Pilots Progress

Rainbow and Ice

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:52:00 +0000

Rainbows are good but ice is not.

Clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:50:00 +0000

Skipped May and flew through June

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:43:00 +0000

Here is some of what we did...

Beautiful mornings enjoy the last of the smooth air before summer

illustrating the importance of watching for traffic, a student and I watched this incredibly close near mid air collision at lake Chelan

More fantastic days flying into Electric city

Teaching my son the finer points of catching a football

Flying with our eyes closed, not much to see some days anyways

enjoying a few walks between the thunderstorms

taking over NOAA and controlling the weather

building a fence with the neighbor

Earlier days, to take advantage of smooth air and sunrises

Hunting for wild turkey eggs in the woods

more sunets

more blind flying, relying on the instruments

no, that is not what it is supposed to look like

discovering bad parts on the plane during VIP tours and trying to keep my cool

Introducing the students to flying in bad weather, not every day is sunny

But it is nice when they are

lighting from the back porch

Rainbows at the office

some days we just keep going until we find that smooth air away from the rain

The transition between the weather is always spectacular

Dodging rain

Stuck in the rain

checking the ole ticker at high altitude

accidents happen

relatively cheap physics lesson for some students

Exploring the woods

Exploring the lake

Waiting for more storms

Having patience with the flight schedule

Helping Auntie get married

fastest ring bearer ever

taking photos instead of preventing face plants, just split seconds later...

finding big chairs

taking time to smell the flowers

playing hide and go seek

and last but not least, eating chocolate

Sunsets and Adventures

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:32:00 +0000

Back on the home front, we make the most of our sunny days with adventures into the wilderness around our home. I am looking forward to the longer days.

Good Days & Bad Days

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:30:00 +0000

Spring has sprung a little wet and grey this year. We keep flying as much as we can, affording the students some valuable weather exposure. Every once in a while we get a glorious blue sky day.

Family at work

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 02:48:00 +0000

Here we all are

Don't tell me how to fly it....

Doing the checklist first...

Making a few adjustments...

Just pretending,

Airframe and Powerplant hangar

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:54:00 +0000

Back to the Skies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 05:50:00 +0000

Wilderness First Aid and Survival

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 04:55:00 +0000

Here is the 4th year class and instructors upon the completion of their Advanced Wilderness First Aid course. They all did a marvelous job learning skills none of us ever want to use.

We had a week of intensive study punctuated by hands on scenarios.

Yup, nothing inside, just as I suspected

Wound cleaning practice with the help of some pigs

He is not going anywhere

Practicing extracting injured people from an aircraft

Shelter building

To build a fire

Orienteering

Off to the rescue

Working on the evacuation

Almost to the extraction point

While we had a lot of fun in the woods, it was a lot of work and a scary reminder of how dangerous our work is. I wish I could show more pictures but much of the final scenario we keep secret for the next classes.

Silly Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:20:00 +0000

Visit to MAF

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:19:00 +0000

At the MAF headquarters in Nampa, there is a display of what remains of Nate Saint's Piper PA-14. During our visit, the students had the opportunity to see this piece of mission aviation history and reflect on the sacrifices of the 5 men killed on the beach in 1956. There are several books and movies about the story:

Jungle Pilot

End of the Spear

Beyond the Gates of Splendor

Saving Lives

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:06:00 +0000

Now that everyone is CPR and AED certified we head out into the wilderness for next weeks advanced first aid and survival training. This training equips the students with the necessary skills to survive after a crash or take care of people in very remote places often improvising medical care.

Mission Aviation Fellowship

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:18:00 +0000

While the weather transitions into spring, we took the opportunity to make a road trip to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) headquarters in Nampa Idaho. The folks at Mcdonalds had a hard time understanding how 22 Pilots could be making a road trip... Nevertheless, we had a good time meeting MAF missionaries and exposing the students to one of the potential mission aviation organizations they could serve with. Up next,Wilderness First Aid and survival training for that undesirable off airport "landing"...

A&P Program

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:12:00 +0000

Down the airport a few hangars, we are almost finished with renovating an old WWII hangar to be used for our maintenance training facility. It has come a very long ways from where it started and will house the training for years 2 and 3 of the students Airframe and Powerplant training. I will try and get some before pictures when it is finished for comparison.

Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:09:00 +0000

Just amazing to see somtimes

Sick

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:08:00 +0000

It is no fun to be sick

Number 3 on the way

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:04:00 +0000

Hopefully she will sleep just as well...

Back to the Crank

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:30:00 +0000

We are starting off on a new semester. All of my students completed their Private Pilot license and all on the first attempt. In this new semester, we will transition to flying faster more complex aircraft like what is being used in mission work overseas. We will be getting into mountainous terrain and develop more precise control of the aircraft.

Meanwhile at work

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:58:00 +0000

At the moment I have a few more days before Christmas to prepare for the next semester by flying the higher performance aircraft and writing lectures for the upcoming classes.

I have also become the resident logo guy as we look to refresh our image

Occasionally, I get to see my favorite visitors

Then it is back to the skies for lessons surrounded by some fantastic scenery

Quick recap of November into December

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:43:00 +0000

During the month, I did as much flying as possible with countless more hours on the ground reviewing procedures and prepping students for their big tests. The time spent away from work was equally exciting spent with the family doing Pumpkin Chunkin,

building gingerbread houses,

swimming lessons

making snowmen,

snow angels

cookies,

and playing in the snow together.

November went fast

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:25:00 +0000

Between getting the students finished with Private Pilot and Thanksgiving, November was a real blur.

Students

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:36:00 +0000

Sometimes they challenge me

But I win in the end

and yes, it is still that stressful

Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:21:00 +0000

Knobs and buttons

Clouds

Rain

The view from my terrestrial office

Night Flying

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:14:00 +0000

Artsy night flying pictures:

Flying at night is dark, scary and wonderfully different

Some of the aforementioned scenery

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:02:00 +0000

Potholes

road map for the sky

a farmers topographic experiment, nicely done :)

"big" airports (KGEG)

Over downtown