A typical day

Well I was wondering what to write today and I thought I would share with you what my typical day is like as a airline/charter pilot, both are basically the same. With a few little differences which I will talk about later on.

Like i mentioned before, I typically am working 20 days a month, with 10 days off. Generally its a combination of 3-5 days on, then 2-3 days off. The days are scheduled as reserve days so we can be working our scheduled service flights or charter flights.

Typically we get a call from dispatch the night before with our schedule for the next day, where we are departing from, who we are flying with crew wise, where we are going, and duty and start times, once the day arrives we show up at the terminal or hangar about a hour before our scheduled departure, The captain will perform the pre flight inspection on the aircraft as well go over the paperwork, check in with the customers or agents, while the first officer will log into our ops intranet, and start the flight planning process, checking weather and routes and NOTAMS (notice to airman) , and filling out the weight and balance paperwork, and have the captain approve the flight dispatch clearance form and weight and balance, once this is done we fax a copy of those the mothership (aka Systems Operation Control) and file our flight plans with ATC then we had off to the aircraft and get the aircraft ready to board the passengers.

Once the passengers are bordered we give them a safety briefing and then we are off!.

We operate in a 2 crew environment (One pilot is Pilot flying (PF), the other Pilot not flying (PNF) -handing radios/paperwork/navigation etc) so we use checklists in a challenge-response environment, once we have started up one pilot is going thru system checks while the other pilot is getting the latest weather and getting our IFR and taxi clearances, and we taxi off to the runway and finish out remaining checklists, then we take off, while enroute to our destination the PNF is checking weather, handing the navigation and comm radios, and paperwork for the aircraft journey log next comes descent, approach, and landing if we are doing another flight we will do a new weight and balance since passengers may have deplaned and new passengers bordered etc, then its off to the next destination. At the end of the day we ensure all the paperwork is done, maintenance is notified of any issues, and put the covers on aircraft sensors and probes.

In later posts I will detail more about the actual flying portion and crew environment and how we operate different crews but we all fly the aircraft the same due to standard operating procedures (SOPs).

I think thats it for now, if you have any questions or comments, then comment! I'd be happy to answer them.

Until next time.

Alot has changed...

Wow, May 2009 was the last time I made a entry in this blog. Well A LOT has changed since that last entry. When I wrote that last entry I was employed as a full time flight instructor/charter pilot well now after a cross country move or 2 I am now working for a regional airline/charter company flying a great aircraft (The Pilatus PC-12) and enjoying every minute of it! This new type of flying brings us from high density airspace to doing IFR approaches to gravel strips that are uncontrolled, its a great type of flying and am learning more and more every day, getting to know the aircraft more. Typically we are scheduled for reserve 20 days a month, with 10 days off which is not a bad schedule at all, the company I am with has lots of room for advancement.

It's amazing how much change can happen in a year, this new job has rejuvinated my passion for flying and being a professional pilot. Every day is different, and flying 2 crew environment is great. I will write more about the type of operations we do more indepth, we do scheduled flights and charter flights, both can be quite different but it's a good mix flying them.

Here are some photos from the new job. Next entry I will talk a bit more about the new job and experiences with it!

Finally- A Deatiled update!

Well, I am on my day off so i figure I would write a detailed post, and since I have time, I will do that! Right now I am just sitting in the coffee shop, waiting for the new OS to load on my Blackberry so I have nothing but time right now! lol.

So like I said in my last post, I am and have been a full time Flight Instructor/Charter Pilot since Aug 2008, and how is it? whats it like? Well I'm gonna tell you! And you are going to listen, well read, since you came here!!! :P

My Flight Instructor training was conducted by one of the best instructor's I have ever met, we spent alot of time taking about teaching methods, how to teach exercises, how to deal with students, etc I spent hours creating lesson plans, notes, studying back on general knowledge and a new area for Instructors- CAR's Licencing and Administration. Finally in Aug, in probley the most 3 stressfull days of my life I completed the requirements for the rating. Sunday I woke up, and didnt sleep except for a 3 hour nap, till Tuesday night. On Monday, I had my written exam with Transport Canada, which went well, and it covered Instructional knowledge, general knowledge, flight test standards, Administration and licencing, PASSED of course, then on Tuesday morning, the local friendly Transport Canada Inspector showed up to give me my checkride. The checkride for a Class 4 flight instructor is rather intresting, it follows the same format as the other checkrides, with a intro, paperwork, brief, preflight, fly, debrief, excpt this time it was mostly ME doing the talking :D, we started off with the paperwork, then talked about teaching concepts, Admin and licencing tasks, then I was given a outline of a student's training background and approprietely select a lesson, brief it, then we would go fly it. I did this, we went flying, I taught the inspector the items in the lesson and he acted like a student, we flew back, I debriefed the inspector as he were a student, then he debriefed me as a Instructor candidate, and told me I had Passed!!! and now was a Class 4 Flight Instructor, then I hopped on the sked to YVR-YQQ-YBL for 7 days off, The checkride went off easily and all that and I was very happy to have it done and looking forward to Instructing.

I solo'd my first student in October, and sent my first two students for Private Pilot flight tests in December, both passed, on the same day, I as the recomending instructor was probley more stressed then the students!

Well the big question is How do i like this intresting job of mine- teaching people how to fly- teaching people to "slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of God" as the poem goes. Well, I love it, its somtimes a challenge but very satisfying, It keeps you on your feet, one lesson you can be teaching someone their first or second flight,then the next flight you are doing a lesson with a licenced pilot doing recurrent training, lots of variety, and you get to learn alot about people and how they learn, what teaching method works best for which, etc but when you see that the student has mastered what you have taught them no matter what curve ball you throw at them- that is a very satisfying feeling.

Also during the new year, I became a student again as well! LOL, I completed my Multi-Engine rating, which is alot of fun, and now I am just completing the requirements for my Multi Engine Instrument rating.

As a Flight Instructor, I consider it a great responsibility, People pay alot of money for my services, and not only that, I consider it a requirement to give my 100%to my students because I have to teach them correctly and how to be a safe, competent pilot, so I am constantly keeping my knowledge up to date and expanding my area of knowledge and refining how I teach, etc and I enjoy it, I mean I have not really read many books in the last year that were not aviation related, but its a satisfying feeling to be able to teach and understand a wide area of knowledge, keeping proficent in everything, not because I have to, But i WANT to, because my goal is to be the the most knowledgeable, proficient, safe Flight Instructor I can be.

Everyday seems to be different, one day doing charters, the next I am instructing students and ground school, I like the variety. This summer promises to be a busy one, with lots of instructing, and finally meeting the requirements for what I have been striving for! The upgrade to Class 3 Flight Instructor.

I have had many friends and collagues help me along the way and give me the support I needed and kick in the butt as well, so I would like to thank them, Lil!!, Sar!!!, and the instructor who trained me to be a instructor (HW).

It is a satisfying feeling to know that for the last year I have finally "arrived", I know many people consider the Flight training side of things to be entry level in Aviation, and I enjoy teaching enough that I know I would like to stick around flight training full time till at least I have my Class 2- Flight instructor rating, and then I know once I do decide to move on to the next stage of my career, Medevac flying, that I would still like to Instruct in some sort of capacity on a Part time basis, even if it is just teaching ground school.

So far its been fun, challenging, satisfying, and I love it.

Thats it for now! Thanks for reading! And promise I will update me! lol,

Matt

Wow

Wow, I looked at the last time I made a entry on here and it certainly has been awhile! 2007 was my last entry! Well since my last entry I have completed all that I set out to do. I completed my Commercial Airplane licence, Completed my Diploma in Business Administration, moved to a different area of the province (The Okanagan) and completed my Flight Instructor rating. Since August 2008, I have been a full time Flight Instructor/Charter Pilot, and also in my spare time have completed my Multi Engine rating and by the end of this month, weather permitting will have completed my Multi Engine IFR Rating.

This summer brings the promise of alot of flying, upgrading my Instructor rating class (YAY!), Looking forward to it.

This entry is short, I will write more later...promise! :D

Holds

Hey,

Sorry for no updates, I am working on a big one, Night Rating (Circuits, Dual, Solo, X-Country), Building time start, Ground school and Uni Classes, I will try to have a nice post by monday.

Sorry!

Matt

Starting the new road?

Well Like I said, I am back, a few days late (In my last entry I said I would post again in August) and because of some of my readers from my heli blog, asked me to keep a blog about my CPL-A, FI training, I thought I would.


I started my uni. program on Aug 20, starting with orientation, and our first class that very afternoon, I will explain a little about this program as it is unique. The Program is a Diploma in Business Administration- Aviation Option. The business portion of the program is the normal 2 year business diploma program- Fit into 9 months, and out of the 9 months we are only in Business class for an average of 2 weeks a month, so it is quite fast paced, classes run 0900-1630 and we only work on one course at a time. The time we are not in Business class we are flight training, so we alternate between 2 weeks of business class and 2 weeks of flight training, which makes for a interesting schedule, we could also fly when we are on business course blocks but with it being darker and darker each day it's not really worth it. Our first course was only a week long, and was called Interpersonal Business Communications, and was a interesting course, and was all about communication in the work place, conflict resolution and prevention, etc in other words, How to communicate nicely :). This course was only a week long then ended and a flight training block began, so I am not back in business class till the 17th of Sept. So I have been flight training.

The flight training has been going great, Since I have 50 or so hours to build, the way the flight school handles build up time and CPL training, is a C172 check out and exam first, then some general "rust removing", and some sim training Night Rating and Mountain check out, then you are sent off to build time, then begin the CPL Training. The Flight School I am training with has some top notch Instructor Pilots/Charter Pilots, and great equipment and m/x as well. The Cessna 172 check flight went well, the usual Steep turns, stalls, forced approaches, circuits, precautionaries, diversions, your normal tasks, it took 2 flights due to time and other books, but it was nice to practice it all to get back into the swing of flying airplanes again. Then since Victoria is unlike any airport I trained at (Where I trained for my PPL-A, and CPL-H was the same airport and the airport had one runway and taxiway and was just a MF/FSS) we decided I should do some circuits alone and a flight or two solo out to the practice area to get myself familiar with the much busier airspace and radio work then I am accustomed to, and this all went fine, and I am now getting familiar and comfortable with having to talk to Clearance, Ground, Inner and Outer Towers, It's always interesting for me getting my taxi clearance but so far I haven't had any runway incursions so thats a good thing :P, I guess you can call it Small Town Airport Pilot goes to the Big City Airport's to fly? :P None the less I am getting familiar with it all.

The Sim training was focusing on getting familiar with VOR and ADF work, which was always a bit confusing for me, but my instructor explained it to me in such a way that I picked up right way, and before you know it I was doing VOR and ADF intercepts quite easily and was enjoying it! (Is that possible?!)

Onto Night Training, this is much fun, I have never flown as a Pilot at night, so I began this fun rating this week with the Night Briefing and a dual night flight. The night flight dual, for the first time was amazing, everything was so calm, the weather, basically no other traffic around, we flew over the city for an hour or so, then headed back to the circuits. I found it took a few landings to get use to landing a night, but I done well enough that I didn't break the gear :P and by the end of the flight a few of my landings were pretty close to greasers, if i have to say so myself :P we then moved onto landings without the landing lights on and those went fine, nothing too hard, and then various combinations of lights on/off/ and flap and speed settings. My next two flights were at night, solo. In these flights I found I was learning to get the A/C to do exactly what I wanted, and it felt great, to descend at a certain rate, at a certain speed, and turn at the right point to be lined up on final, then to start flaring at the right time to make a somewhat smooth touchdown, felt great. The first night I flew 2.2 solo, and the 2nd night I flew 2.9 solo, both flights went great and I felt i honed my night skills even more.

So next up is the Dual Night X-Country and then the Solo Night X-Country and then I am finished the night rating, then onto the one day mountain flying check out which should be fun and I am looking forward too. Those are scheduled for next week and the following week if the weather co-operates.

As a side note, I have been talking with flight instructor friends about their jobs and flight instructing in general, and I am getting more and more excited about when I am a flight instructor about April 2008, I am definitely not doing it for the hours, and for sure not the money :P but for the opportunity to teach others this great thing called Flying! :P. The plan is I will do the airplane flight instructing on my weeks off from flying helis. To quote a fellow blogger who sums it up quite well "I keep thinking of when I first started my flight training. How much I looked up to, and wanted to be like, my flight instructor. Someone is going to look to me for all the answers, and is going to trust me with their life. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and hope I can handle the responsibility."

Well thats it for now, I have a few more flights scheduled but the school is quite busy but like I said my next flights are the Dual Night X-Country and the Solo as well, and the mountain check out. So Stay tuned!, Promise I will have some photos next time!!

Diverting

Well, having my CPL (H) License is great.

But, for various reasons (One of which I am told is my Age/Lack of "Life Experience" and "Life Maturity") I have been unable to find a full-time job in the helicopter side of the industry, well it's discouraging to say the least, but Life goes on, and maybe some day down the road down the road I will be a Full-Time Helicopter Pilot.

But at the present time I have been "Diverted" As you can say, After my Job Hunting road trip, I done some thinking, and As you know I already have my PPL (Airplane), so I thought about it, and how I dont have a real preference between flying Airplanes and Helicopters, I decided to come back to fixed-wing for a few years, get a few thousand hours doing instructing and charters, then maybe go back to helicopters. Thus, I decided to upgrade my PPL (Airplane) to a Commercial One, and add a flight instructor rating, and a float rating just for fun.

So I have applied, and was accepted within a day (Acceptance into the program was based on Aviation Goals, Background, etc) , to a University Aviation Program, for a "Diploma in Business Administration- Aviation Option", Which I begin in August, I will be taking Business Courses from the Uni, and Fixed Wing Flight Training with the school thats associated with the program, and the funny and cool thing about that is, the instructor who trained me for my PPL (airplane) moved on to another company last winter, and well, she moved onto the school that I will be doing my CPL/Instructor rating at, so I've been told she will just continue on as my instructor, so thats cool, since I found she was a great instructor. The program works great- I get flight training to attain my CPL-Airplane and Flight Instructor Ratings, and a business background from the uni courses, which will come in handy, since my goal is to be in a management/ownership position in a Aviation business one day.

Well thats it for now, See you in August!, Have a great summer.

Matt

March 26-2007

On March 26 (Monday) I passed my flight test for Commercial Pilot (Helicopter) on the first attempt.As with any big test or exam, one is a little nervous or stressed, I had a whole 2.5 hours of sleep before I headed to the hanger to start the big day. The weather of the day was great, not very much wind, blue skies, 22,00ft celings, a great day for sure.When I arrived at the hanger, I completed the final stages of the nav exercise (inputting winds, leg time's, weather package, notams, etc.) and then the oral portion of the ground section began with questions on my routing, maps, symbology on the maps, airspaces and weather minima, radio frequencies, aircraft documents, systems, speeds, limitations, emergencies and all the other questions that come with this part of the flight test, when this part came to a end, I was briefed on how things would happen for the flight portion of the test (It is a FLIGHT test after all ). For the final portion of the ground section, I DI'd the machine, explaining what I was looking at, what I was looking for, and why I was looking, and then the examiner asked me various questions about the aircraft parts , and then it was time that I gave the standard passenger briefing, preety easily done, the entire ground portion went very well. Had to remind myself and be reminded not to be nervous or get stressed haha.Now it's really show time, the flight portion began. The Lift off, hover check, and all that went well and we were off on the navigation portion, this went well as the winds were as forecasted, time for the diversion, which went good,preety easy ,now onto the confined area and sloping ground landing, which both went well, nice recce's and approach and landing no trouble here of course, on departure from the confined I was given a simulated MR TEMP light, so it became a rejected departure, and I turn around and landed in the spot I had departed from, now it was time to depart the confined and climb so we may began the instrument flying exercise, which went ok, the wind picked up a little and their was a little bit of turbulence, but nothing too major or too challenging, and then it was onto the steep turn, for this I chose a 30 degree bank at 80 knots and 3,500 feet, this went well, held altitude and speed, and bank. Now it was time to head back to the airport for the real fun stuff, we entered the circuit to a hover landing, and then it was off for a few more circuits, with hover and no hover landings and take off's, and a stuck pedal was also thrown in, which went good, I was a little nervous about it before the flight test but it went fine, and then the engine failure, which went off without a hitch (no pun intended ) now it was time for the 180 and straight in autorotations, now the wind direction had shifted a little and made this interesting, but in the end it went ok, now it was time to head back to the base, and on the way I was given the simulated engine failure/forced approach, which required a 180 turn back into the wind, this went ok. Now it was time to come back to base , I made a smooth approach and landing,and then it was time for the debrief, which started off talking about how I was on the ground portion, which was done well, and the points in the flight portion, I scored mostly 3's and 4's on the flight portion, and when the examiner said I passed, I asked him, FULL PASS? And he said yes, full pass, then I had the ear to ear smile that's still on my face haha. And their you have it folks, From Zero hours helicopters to flight test, dealing with west coast weather, training on the coast, from R22's to 44's and the 206, now all I have to finish is the last few hours of the 206 training, which should be finished by the end of the week, and I will have that little piece of paper saying I am a Commercial Helicopter Pilot (Helicopter) RH22, RH44, BH06. Then the real fun begins, and I look forward to it and espically will enjoy getting back to working. So I will report on the last bit few hours of 206 training I have to do. Thanks to all who read my training blog and to those who replied to it was well. It's been fun thats for sure.

Have a good day.Matt

P.S: Oh neat, I just noticed this post, was my 100th post on Vertical, but my member number is preety old (655) as I have been around for awhile but never posted much, anyways 100th post!

Mar 20-2007

Just a little update, I have not forgot about this blog haha, I am back to the hanger on Wednesday and will be flying a few flights of emergencies, and autos, etc. and will be having flight test in a few days. Any tips or words of advice on the flight test? I feel confident in everything,just having a little case of the nerves even though it is still a few days away, I guess as anyone who has a checkride or test would be a little nervous haha Have a good day,Matt