waiting around. It was a very scenic, nearly 4-hour round
trip with a stop at St. George, UT for some landing practice. Bryce Canyon Airport (BCE) is a right nifty
place to land, since its 7586-foot elevation allows for some good lessons in
density altitude. On this day it also
provided us with a 14-knot direct crosswind landing.
I’ll be starting with an
instrument student this weekend, which will be interesting given the nature of
the airports around here. The only
airports within 100 miles that have ILS approaches are McCarran International
and Nellis Air Force Base. McCarran
won’t allow you to practice approaches except between midnight at 0700, and
Nellis won’t allow civilian aircraft to land, so any approaches have to end in
a missed approach. Students who do IFR
training in Las Vegas end up building a lot of cross-country time just to get
some variety in their training.
It’s not all roses
though. Today is my first day off since
starting last Monday. When I’m not flying,
I kind of sit around the flight school trying to bring in students and helping
out around the office. It kind of
sucks, because I don’t getting paid unless I fly. I often ask myself, “How did I go from being a well-paid software
engineering professional to this?”
Still, I rarely regret my decision, and I’m kept happy by the fact that
I will eventually be flying a jet again.
It’s just a huge waiting game, but at least now I am flying a couple
hours a day and not hanging around my apartment feeling sorry for my
career. Things are likely to pick up as
the weather gets warmer and I have a feeling I’ll be flying more hours than I
was with Ameriflight in a couple months’ time (and making more money). It’s a good thing I enjoy teaching. And given the weather in Oregon the last few
months, I guess I’m kind of glad I’m not slogging through rain, snow and ice at
Ameriflight right now, although I do miss the Cessna 402.
One thing about southern
Nevada – it is a beautiful area for flying.
Enroute to Bryce Canyon yesterday I flew over Zion National Park, a
place marked by sheer vertical sandstone cliffs stretching thousands of feet in
height. The red rocks around here
provide quite a scenic view especially when flying around sunset. And when I did my night currency flight last
week I had quite a view of the Las Vegas strip lit up in all its glory. I’ll need to start taking a camera on my
flights so I can post some pictures here.
I was getting tired of Oregon scenery after having flown there for eight
years and this is a refreshing change.