It has been a month since my
last journal entry. Since then I’ve
instructed about 70 hours and am continuing to build flight time and I think
I’m actually being somewhat successful teaching people how to fly.
Yesterday I sent a student
on his first solo flight. This is
really the first time I’ve soloed a student, which is odd given the fact I have
given over 500 hours of instruction.
It’s just that very little of it has been with primary students. Watching a student who you have trained from
day one successfully fly an airplane without you telling him what to do has got
to be one of the most rewarding experiences in flight instruction. I of course honored the tradition of cutting
out a student’s shirt tail after their first solo flight by taking the scissors
to him when he stepped out of the plane.
I now have about seven
primary students, although only four show up regularly and one student working
on his CFI rating. I’m still doing
quite a bit of flying with out-of-town folks who want to get mountain flying
experience or just see the area, and there is still a good deal of variety in
my job.
I am kind of dreading the
summer heat since single-engine Cessna airplanes have no air conditioning other
than opening the windows. I think I’m
going to do my best to schedule my lessons in the mornings and get the heck out
of there in the afternoons, but that probably won’t be an option. I am still required to sit around, unpaid, from
0900 – 1700 regardless of whether I have lessons scheduled or not. It seems a bit unfair given we have several
part-time CFIs who only have to show up when they have lessons, but it is what
I agreed to so I don’t have much choice.
Nothing much new on the
airline job front. I attended a SkyWest
Airlines open house a couple of weeks ago to begin their interview
process. They gave us a couple of
written tests which I had no problem with and said they would call us to
complete the interview based on the strength of our qualifications. But, as with Comair, the competition is
extremely tough and it seems I am vying with about 300-500 people for a total
of 120 jobs. Not going to be easy.
I often wish I was back at
Ameriflight since I really did enjoy flying freight. I understand they are hiring again but I don’t think a move back
to Portland for a job I would be in for one year or less is really worth the
expense and hassle. Plus, Stephanie
just got a job as a wedding coordinator at MGM Grand and so far is enjoying it,
so moving would be kind of counter-productive for her at this point. Ameriflight does operate out of Las Vegas
but only has one aircraft based here so I am unlikely to convince anyone to let
me fill that position.
However, the airline industry
continues to recover and I am a bit more optimistic about the timeframe of my
recall to Continental Express than I have been in the past. I would venture to say I will be back at my
job by the end of the year and we will be hiring again early next year. That is better than the two years I was
originally anticipating to be on furlough status. Perhaps it is all wishful thinking, but given the recovery in
passenger capacity and our plans to take delivery of several regional jets per
month, I think recall in late 2002 or early 2003 is a good a guess as anyone’s.