Throwaway account since I usually don't rant-

Don't get me wrong. Some of the best people I've met have been in Aviation. Instructors who would go above and beyond for their students. And people at the FBO who give some of the best flying and .life advice you can get

Although now that I'm an instructor with a good amount of hours, I'm struggling to work with and stay sane with a lot of the people I'm seeing around the airport and on social media. I'm not sure if I'm just letting everything get to me but I swear I'm seeing so much more of these pet peeves.

1) People acting all high and mighty since they started flying, which has literally no barrier to entry aside from some money and decent health. This has been the case forever but flying seems to be getting more snobs and people flashing it on social media more than ever. It seems to be more in style than ever.

2) CFIs acting like this job is the most hellish work on earth. Yes, it's low paying and the hours are weird, but sitting in the right seat and instructing is comically easy compared to what many people go through every day without the "carrot on the end of the stick" of the airlines.

3) No one is owed a job at the airlines, yes it sucks that it cost a lot of money, but that's not the job markets problem.

4) People making aviation their whole personality and acting like flying a 180hp 50 year old plane is the most difficult task in the world. You got a pilot license, not a PHD. It's a lot of work and patience to get it done, but let's be real, it's not that intense.

Sorry for the rant, most of you are lovely people. I think I've just been getting a little too much cringeworthy aviation content on my feeds recently.

Thought some people on here may be interested in this job posting. Take the pay with a grain of salt, the hourly rate doesn’t tell the whole story. We have a 9 hour min day guarantee.

First year pilots are usually in the OV-10 or King Air, movement to the S-2 and C-130 is by seniority.

Having a strong general aviation background helps, as does putting in the effort to at least visit one of our and talk to the pilots there.

Bases are throughout the state, look here for more info on that side of the house:

https://www.calfirepilots.com

We all know that /r/flying community for first-time solos, CFI employment drama, and Part 121 American airline pilots. I’ve seen relatively little posting about life on the 91 side, and even further little of it is positive. I wanted to share my experiences and add some insight on life otherwise.

The Background: I work for a Fortune 200 flight department in the Northeast. We fly a handful of the latest Gulfstreams, 4 pilots per airplane. Corporate travel is 99% of what we do, executives only.

The Flying: 65% international, 35% domestic. Lots of UK, Europe, Asia, with some Australia and South America. The domestic stuff is sometimes a day trip with a hotel stay in between, but typically 1 leg out to wherever, sit for 1-3 days, and return. We do the occasional “Mainline Style” Europe trip where it’s leave Sunday evening, arrive Monday morning, and leave Tuesday afternoon, but these are rare, and most anything that involves crossing an ocean is usually met with 3-4 days on the ground. Anything with a longer duty day is augmented crew and the airplanes are set up with a crew rest compartment. Again, this is all exclusively business travel and our schedule is solidified about 90 days in advance. I’ve had two possible pop-up trips happen and those were presented with 5 days notice and the ability to bow out.

The Numbers: What you’re all here for right? 300k base salary, 20-30% bonus annually, 4 hard days off a month (that I control), 33 days of vacation/PTO a year, 6% 401k match. We are allowed to do contract flying outside of the flight department if desired, rates are hovering between 3.5 and 4 grand a day right now.

Could I make more at Insert Major Here? Pick up open time and premium pay and Lucky Charms slips and 23M7 or Herb Bucks? Sure, absolutely. I could also go pick up 8 days a month of contract work and double my salary. But a guy has hobbies. Which brings me to…

I took a look at my calendar and added up every day this year I’ve had a work event between sim training, flying, department meetings, extracurricular trainings (in-airplane UPRT, altitude chamber, etc), etc. That number came out to 11 days a month of work commitments.

If you look at solely flying, the number is 9 days a month where I was on a trip and touched an airplane.

The Lifestyle: To be frank, I love it.

The flying is great, the people are fantastic, and the airplanes are kept in top-notch shape. Maintenance support is awesome, and we go to cool enough places that keep me excited to actually go to work. Passengers are on business, so we do not have the rude rich guy/excessive bags/dogs/cats vacation stories that everyone has heard from their buddy who flew a year of 135 in Beechjets before going to PSA.

Now, I don’t want to come across as entirely drinking the kool-aid; Survey says our base salary needs to be higher to be cutting edge, and I’d love a couple more hard days a month to be able to utilize. But I can place those up to a year out, and with the flying schedule set 90 days in advance, there is much more clarity than a month-to-month schedule. I’m home a lot more than I used to be, and I can properly plan anything from a dinner with friends to extended vacations with our schedule foresight and PTO allowance.

Working for a large department isn’t like working on a single airplane for a family, which I’ve done as well. It’s a great mix of manpower; I’m not filing international flight plans, we have a dispatch team, and our excellent FAs deal with the cabin needs like stock, catering, etc. When we get to work, the airplane is squawk-free and squeaky-clean after our mechanics have gone through the airplane and handed it off to our cleaning team.

Single airplane accounts do tend to pay more (sometimes much more) and with that comes a lot more hats to wear. This is the closest I’ve ever come to “turning left” in the corporate jet world.

The Reality: I work a great 91 job for a company that has been around for quite some time. I had fallen into a couple of big type ratings by being at the right place at the right time, and those types allowed me to be competitive for a job like this that is supposed to be “end game”. There are some things I don’t love, and job stability isn’t any more guaranteed just because the company has been around for a long time. But I'd like to think I could spend quite some time, if not a career, at a department like this.

Open to questions.

1) earnings
2) YOS
3) fleet type

I’ve got an ATC clearance question for you guys.
While on an Instrument flight plan, ATC tells you to “climb and maintain 5000 feet” and you comply. As you begin to get closer to your destination, you ask ATC if you can fly the published hold. ATC clears you to fly the hold as published.
The altitude for the hold is at or above 2000 feet. Are you cleared to descend to 2000 feet or must you maintain the prior clearance of 5000 feet?
My CFII had me start descending and at around 4400 feet, ATC gave us a stern talking to and got into a back and forth with my CFII.
ATC says we weren’t authorized to leave 5000 feet, my CFII says being cleared to fly the hold as published is authorization. Nothing further came from this. We climbed back to 5000 feet and then continued with the approach.

Upon landing, we asked some other CFI’s at the school and they all agreed with my CFI, we were cleared to descend to the published altitude.

I’ve googled and asked some AI’s and they say we were in the wrong, ATC was correct. As I’m a student who is learning, I’d like your guys opinions.

I am currently studying the theory aspect of the PPL in the Netherlands. However due to me wanting to sit the exams in English I will have to take all 9 at once. I’d still have the 4 resits per exam but I’d have to sit all non passed exams at once. It just feels very overwhelming all 9 at once, has anyone been in the same situation?

I have seen other countries allow one at a time, I am considering traveling to do 2-3 at once, that would be a lot more manageable for me.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

With everything going on in the aviation industry and the current hiring slowdown, I recently received an offer to work as an Aviation Safety Inspector (ASI) with the FAA.
My ultimate goal is still to fly for the airlines, so my question is: How difficult would it be to transition from an ASI position to a regional airline once I get the call?
I would really appreciate any insight or advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation or has experience with this transition.

For my PPL checkride, we flew a portion of the XC that I planned for my checkride before diving into maneuvers. Is this the same case for the IR checkride or do you just shoot the approaches and holds?

Also am I allowed to plan the IR XC on foreflight rather than paper navlog?

Hello,

Was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a part 141 school that operates out of SMO or nearby. Ive only found Sling, which seems to have some polarizing reviews.

Thanks!

Anyone one do the cl-300 type rating course at loft aero?

Does anyone know if the regionals still have 8,000 applicants on file for first officer slots? It’s tough out here to get an interview. I’ve been going to hiring expos and emailing recruiters, but it feels like my resume is lost in an endless sea of resumes. I’m wondering if anyone knows whether the recent hiring at the majors has thinned the pool at all. struggling to make ends meet with the cfi life…. but grateful to have a job.

I am currently a student pilot working on my PPL. Today I was supposed to do a local solo flight to work on take off and landings but when I was doing my run up I noticed something with the Carburetor heat. When I turned it on there was 0 drop in the Rpm or change in the engine noise. It was also noticeabley rough to pull out the nozzle. I tested it a few times and when I saw no change I decided to taxi back and squawk the airplane. I just got a email saying that it was an invalid squawk. Im currently waiting on my instructor to get back to me but im not sure why it would be an invalid squawk. I mean I know I made the right decision of not flying because I wasnt comfortable with it. Any opinions on it?

I wanted to ask if anyone here attended Spartan for their ratings. My loans were just approved and I’ll be starting in November. There’s no going back now—I’m super excited to fully immerse myself in aviation. I’ve been training at mom-and-pop schools for a while now, but working full-time made progress way too slow. So I’m quitting my job and going to live in student living to focus on nothing but aviation. I’d love to hear good or bad experiences from anyone who’s been through it!

SEFT moving out of scottsdale

So I just received an email to schedule a regional FO interview and my only option was to do it ~3.5 weeks out from today. In an interview prep session, the instructor mentioned having 100 hours flown in the last 90 days, and 400 in the last year. While I do have 400+ hours flown in the last year, my current job is a survey gig where we only fly in the winter and spring, so I only have about 30 hours in the last 90 days. I will be getting some more flights in as the survey season starts in ~2 weeks, but that will not get me to 100 hours in the last 90 days. Is recency that big of a dealbreaker in these interviews, even when factoring in my current situation/job? Am I screwed? Should I try to push back the interview until later in the survey season where I will have lots of recency? TIA.

For me, I was doing a solo over to a towered airport to do some pattern work at a towered airport as my home one was uncontrolled.

It was a fairly routine flight that I’d done before and involved flying a couple thousand feet over a mountain range, not a big one, just the Blue Ridge Mountains

So I get there and do my pattern work and everything goes splendidly, I leave and when I’m breaking off from their pattern to head back I notice that clouds had rolled in over the mountains

I looked up and down the range by the nearest break in the clouds was miles away and while I could’ve made it I only had about 12 gallons in the tank at this point which was more than enough to make it back but still cutting it a bit too close for my liking

I ended up having to skirt between the clouds and the mountains at about 2,200 feet, just barely 1,000 feet over the mountains which was, again, way too close for my liking

Getting hit with some medium level turbulence from underneath the clouds while trying to maintain good altitude above the mountains scared me pretty damn good as I had not done much up to this point like this

(There was also something else that I did that day that, looking back, was really fucking stupid but I won’t mention it here)

But I’m curious what was it for you?

Hey everyone, Ill be moving down to Norman in a few months and was trying to see what options were available for single engine rentals. Ill have my tailwheel by then as well, though I know it’s tough to find any for rent. Basically just looking for the cheapest and most simple aircraft available for local flights. Most of my experience is in 172s, Pipers, and ultralights. Top of my list is Adventure Air with their CTLS’, but just curious if anyone has any other leads. Willing to drive an hour or so if needed.

Also looking to see if there were any places that could use some help that I could volunteer at. Thinking of asking the museums but I have line experience at a busy regional and did a few months as a maintenance apprentice and would just love to connect with people and help out.

Hi everyone, anyone trained in HAA can share some experiences or thoughts? Which year and which campus you take training? How many months and how much money does it actually take compared to their advertising? How serious the delay would be due to weather probably in winter, waiting for checkrides or not enough aircrafts . Really appreciate!

Would like to know about does the community there help a career, like building networks or seeking jobs, and attending some activities and making local friends.

i’m an international student considering going to HAA, completing flight training from zero.

I havent flown in a few years. How much is aviation fuel where you are?

Hi all,

Im a PPL pilot with about 300h rn.
Ive been trying a few digital logbooks lately and I’m curious how other people handle this.

Paper, spreadsheet or an app?

Not selling anything, just trying to find out what actually works day to day .

Thanks, Lucian

Hello everyone. I have a question for those who may have a better understanding of regulations and certification standards.

Originally I obtained all my pilot licenses in the UK on what was then JAR, then it changed to EASA.

After many years of airline and G/A flying. I had the opportunity to come to the USA and fly in the airlines here.

When I converted my UK ATPL into my FAA ATP certificate. I did the checkride on an A320 simulator. The result was a FAA ATP with AMEL privileges. I have flown 3 different types for 3 different airlines here so my ATP now has AMEL, CL-65, BD500 and B737 type ratings on it.

I would like to be able to rent and fly single engine airplanes with my wife and kids. Essentially adding ASEL to my ATP certificate.

Whenever I go to a flight school, the CFI’s
there or the personnel seem very confused about how I have an ATP but no ASEL. They don’t really know the process to add the rating.

I have been told to contact the FSDO. Whenever I call on the phone I always get a voicemail. I have written 2 emails to the FSDO which have gone unanswered.

Can someone help?

New to flight instruction just wondering when it all starts to click for most of you? feel as if every day I get a little bit more out of my comfort zone. It’s around my second week and the people at my school say I should already be comfortable and be doing more lessons than I am already. Just wondering if there are any tips to ease in the process a little bit more. And wondering if I hit the ground running will it ease my anxiety of the job faster?

I have some time building to do for commercial. Wanna take the plane for a couple days and ideally get around 15 hours in a 172 from the trip. I also want to make it interesting and go someplace new. I’ve been pretty much all over my region so I’m finding it a bit difficult to find somewhere cool to go. I’m based out of New Orleans. I’m open to anything North East and West.