Starting and Vegas!

BBQ by the pool

I have now been here over a week now and I have done much in that time, or tried to as much as the budget will allow.

First we have a week of flight training in the classroom, we buff up on what we have learned in ground school so we will be effective when we put it into practice. However we also do some important lessons such as learning about American culture etc, we have our own assigned policeman if we run into any trouble, he came in and gave us a talk about the do's and don'ts which achieved the right affect which was to scare us to behave... which we were always going to do anyway....

Seminole in the hanger for maintenance

We also learned about the practical day to day flying, we fly out of Falcon Field airport which is surrounded by a populated area of residence, we learned how we can minimise the noise impact aircraft have on them, this is out of respect for them and to be good neighbors because we can fly early mornings and later in the evenings, we learned the Noise Abatement Departure proceedings which is climb at Vy (best rate of climb) until 2400ft and climb further when able, we are restricted to what we can do in terms of timings, for example no 'touch and go's' between 17.00 and 08.00 so we often fly to other quieter airports to practice also. The airport and airspace is some of the busiest general aviation in the world and the 2nd most busy in the USA, with this in mind we have arrival and departure routes we have to memories, again, minimising noise and ensuring separation from traffic, we have equipment on board which simply tells us our proximity to other aircraft, this is displayed on our screens and gives us a aural alert too, but we are taught the eyeball is the best instrument in the Visual Flight Rules we obey by. We have many military and civil flight schools all in the same airspace, this place is busy with other institutes also here such as Boeing, hence why we have safety schemes and a well organised structure. Our airport has two runways and reminds me of a little Heathrow minus the A380's.... and passengers!

Now earlier we had 4 days off... what to do...? Rent a ridiculous big sports car and spend two days in Las Vegas.... rude not to! So we did.

We rented 2 Chevy Camaro for 8 people after being told the Mustangs we wanted were not big enough... so we upgraded. It took us 5.5 hours to get to Vegas after stopping at the Hoover dam whilst the others went to the Grand Canyon. The Chevy's were not the most fuel efficient motor car doing a impressive 23.2 miles to the gallon and that was us driving in the speed limit, who knows what we would of got otherwise... luckily fuel is so cheap it cost £24 each way, cannot complain. We checked into our hotel which over looked the strip, Vegas is how I imagined it, loud, garish, over the top and busy- it was great! We did the usual Vegas things and took in the sights and sounds but driving down the strip with our Chevy was a personal highlight, as was going to Caesars Palace (the pager friendly hotel....). Its fair to say we had a immensely enjoyable time and I came away with a safe $10 winnings (show off....). I think one trip is enough as there are plenty of other places I would like to visit whilst I am here, providing work permits.

We have now finished our last 2 days of inductions and its fair to say we are chomping at the bit to get flying, we have medicals tomorrow and then should get assigned instructors tomorrow night. We have an online system which gives us all our scheduling which is a complex task in itself. We only get schedules the night before because there are over 50 odd aircraft and many international students, instructors and variables all doing different things. I will go into more detail soon when I have do it for real but there are many parts to complete before you get into the aircraft. Like current airline pilots we arrive between 1 and 2 hours before departure time to prepare all the appropriate paper work and perform the numerous checks, we have departure boards visually informing us times of boarding, plane registrations, instructors etc, we even have to check in when we arrive. Timing and organisation is critical because like the real world delays are a menace with a knock on effects, timing management is going to be key     and to be prepared.


So I look forward to writing about some flying next, there are going to be some step learning curves heading my way and I need to be ready. However.... I think also its going to be rather fun!

On a side note my sister in law and brother had their first baby 2 days after I left, little Alfie came along, congrats to them, great news, more Frasers in the world can't be a bad thing... can it!? Look forward to seeing Alf in April/May.

Thanks for reading.