Category Archives: Ramblings

Ramblings

another month…

Nieuport 17 - I want to build one, just not nowAnother month has gone by, and I am Slacker Man! You may ask why, or you may not, how would I know. Anyway, the point is I have not been posting here as often as I would like. It’s not that I am not writing or doing anything, it’s that I haven’t had anything to post about that has anything to do with aviation, except for a few tweets, my aviation world has been a bit sparse.

Since my last post I have managed to get out to a couple of Wings seminars and participate in a couple of webinars, but that’s about it. Certainly no flying, teaching, or building which of course makes me sad and frustrated.

What I have been doing is thinking a lot about how to get the ball rolling in the/my current economic situation. I have a plan. It is a complicated and intricate plan, cunning even, but it requires resources that I just don’t have right now. To get things going I have reduced things down to a collection of in-kind/money possibilities, any variation of which, can get things moving forward. At the core of all of it is a basic financial “nut” to crack, it is a $50k base. This covers all the necessities to get things off the ground, figuratively and literally. This of course is assuming that it is all out of pocket cash and I don’t have sponsorships of any kind.

In the grand scheme of things this is a fairly small nut to reach to get things up and running, particularly when you consider everything that is included in that basic number. This is all of the operating expenses and materials for six months, at which time I am flying. This covers a lot of ground media throughout that six months and some aerial media towards the end.

So far, I have been rather vague as to what the plan actually is. I have been trying to keep a majority of it under wraps but I don’t think I can move forward from this point with out making things a little more transparent, so I have started making some changes to the website. You might have noticed the change of graphics and colors on the website, this is the first step in that direction. I am in the plans phase of the project so it seemed appropriate to use blueprints as the foundation of the site’s appearance. I will most likely keep the blueprints look through the build process. Not that I won’t jazz things up a bit now and then.

I need to start fundraising and at present I have three options: Individual Sponsors, Company Sponsors, or a Partner(s). Sponsors, individual or otherwise, only contribute to projects when they know what the project is all about. The next step in the process is making this whole project more public.

There are some specifics in mind and I am currently working on the fine details but the rough numbers are done, hence the inclusion of the $50k listing above. I do know that I need at least $6k hard cash to be sure that I can meet the “six months to takeoff” time frame. Outside that, it’s all open as to the arrangement of the cash/in-kind mix. With a good tail-wind, I will be able to work out a 10/40 split, or better. Cash is always more flexible than in-kind, but in some areas it makes no difference for me ether way.

Over my years of involvement with non-profits I have found that it’s a lot easier to get a sponsor to sign on and give you what you need if you can buy it right then and there. You walk into a manufacturer and say “I want to buy this, for this project. Oh, and I was wondering if you would like to sponsor us?” and walk out with 50% or better sponsorship covering what you went in to buy. Sadly, it rarely works if your not actually there to buy the product. It’s one of those “if you have the money for it, someone will give it to you” examples. Just a fact of life I’m afraid.

Now that I have been rambling for a while, here is the basic outline of the plan. I am going to build an airplane, document the entire build process in photos, video, and lots of blogging. After the airplane is built the flight testing process will be documented in the same way, lots of pictures, video, and blogging, including a good deal of in-flight video (in-the-cockpit and out-the-glass.) The idea is to get the airplane from raw materials through the the first 25 flight hours in 6 months.

I can hear it now, “How the hell you gona do that? It takes years to build a plane!” Well, yes… and no. This is going to be a full time gig for me. If I only worked Monday through Friday, 8 hours a day it will give me a little over 1000 hours. This is a realistic build time for the airplane I have chosen. Under certain conditions the build time can be significantly less. I have a fair amount of skills in the workshop with wood, sheet & stock metal, plastics, and even a little composites time, and 8 hours a day 5 days a week is conservative. I will have to force myself to walk away from the shop, a lot, to keep those hours.

This is just the beginning. There are many more in-flight projects and missions to do once the airplane is build. I have a lot of plans in the line-up, I just need an airplane to get it all started.

Hell or high water, it starts… it starts here, and now.

For any individual or business sponsoring types out there, this can be great opportunity for access and/or exposure. Contact me for more detailed information.

For any one interested in this as a business opportunity, I am also looking for a partner(s). This prospect is a flexible, low-in, medium/long-term, high-risk venture. Lets face it, nothing in aviation is low-risk. I’m just being up-front. There are some interesting side benefits that are available with this opportunity as well. contact me for more detailed information.

Aviation, Ramblings

Bent Metal & Chains

Last night I went to an FAA Safety Team meeting for instructors. At the breaks and after the gathering, like just about any pilot gathering, things turn to Hanger Talk. Hanger Talk is one of the highlights of any aviation event for me. For the non-pilot/airman world, hanger talk is essentially the same as water cooler talk, with pilots it’s a little different though. Pilots talk a lot about accidents and the stupid stuff “other” pilots do and our own harrowing stories of mayhem and adventure.

I spend most of my hanger talk time around career pilots, people who fly for a living or are working at making that the case, most of them are every day commercial pilots, aerial photography, traffic watch, power and water company pilots, some passenger carriers, and flight instructors or CFIs. It’s been my experience that this segment of the pilot community has something in common with early aviators, it’s a pilot culture thing that has many aspects but when you think “barnstormer”, “WWI Ace” or Fighter Pilot” you get close. There is a little of that devil-may-care in every career pilot I have met.

On the surface it seems like a dare-devil attitude, a “kick the tires and light the fires”, “need for speed” kind of air about them, beneath that however, there is a very sober, meticulous even retentive attention to detail it’s this side that keeps career pilots alive.

There is a line in the sky, a line between life and death. It may sound melodramatic but a “blink” in good judgement and you can easily miss or cross that line. The “line” is that attention to detail, the minutia of data, knowing your personal limitations, the limitations of your aircraft, and the environment around you. Early in my flight training an instructor I knew was teaching some students about pilot mortality and the importance of preflight work. He paused a moment, a stoic look on his face, then said “sooner or later, a friend will die flying, and it will have been his own fault.” It took a few minutes for the class to absorb the harsh reality of what he said. I have been flying since 2003, I have been acquainted with three pilots who blinked in their good judgement. All of them CFIs, good people, all of them doing something stupid, for whatever reason, they did not take their responsibilities seriously, at least once, and thats all it took.

This is why pilots talk about accidents, it reminds us that it only takes one mistake or over site to start the “accident chain” rolling. It’s rarely just one thing that brings about an accident. It is inevitably a chain of events, errors and over sites, that bring about bent metal or the demise of an aviator. We talk about those errors and over sites to keep them top-of-mind to remind us so we won’t make the same mistake. Accident chains are usually fairly long, 10 or so links, often several of those links are check-list items. Frequently if the accident pilot had just read through his check-list, instead of skipping it for what ever reason, the chain would have been broken early, maybe before the plane even powered up, then the event wouldn’t have been one at all.

A large portion of general aviation General Aviation accidents in the United States could be avoided if pilots commit to always using check-lists. Vigilance, professionalism, and a meticulous attention to detail are required skills for pilots, using a checklist is such a simple task, and not doing it can be costly.

For those who are now scared to fly, remember this… Pilots on their own time sometimes ease up on their vigilance, they blink, thats when they make the news. Flying is not dangerous, there is however inherent danger in the act of flying. Career pilots and air carriers do everything they can to mitigate the risks involved in flying. Commercial flying is still one of the safest modes of transportation, it just gets more press when things go wrong. Just ask Capt. Sully.

Aviation, Ramblings

2 Posts In 1

Good morning world!

Today I am trying hard to stay motivated. It’s one of those days with regard to getting things done that need doing. Trying not to be moody is making it harder to get going on projects. I am hoping to break this by doing some writing, so here are a couple of posts wrapped up under one roof.

Post The First…

The weight loss stuff is going reasonably well. Today is the fifth day I have been tracking and so far so good. Since there is not much to say about how great or how hard the last WHOLE FOUR DAYS have been I guess I can leave it at that. 😉

Post The Second…

Last night I went to an FAA Safety Team meeting for CFIs. It was a good meeting and it was really nice to be around folks who are interested in aviation. Hanger Talk is always one of the highlights of being around aviation folk for me. To the rest of the world it’s like water cooler talk, but with pilots it’s a little different. We often talk about accidents and the stupid stuff “other” pilots do as well as our own harrowing stories of adventure. It sounds a little morbid, but we talk a lot about accidents.

I spend most of my hanger talk time around career pilots, people who fly for a living or are working at making that the case. It has been my experience that this segment of the pilot community definitely has something in common with the early aviators. It is a cultural thing that has many aspects but when you think “barnstormer”, “WWI Ace” or Fighter Pilot” you get close. There is a little of that in every career pilot I have met.

On the surface it’s a dare devil attitude, a “kick the tires and light the fires”, “need for speed” appearance, beneath that however, there is a very sober, meticulous even retentive attention to detail that keeps career pilots alive. There is a line in the sky, a line between life and death, if you blink you can easily miss the line. The “line” is that attention to detail, knowing your personal limitations, the limitations of your aircraft, and the environment around you. Early in my flight training an instructor I knew was talking to some other students about career pilot mortality, “sooner or later, a friend will die in a plane, and it will have been his fault.” Harsh words, but true. I have been flying since 2003, I have been acquainted with three pilots who blinked. All of them CFIs, all of them doing something they knew was stupid, but for whatever reason, they did not take their responsibilities seriously, at least once, and thats all it took.

That’s why we talk about accidents, it reminds us that it only takes one mistake or over site to start the “accident chain” rolling. It’s rarely just one thing that brings about an accident. It is inevitably a chain of events, errors and over sites, that bring about bent metal or the demise of a fellow aviator. We talk about those errors and over sites to keep them top-of-mind. Accident chains are usually fairly long, 10 or so links, often several of those links are check list items. Some times if a pilot had just read through his check list, instead of skipping it because he was used to the plane, the chain would have been broken early and the event wouldn’t have been one at all.

Not using checklists properly and weather account for nearly all of the General Aviation accidents in the United States. Vigilance, professionalism, and a meticulous attention to detail are required skills for a career pilot, and should be for all pilots. Using a checklist is such a simple task and not doing it can be so costly.

For those who are now scared to fly, remember this… Pilots on their own time sometimes ease up on their vigilance and blink, thats when they make the news. Flying is not dangerous, there is however inherent danger in the act of flying. ALL career pilots and ALL air carriers do what they can to mitigate the risks involved in flying. Commercial flying is still one of the safest modes of transportation, it just gets more press when things go wrong. Just ask Capt. Sully.

Ramblings

Great Googly Moogly!

A month has gone by since my last post. You might think I have been running around franticly getting tons of stuff done. Well, sort of.

I have been doing some work with friends to close out an estate, that has been taking up time. I have also been helping friends with Extreme Clutter Busting and when I say Extreme I mean EXTREME! We have made lots of headway and things are coming along nicely. There has been some maintenance/construction stuff getting done too, for friends and here at the homestead.

With all of the spring cleaning and clutter busting I have been doing with others, I have also been doing lots of it around my own home as well, yesterday for example was a homestead cleaning day. Pick a room and turn it inside out, then put it all back together. There has been more than a little mental house cleaning going on for me too, purging and sorting the physical clutter helps a lot with the psychological clutter.

I have been struggling with focusing my direction for a while, in truth, a few years. I have a lot of projects up in the air with varying levels of completion and this state has been feeding my stress and detracting from my focus. I can barely keep track of all of the projects, let alone get any of them done. There are so many things I want to do in life, but as I get older, I am thinking more about time and how quickly it can slip away if you are just floundering about. It’s time to cut the project list down to size.

What makes me happiest is flying. I love to fly. I want to build aircraft, and fly them. I want to make movies about pilots and aircraft and fly in them. I want to teach people how to fly and share the joy I feel each and every time I go up. I have a long list of ratings I want to add to my pilot and instructor certificates. If I can achieve my desires in aviation, I will be an extremely pleased person.

Getting by month to month on side job income makes achieving many of these goals difficult it is not impossible, though I do need to get some outside support. One of the biggest obstacles is covering the monthly nut and flight expenses while still having time to get anything done.

I have had the beginnings of a plan to get the ball rolling for some time now but the plans require me to sell Me, something I do not have a very good track record doing. I am great at implementing projects where someone else is the Face, not so much in being the Face. While I am quite confident in my abilities to perform, I don’t seem to have that same level of confidence in my ability to sell my abilities. I am not sure why that is, it is a personality thing about myself I just don’t understand. I guess it’s time to get over it and start pushing forward.

Now its off to the drawing board to make some formal business-type plans and start selling The FlyBoy.

Ramblings

another year…

Another year has passed.

As I get older I find that I understand more, not necessarily know more, though I strive to keep learning, what I mean is all those things we are told as kids “you’ll understand when you get older” at some point do make sense. Maybe not the way we expected to understand them, but we, or at least I, understand a great many things much better than I did just a few years ago.

This “new understanding” and all of the opportunities to learn new things are some of the reasons “getting older” doesn’t bother me at all. The silver hair, no problem, it’s a badge of experience. Getting a little thin on top, again no problem. It is all a part of life. Mortality itself is not much of a worry, we are all born, grow up, grow old, and eventually die, it’s how nature works. What dose weigh on me around this time of year is that it’s a marker in time, a recognition that the earths has made its way around the sun once again, and there is so much I wanted to complete before this marker in time came around.

As kids, we all have things we want to accomplish in life, we want to “be” something when we grow up, “do” something before we get “old.” As time passes those goals change for most of us, and thats fine, more often than not, they should. We grow and evolve, we become more experienced, we are exposed to things that as children, we never would have imagined we would see or do. It’s part of the cycle.

When we are young adults we have new goals and desires, we pursue other paths, it’s the next phase of the cycle. At some point when we “grow up” most of us find that we have settled into a path and wonder haw we got here. For some of us it is a great ride that seems to get better as we go, for some… well the ride is less fun. I have no complaints about the paths I have chosen, the choices I have made. There are of course some things I might have done better along the road, different choices, but the major course changes, I stand by them.

Each time the earth makes it way back to this point around the sun I just tend to think about time slipping by, what I had hoped to do, but didn’t. Not so much a regret of things not done, but of letting the time itself slip by without making the best of it. Or did I? Was I making the best of what I had/did, or was I just coasting? If I was coasting, was that the best thing to do? You know… second guessing myself, my motives. I suppose it’s more of a contemplation thing for me than a self doubt thing.

Reflecting as I type, I guess this annual contemplation is one of those times I find insight in the “you’ll understand when you get older” truths. I guess thats what this whole post is all about.

Ramblings

Earths Edge

No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.

Things around here got relay busy and chaotic for a bit. I am getting back in the groove this week so I will have something more AvEd based to post soon.

I have been thinking about my aviation education. It seems as though the changes of the last few years have been pretty significant. I think it’s the first time all of the basic FAA handbooks have been updated within a five year span. My non-pilot friends have been quick to comment on how it must be due to 9/11. They are quite surprised when I tell them that only a small portion of the changes in small GA have to do with security and terrorism. Which brings me to something I have done recently…

Last week I updated my currency on Flight School Security Awareness Training. DHS/TSA has an online program designed to provide individuals and schools the mandatory training requited for Flight School and Training Center employees called for in 49 CFR 1552.

The training is very formulaic, basic, and straight forward for most school/center employees. The problem I found with the training is that they don’t provide anything for supervisors. Often in the courses they say “report this to a supervisor for follow though” but there is nothing for supervisors about what that follow though should be.

Coming form a security and law enforcement background, I know what should be done in those situations but there is nothing in the training to cover what some one without that training should do.

I see a need. The course available from DHS/TSA is only a bare bones course, there is some guidance in the requirements for FSSA training course development, I think I need to look more closely at that and chat with some of my friends in the security industry…

Ramblings

scheduling…

So when did time leap ahead a year and a half?

I was trying to set up schedules for all of my projects back in August 2008, now its February 2010!!! Twenty-Ten! There was so much I wanted to have rolling by now. It seems like I just can’t get on top of the pile of work to be done.

Today was a relatively productive day, in a clean-up-the-straggling-loose-ends kind of way. Moved years of data from an old computer to a new one, that took most of the day. I was hoping to use the old one for another project but that is not going so well now. The partition is all goofed and I have been having trouble formatting one of the hard drives. I’m waiting on a low level format now.

I went through a big pile of saved pocket change, picking out anything that I could add/upgrade to my us coin collection. This is more of a diversion hobby than an investment one; I don’t have much worth anything more than face value yet.

Cleaned off the desk. That was a chore, but it always feels good when I recover desk real estate. This project of course resulted in shredding, filing, shifting, and putting stuff back where it belongs.

Scanning old photos for the genealogical archive was another little project for the day. It’s amazing how much time it takes to prepare 30 photos for archiving. The scanning itself takes about an hour with keeping the glass clean and the photos dusted off while swapping them out. The meta data takes another hour to an hour and a half. So for those 30 photos I was busy for nearly three hours. This brings me to about 300 photos from one box with about 800 more to go, in this box.

Over all I have thirty thousand plus photos and over five thousand documents to scan in my genealogy pile. This one is going to take a while to get through. I have no illusions about that. Another part of that project is to enter all of the collected genealogical data for some six hundred names. My grandmother had done extensive research but it was all on paper. I have added significantly to the data but it is not in an easily ported format, so I created a web accessible database. Now all I have to do is get the data into the database. Some where in here I also need to get a negative/slide scanner as well, oh and a AV capture device that works with my laptop and Vista. I’m trying to get myself in the habit of doing a hundred scans and ten data sets entered per week, I’ll settle for fifty and ten.

As for my aviation endeavors, well I need to get back to my reading which has fallen off the map. I need to get my knowledge back up so I can get my Advanced Ground Instructor (AGI) and Instrument Ground Instructor (IGI) certificates current. Then I need to get back in a plane and get my Commercial Pilot certificate current, oh and I need to get my medical certificate current as well. Instructor certificates can be brought current with little cost, the medical is less than one hundred fifty dollars, its the flying time to get my pilot certificate current that will run about a thousand dollars. Then it’s back to work on my Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) certificate, that will run somewhere around another five thousand dollars. The plan was to get all of this done by the end of the year so I can get started teaching again by next year.

I also have a few writing projects in the mix as well, a genealogy blog, an aviation blog, a community activity blog, a community organization blog, two books, and a screenplay. Granted, the books and screenplay are lower priorities, but I still should be generating two thousand words a week on the blogs at least, and It would be nice to do a thousand a week on one of the books or the screenplay.

If all of that wasn’t enough, some where in there I need to generate at least a thousand dollars a month to cover basic expenses on top of the seven thousand dollars for flight and genealogy expenses. That comes out to a base in the neighborhood of twenty thousand dollars to get us through the year. Also in this mix I should be working on the fifteen thousand for next years base. If I finish my CFI this year I can be working next year as an instructor and with my base covered I can use any extra from instructing to cover the expenses for expanding my teaching certificates, CFII, MEI, etc. If I am working as a CFI my needed flight time for currency is built in to the teaching time, which saves me a lot of expense.

I can schedule all of the no-cost stuff fairly easily. It’s trying to get and accommodate gainful revenue generating work lined up, self employment can be a bitch. Some how I have been able to keep us above water, just barely, since 2003.

It would be really nice to be able to do some stuff for my family this year. A real vacation would be nice, it’s been over fifteen years, my son has never been on a real vacation. I would like to do something special for my wife this anniversary too, it’s our seventeenth. As always, we do what we need to do to get through, and I am very grateful for what we do have, it’s more than many others. I do truly appreciate all that we have. There is just a feeling deep inside, the desire to provide more for my family. It feels lousy when I have to tell my son “we can’t afford that right now” and it’s something simple like craft supplies or going out to lunch or dinner on the weekend.

As it stands the basics are thus; I need to set up a productive but flexible schedule form studying, writing, genealogy work, and making money, I need to come up with twenty grand for this year, and start working on fifteen for next year for a total of thirty five thousand dollars before the end of the year. Piece of cake. :-/

Ramblings

Cuz ya gott’a have one

there always has to be a first post… you know, it’s the one that comes before all the others…

So I have other places I post stuff, ether for business or special interest; a lot of the time the stuff I feel like writing dons’t belong in any of those places… enter blatherskite. I needed a place to post stuff I just want to post. There are many other places to post this kind of crap, but I wanted my own little secluded spot that I have total control over. Makes me sound like a control freak, and in many ways… it’s quite true, I am.

The last few weeks have been rough for me, mentally that is, I have not been in the best of places in my mind. One of those dark times that you just have to work through. Not to sound broodish or emo, but I just needed some time to sleep in really late, stay up really late, not go out, keep the curtains closed, and do a lot of mindless vegging in front of the TV. Some times you just need a week alone in the dark.

So, now the week is over and it’s time to try and get back in gear. It’s late once again, and now I’m getting stuff out and on “paper” here while listening to Pandora Internet Radio (Peter, Paul, & Mary Radio) as background. This week is for getting my proverbial shit together. Judy Collins “Both Sides Now” just came on… funny.

WTF to do next? Dunno. I’ll have to work on that.

Aviation, Ramblings

Flight Schools (pt. 2)

A few years ago I spent a significant amount of time developing a plan for a major academy program with two other people. We started with what we thought our graduates should be able to put on a resume right out of the Transport Pilot program. We made sure to provide a wide variety of actual flight experience covering single engine, multi-engine, piston, turbine, and jet in aircraft with standard instruments and glass panel systems. The program was constructed as an expanded version of a standard part 141 program and an eye toward working with a four year university to ensure an available degree program for our students.

The whole idea behind our program was to give students actual experience in turbine and jet aircraft and some level D simulator training in a transport aircraft allowing for a type rating while enrolled. It was our intention to get our students in position to interview for a regional airline job right out of the academy with all of the experience they would need for a right-seat position.

At the time, the cost to set up this academy program was in the neighborhood of 40 million dollars. A difficult nut to crack to say the least. Since then, the cost of developing a comparable program has dropped significantly to some where around ten million dollars, still not an easy number to reach. All of this was for a transport pilot program though, and thats not the direction I am looking at now. While I am still looking at the development of a professional aviation program, it is not for transport pilots in particular, and not just pilots. There are a number of non-pilot certificates that are very important to the aviation industry, and are difficult to find in the AvEd marketplace.

My desire is to build an academy that caters to aviation professionals across the board. Of course I want to train for and acquire many of these certificates myself, and teach classes for them, but the goal is to make them available to all who are interested.

For now, much to do, and many plans to make. ✈

Aviation, Ramblings

Flight Schools

Today has been a combination of studying aerodynamics in the PHAK and FAR Parts 141 and 142. One might be inclined to ask, Why?

The answer stems back to my first Ground School Class in an academy setting. Some time around the second week of class it occurred to me; I have absolutely no desire, what so ever, to be an airline pilot. Becoming an airline pilot is, it turns out, the primary goal for most academy style programs. Also as it turns out that a vast majority of pilots who move on to the CFI/II not interested in that path, it’s gonna take a lot more time and a lot more studying on your own, and then more time and studying. Not to mention getting out there to see what other kinds of flying jobs are available.

So what does this have to do with my studying 141, 142 today? Back when I had my epiphany about career paths, I had thoughts of establishing a different kind of aviation academy program. Or, at least one that had more career track options. There are accommodations in Part 141 for schools teaching a wide variety of courses. If there is a certificate or rating for it, one could develop a 141 program for it. Even areas not certificated or rated can have a 141 program, a Test Pilot program to name just one.

Beyond certifying a 141 program, it makes sense for a school or career minded instructor to develop flight and ground school programs around the Part 141 program requirements. If you develop a 141 program and operate it as a Part 61 program you can accomplishing several things, beta testing a program that you could later certify, and teaching to a higher standard. Some of the complexities can weigh down the process, but a clear understanding of how a 141 school needs to be organized on the back end can go a long way in making a Part 61 program look, feel, and act more professional.

Building an career aviation school from scratch is a lot of hard work. It requires a clear understanding of the certificate programs the school will offer, the resources it can and will be able to provide its students, and what the target markets are for the school and its graduating students. These days it also requires a lot of planning for sustainability, flexibility, and endurance for a business to survive. And lets not forget, aviation training is a business.

As FAR 91.103 puts it “Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight. …”