So it's been a while since I last posted. Nearly two and half years actually. As you may recall, last time I posted I was in Arizona attending ATP professional pilot school. Long story short, I completed the program and graduated with the following ratings:
- Commercial Pilot, Single Engine Land
- Commercial Pilot, Multi-Engine Land
- Instrument Pilot
- Certified Flight Instructor
- Certified Multi-Engine Flight Instructor
- Instrument Flight Instructor
That means I can legally get paid to fly airplanes, and teach others how to fly airplanes. The training program is something I will remember all my life. It was challenging, but also a tremendous amount of fun. I logged nearly 200 hours of flight time, and got to fly 4-8 hours a day, seven days a week.
After graduating, I signed on as a flight instructor with a flight school at Boeing Field. It was a pretty good gig and I got to fly about 20 hours a week. It quickly became apparent though that it was simply not feasible to make a living as a full-time pilot. For the first couple of years I would have to work as a flight instructor making $12-$15 an hour. After that, I'd have to work at a regional airline making $18K - $20K a year. I discovered I'm not prepared to scale back my standard of living that much! It could work for a 20-something single guy, but for a middle-aged guy with a wife, two kids, and a mortgage, not so much.
So ultimately I decided to go back to work in the software industry which would enable me to fly on my own terms. I purchased my own airplane (a Mooney M20K 252), and started working as an agile coach and management consultant. I did my "regular" job during the week, and did flight instruction on the weekends. Eventually the flight school I was working at went under, and so I started instructing as an independent instructor. My consulting work required me to travel a lot, and having my own airplane meant that I could fly myself to the job location. I spent almost two years commuting between Seattle and San Jose in my Mooney.
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| Crater Lake during a flight to San Jose |
I eventually grew tired of being away from my family so much, so a few months ago a took a position as Vice President of Engineering at a Seattle telecommunications company. Now that I'm back in Seattle, I have time to instruct on weekends and in the evenings after work. With the weather starting to improve, I should be able to fly about 10 hours a week. I currently have two students that I'm flying with regularly, and looking for a couple more.
So that catches things up, and I promise to try and keep the blog more up to date. My flight instruction business has it's own
website, so check it out, and if you want to go flying, let me know!
I love the Spring time change. That extra hour of daylight means that I can fit a flight lesson in after work. Today was a perfect day for flying. 62 deg., clear and no wind. I met one of my students after work for some landing practice. Everything seemed to come together for him today and he was able to make the last four or five landings without any help from me. At this rate I'll be able to sign him off to solo in another lesson or two. I really love it when a student makes such great progress.
