cross countrys!

[StevenM-IL-208]

Hello again Jerry!

Thought I would give you a progress report. I finished up all my time I needed to do tonight and tomrrow will be the first day of waking up and giving dispatch a call! cant wait to see if they got me going any where.

And hows Comair going for you? I read what you wrote about them hiring good to see that.

[Comair Jerry]

Comair is doing well amidst all the talk of airline bankruptcy and furloughs. There are still opportunities out there, which makes your choice of going to ATP all the better. Cross-countrys were my favorite part fo training, especially in FTY and RDU (free popcorn and lemonade).... you'll see...

Keep the updates coming and let me know if there is anything I can do to help you out!

[StevenM-IL-208]

thats really good to hear!

FTY is a nice airport was out there the other day...but you cant beat MEI, free popcorn, ice cream, and hot dogs! Had a four day trip went all over the place. from daytona to bowling green. got some nice hours out of it but glad i had today off to cath up on sleep! cant wait to see what tomorrow brings!

[StevenM-IL-208]

Well just under a little of two weeks I finished my cross countrys! Hoping i can make it in the next CFI class on the 21st! cant wait to get going on that and get the multi commercial

[American Eagle Melvin]

Hey Steven,

You are moving right along. Hope you had fun on the cross countries. That was one of the highlights of the program for me. I carried my camera with me the whole time and got some great pictures. Did you by chance do any of your flying from the right seat on your cross countries? My flight partner and I got the recommendation to do ALL of our flying from the right seat on our cross countries....so we did. We also did our commercial multi checkride from the right seat. And this made going to CFI school and flying in the right seat for the remainder of the checkrides a little easier having already done a checkride from the right seat prior to the CFI checkrides. Several of my classmates at CFI school struggled the first few flights because of the adjustment from left to right seat. It is not too bad of an adjustment once you get used to it. A different view outside, the instruments are no longer right in front of you, different hand on the throttle and yoke.

Try to get ahold of the purpose statements and get a few ground lessons from your instructors on endorsements before you head to CFI school. That will give you a head start. Good Luck and have fun. Keep us posted on your progress.

Here is a picture of me and my flight partner Eric on our 3rd day of cross countries. Cruising at 11,000ft on our way from Long Beach (LGB) to Phoenix (IWA). GOOD TIMES !!!!

Click to Enlarge
ATP 030.jpg
9/9/07

[StevenM-IL-208]

Hey Melvin! good to get to talk to you

The cross country portion has been the best so far! I got some nice pictures of daytona but realized my camara deleted them later . before I did the 302 ride my instuctor told me to do all the cross country flying from the right seat so I did most the time besides the first few flights from the left seat. last few flights I got sent to Roswell and back. was cool seeing the plane grave yard though! the second time I went out for cross countrys I ended up on a 4 day trip from panama city to bowling green was lots of fun! Thanks for the advise on the endorsments and purpose statments ill be sure to see if I can get that

[American Eagle Melvin]

Sounds like you got to visit some cool places. My flight partner was a great pilot and we had a lot of fun during the cross country phase. We worked our Crew Resource Management to the fullest...just like I do now at American Eagle.

Our highlight was our 2 and a half day journey from West to East Coast. From Long Beach we went to ATP Phoenix, El Paso, ATP Dallas, Meridian Mississippi, then stopped at ATP Jacksonville.

CRAZY STORY...On our approach into Jacksonville...Here is what it looked like.

Click to Enlarge
Flight099.jpg
9/16/07

Well we were dipping in and out of clouds the whole time from about 90NM out. It was fun and good IFR practice. As we got a little closer to the airport, Approach Control took us off of the airway and started giving us vectors. The vectors had us heading straight towards more clouds. No big deal right? Well as we got right up on the cloud, my flight partner noticed that the cloud was GROWING/EXPANDING quickly...... and he said "I'm not going through that one." Right after that I noticed what he saw and I asked approach for a quick 20 degree turn to the right and he banked the plane and went around it. Thank goodness he noticed it because that would have been one bumpy cloud. That is the first time that I saw a cloud growing right before my eyes.

Well we landed in the morning and the weather got worse as the day progressed and we were stuck in Jacksonville for two extra days because of thunderstorms. Better safe than sorry though.

Again...good luck Steven. Take it easy.