Santa will be flying on Xmas

Christmas is coming, a lot of students and instructors on vacation, but some of us brave keep on flying! It's been warm, and reasonably good flying weather. Im not writing much, so ill show some pictures.




Piper Arrow over the east river next to the shoreline, southbound. Just ahead of the wing you can spot Ormond Beach Municipal Airport.


Daytona Beach Shoreline.

Palatka Airport (kay-larkin) and the flight towards Disney restricted area.




























If you look closely you will find the Magic Castle of Disney!

New views from up here

Another exciting week at work, and a few great shots as well. Here you can see lake Disston slightly after sunset. Besides some fun and pictures, I've managed to send already 2 students on their first solos this week! I can't hide that on the first one I was a little bit nervous... But the kid made a good pattern and landing!
It's very rewarding the sensation that you have teached that kid how to fly and he could take-off and land by himself.
Happily both of them came back to a safe landing!

I'm starting to build my hours slowly, and enjoying the beauty of flight training. I am doing my best to catch the magic moments with my camera, and I'll try to share those panoramic views with you, even if just a little bit. Tiring, exciting, hard, rewarding, fun, dynamic, professional. This would be the instruction flights in a brief description.


First student to get through solo with me. Well, I didn't spare him from the traditional water bucket and kick in the butt! I'm bringing some new culture to America.

Cheers =)

Happy halloween!

Yesterday night was halloween party, everybody dressing stupid funny costumes and of course, drunk. Needless to say no working today...
So, being long time away from these lines, I decided to keep writing here. Being a flight instructor in Central Florida it's quite a challenge: you get a lot of students, a lot of work and a lot of flying. The practice areas are so busy some times that you are literally afraid of going out there and hitting some one. But it's fun as you can see in the pics....


The view from my office. Well, I've seen better offices with computers and phones ringing.




Normal working day, line for take-off at KXFL.
And you get to see some funny things in this airport, like this:


And sometimes, you get busy days at Daytona for take-off.... Try to count how many planes are waiting:



Have a nice week everyone!

5769: New Year, conclusions, and new life!

שנה טובה!



This was the last airplane I flew, on my CFI course - the Piper Arrow.

A new year starts... and a new goal achieved: Mr. Sechterr Flight Instructor !
I was officially hired by my school to work as a full time Flight Instructor, finally!!
After 11 months of training and long days/weeks of waiting, cancellations, bad weather, grounded airplanes, checkride waits and the list goes on...

This blog was about flight training, the way up from Private Pilot to the Flight Instructor job at the least. If anyone is interested on Numbers, 11 months was a nice average in my school, from the beginning of instrument rating until actually starting to work as an instructor. If I consider the NET time, it would be 7 months. The extra 4 months were for sure spent on stupid waiting times between courses (at least one week) and before stage checks and FAA checkrides (at least one week for every FAA checkride - initial instructor certificate took 3 and a half weeks of waiting!!).

Costs of flight training in the United States: depending on the school, costs may vary. If it is a part 61 or 141, there is a big difference on the price. What I could tell you that right now, the fuel prices are very high and as of mid 2008, the flight schools in Florida are charging around $50/hour for instructor time, and around $200/hour for instruction flight on a C172SP. So if you do the math, solo time would be around $150/hour. Of course if you shop around, you could find schools with more or less 30% price difference - and it will usually be related to the facilities of the school and the aircraft it uses. There are schools that operate aircraft like the Cirrus with Glass cockpits for more expensive prices, there are other that operate really old c152's for a cheaper price - so the choice is yours only. If you are into a budget, a typical budget of anywhere between 50k-60K $ will take you from no flight experience to a CFI/CFII, of course that this does NOT include living expenses and reallocation/visas expenses. Still with all the difficulties lately with the local economy, the United States is still the cheapest place in the world for flight training, POINT. If you try Europe for example, the price would be 3 times this, no kidding. And of course the US has the best infra-structure for flight training in the whole world.

If you have already around 150 flight hours or more with a Private Pilot Certificate, I would recommend you to go for part 61 courses. It's faster and cheaper, but the requirements for a commercial certificate are at least 250 hours of total flight time. So you need around extra 40-50 for instrument, extra 15-20 for Multi-Engine (if you want) and more 40-50 for commercial.

If you have less than 100 hours total time with your Private Certificate, no doubt part 141 would be the best choice for Instrument Rating and Commercial Certificate. If you want some multi-hours, I would strongly recommend to do the Multi-Private then the Multi-Commercial all part 141 courses, It worth the extra bucks. On part 141, you can be a commercial pilot with only
120 flight hours!! The courses are longer and boring, structured, you have to follow each and every lesson in the order, have to pass stage checks and so on, so technically the courses are more expensive. But looking at the big picture, you don't need to buy any "building solo hours/share flights" - so it will eventually be cheaper. And usually, 141 courses have better quality than 61 courses, they are more supervised and more rigorous.

Bullshit apart, Daytona is a boring city. Hell, so boring! If you wanna have any REAL fun, you must drive down to Orlando at least, it's a 1-hour drive from here. If I could go back, i think I would try to find a school in California :))

Thanks for all my readers, I guess that's about it. I'm not sure about the blog, now I'm starting to work so I probably won't have much time to update things here. Maybe it would be a good a idea to start another blog, of the life as a flight instructor, on the way up for the hours required to a jet job. What do you say? I'll give a think about it, and hope you all enjoyed from the information considering flight training on this blog.

Go for your dreams!
Only you can make it happen.
Wish you all a healthy, safe, joyful and successful year!

Teaching from the right seat

After the initial flight instructor certificate CFII - instrument airplane - we continue to the additional and most important instructor rating - the airplane single engine - or in other words, the CFI.

Now I'm flying the PA-28R, Piper Arrow, a complex old aircraft.
Very maneuverable and nice to fly, we are working now in this airplane on teaching take-offs and landings, power-off 180s, chandelles, lazy eights, steep spirals, stalls, emergencies and so on. It's not as simple as just flying it, you now have to explain what you are doing every step, and detect errors, analyze them and suggest corrections. Exciting though, you feel finally the end of the training is close now, and you can start seeing the light in the end of the tunnel, the first aviation job knocking on the door.

Pretty short, 10 days of ground and flight training, we now wait for the FAA checkride, hopefully the last paid training flight! Once it's done, we'll look for a job and start to slowly get back our investment, and get some experience in the crazy flight environment of central florida.

have a great weekend!

One more to the team - CFII !

On the picture above, nothing to do with this post, it's simple the AIW, my loved airplane that I miss so much since my private pilot days...

So let's go to the news:
Finally, after 9 months and 28 days of flight training, today I received my first flight instructor certificate - the CFII! For an unknown reason, the flight was awesome, really smooth, I flew it really good, almost no mistakes, it was one of my best flights ever! Interesting fact is my flying recency was ZERO, last time i flew before the checkride was 3 and a half weeks before, on the part 141 end-of-course flight. Since then just microsoft flight simulator and Garmin G1000 simulator.

So I will tell how it was.... after engine start, i was told to load a flight plan from KDAB to KTLH via some published airways, directly into the G1000 without using a low-enroute-chart. After that, the examiner taxied and took off, then at about 500ft AGL he passed me the controls. I flew manually until out of charlie airspace, and then we squawked 1200 and started to intercept my first cross country leg. After established in my navigation, the examiner announced and AHRS failure and dimmed my PFD. I did the checklist, used backup instruments and request for "ATC" (in this case it was him) to cancel my flight to Tallahasse and head back to the nearest airport, in the case it was Flagler (KXFL). On the way to Flagler, i was cleared to hold as published and expect the RNAV (GPS) 11 approach, what I did partial panel. After an incredible low approach at around 600 ft over the field, we went missed and started to head to HANAV, the initial approach fix to join the 16 DME arc for the ILS 7L approach at Daytona Beach, heading back home. From there was pretty simple, he tried to distract me asking me to check METAR's on the G1000 right before I intercept the arc and things like that, but besides that was fantastic!
We finished with a 12kt crosswind landing, this one now not perfect, but reasonable.... Still, was a great flight.

Now I wish it was finished and I could start working, but so far I need to do my CFI add-on, all in the Piper Arrow, a complex plane I never flew before. Supposed to be a short and easy course, hopefully.

Have a great week everyone, and let's celebrate!

Almost there

The Certified flight instructor instrument course part 141 is over!
After only one month of studying and about 10 hours of flight from the right seat, it wasn't too bad... now there's just the long wait for the FAA checkride.

All being good, I will soon start to fly the shitty 1968 Piper Arrow from school, a plane that's more grounded than flying, but it's the one used on the CFI add-on training. Hopefully soon I could start making some bucks as a pilot!

Cheers, and let's have some beers.

Passing the Torch

I had a week off from activities, due to the latest bad news that you could read in my blog. It was a time of reflection, a time of re-thinking of values, and total dedication to our friends and loved ones. But as this short life is cruel and many questions will be left unanswered, we have to wind out, regain forces, and keep fighting the long battle of life.

So this Sunday I started over again, went back to fly.
After doing the everyday "IMSAFE" checklist, I decided I'm fit to fly again. For you that are asking what the heck is that checklist, is a very basic checklist we should do every day in the morning before you think about flying:
I - Illness. Am I sick? Have I any medical condition that could compromise flight?
M - Medication. Am I taking any medication that might affect my ability to fly?
S - Stress. Am I under stress? Is this going to impair my judgement?
A - Alcohol. Have I been drinking alcohol in the last 24 hours?
F - Fatigue. Did I have enough sleep?
E - Emotional. Am I emotionally affected by anything that might affect my ability to fly?

After I rechecked the last item 3 times, I went to the plane for another meticulous pre-flight.
I had 2 flights and 2 orals this day, happily it all went smooth.

So I'm working on my CFII, that's my initial flight instructor certificate. I managed to finish all the course activities, and now I 'm only waiting to the final school exams and the FAA check ride.
It was pretty fast actually, in our school our pace depends mostly on instructor availability. And since I got this new instructor that has a lot a free-time, i took a lot of advantage, why not?

I am realizing day-by-day that the best way of learning something in depth, is to teach someone else. It is so good, you review the subject to yourself, you have to do some extra research about it, and when you are able to explain to someone else, it means that you really have it. And the more you teach the same thing, the more you know it, and every time you discover something new you didn't know! A new detail, a new comment, a new perspective, a new view.
Definitely worth it!

The awkward thing of instructing in the beginning is to start flying from the right seat. Oh, my landings were so student-pilot landings in the first couple of flights!! It's unbelievable how bad is your coordination using opposite hands after flying more than 150 hours in the left seat. But as we should expect, a little practice and you get used to fly from both seats.....

No pics from this course.... hopefully ill have some when i indeed start instructing!
Fly safe.

Tiago Preti, and Anna Mattioli - Rest in Peace

Yesterday something really bad happened. My roommate and his girlfriend were both killed in a car accident at I-95 northbound, near the city of Fort Pierce.



Tiago Preti, 23, was a good man, great pilot, excelent friend. Anna Matiolli, 20, his girfriend I happened to know for 3-4 weeks was such a beautiful young woman, dancer, dance teacher, shining so much happiness around her, so kind to the others and so respectful, so sweet, so loved.
All students from our school are deeply shaken, specially we the brazilians that were so close to Tiago, we are mourning for their death, and we will never understand why such bad things happen to good people. The pain is too big to describe...

Tiago was finishing his Single-Commercial certificate, so many plans ahead of this young man. And the fate is so strange.... A pilot, that used to ride his sports bike every day, happened to end in a car crash. Why G'd, why?? We can't describe and imagine the pain that his family is probably having, in the other side of the world.

Tiago and Anna, your bodies are not here with us anymore, but your souls will forever stay with us, shining your lights upon us. You were so happy together, such a special and beautiful couple, and forever you shall be happy together, for all eternity.

Love you and miss you.
Roni and all the Daytona Beach family.

Back to the Cessna

The multi days are over, for now.
Since my commercial checkride, I said goodbye to the good old Piper Seneca, and went back to the traditional Skyhawk. Such a difference! The controls feel so soft, landings look so easy, everything is in slow motion :)

Yes, I've been training the traditional commercial maneuvers now, working on the single commercial add-on to my current license. Steep spirals, chandelles, lazy eights, eight on pylons and power-off 180s. Not that those are hard maneuvers, but it indeed is hard to do all of them perfectly in one flight. And it all depends so much on the weather and winds - you might get to fly those maneuvers in a beautiful sky clear day, weak winds, perfect! But you might also be unfortunate and have your checkride in a hazy day, low visibility, low clouds and strong winds - and all the hard work is worth nothing - you hardly will be able to do the maneuvers properly. So I guess I need a little bit of luck as well :)

Actually I don't really understand why you have to do this add-on license, you're working on Lower Category (ASEL) than the one you already have, so it doesn't make much sense to me. Complaints aside, it has to be done - no way out :(

We're almost there... I can't wait to CFII.
Have a good week!

Video: Instrument to Multi-Commercial

Hello guys,
I know it's been a long time I don't post, i've been so busy with Flight Instructor Ground School. We happened to be only 2 guys in class so I've been preparing classes and presentations every day! Well, it was a good training though... Was, because we just finished ground school this friday!!
Now I have to finish my single add-on, take the FOI written and then start flying CFII.

For my readers not to be so disappointed at me, I'm posting a video that resumes my course here since the Instrument Rating until the end of the Commercial license. It took me the whole day to edit it, but was worth it.

Full screen, full volume - and enjoy it.

Commercial Pilot: From passion to profession!

5/29/2008
After 6 months and 17 days, the day came: I earned my multi-commercial pilot certificate!
The FAA examiner was really nice, I was expecting someone to be screaming at me the whole flight... The checkride oral was pretty fast, only 1 hour, really basic questions, we didn't really get deep into any subject, and for some reason the examiner was satisfied, and we went to fly.

After a meticulous preflight, we took off from 7L to the north practice area. After leaving Charlie Airspace, I squawked VFR, changed frequencies and climbed to 4500 ft. I started to head to my first previously planned checkpoint on my route to Savannah, and then he diverted me to Palatka airport, about 30 miles northwest from were we were. After the inflight calculations of magnetic heading, time and distance to Palatka, the examiner told me forget about Palatka and we started doing all the commercial maneuvers. Then he cut my left engine, I feathered it completely and after flying a couple headings we restarted it, did a Vmc demonstration, and emergency descent to Flagler were I did some various types of take offs and landings. Finally we headed back to Daytona, when he cut my engine again, and I landed single engine back home.... That's it now there's still a lot of work to do.................... single add-on, instructor.... looks like forever!

Hope to post here more often, and keep you guys updated.
Have an awesome weekend!