Today

Today is one of the hardest days of my life.

Unfortunate Decision

Well today I forced myself into a slight setback when it comes to my flight training. I think I have decided NOT to go to the flight school in Cedar City anymore. Mainly my decision is based on the cost of the program. The more I look, the more I'm noticing larger, more reputable flight schools charging less than the school in Cedar City. I also don't like the fact that they recently had a plane in which the engine just quit (see post below) just after takeoff. Most pilots I have talked to say that catastrophic failures such as engine loss are completely unacceptable and usually the mark of poor maintenance, not a freak accident. I have to realize that probably 10% of engine failures result in fatalities, something I'm just not willing to look past.

I now think I will start looking very closely at the Mesa Airlines pilot development program in Farmington, New Mexico. The program is a year and a half long and not only gets me an Associates of Applied Science in Aviation Technology and all my FAA ratings, but they also hire 95% - 100% of the pilots that complete their program as 1st officers, usually in CRJ's (Canadair Regional Jets). This is the route my cosine went and the program worked for him, he's currently flying CRJ's out of Phoenix.

I'm a little pissed that I won't be going to flight school next month as I was planning, but I just can't rush a $60,000 decision.

Japanese Kids

For the next week and a half we have two Japanese boys living with us. One named Yoshi and another named Kaziyoshi. They are here with this foreign exchange type program where they come to Utah for a week and a half to play golf and visit America. It's pretty fun having them around since you get an idea of how different yet similar their culture is to our own. One thing is for sure, their electronics are far superior to ours. I remember 3 or 4 years ago one of them having a camera phone, something that was unheard of in America at the time. This year one of them has a phone that looks more like a digital camera than a phone. It has a 3 megapixel camera with flash and games that look almost Playstation 2 quality. From my observations they seem to constantly be about 3 years ahead of us when it comes to electronics. Another way they are much different than ourselves is how they act and keep themselves. When I was helping them unpack, everything is in perfect order with their nice cloths being kept in their own little bags to protect them from everything else in the suitcase. Their also very well mannered and respectful. For instance, we took them out to TGI Fridays last night and I was telling one of them to try the guacamole that came with their dinner, he tried it but based on his reaction I don't think he liked it much, but he still ate all of it after I told him about it. I'm pretty sure he only did that not to be disrespectful to me. One way we're similar however is music and movies. They seem obsessed with American culture. They love baseball and football and their favorite bands are Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. They also really like Nelly, 50 Cent and Ludacris.

Plane Crash!!!

Let's compare...

Does the nose color of this plane:


Resemble the color of this plane?


It does, and it should, because it's THE EXACT SAME PLANE!!! In other words, the plane that I flew in from Cedar City to Delta two weeks ago last Wednesday, crashed exactly two weeks later! The plane in the bottom picture, the one upside down, is the EXACT same plane I was in! How crazy is that?

I found all of this out when I was working at an event at Smiths in Magna. One of these people that comes to almost all my events stopped by and we began talking about me going to flight school. When I told him the school I was looking at was in Cedar City he asked if I had read the paper that day. I said no and he went inside to grab something. A few minutes later he came out with a copy of the days paper and showed me an article on a plane that had crashed in Cedar City belonging to the flight school down there. I instantly recognized the plane as the one I had just flown in a few weeks prior.

Now I have to decide if I still want to go to this school or not. I remember thinking the plane looked quite old when I first saw it, but it didn't worry me much since it's very common to fly older planes as a plane isn't judged by it's age as much as it's maintenance record. On the same note though, most in the aviation community consider it inexcusable for a plane to lose power or have any other form of catastrophic failure. Of course you can't ever be 100% positive nothing will go wrong and things can always happen, but when the maintenance and safety checklists are followed strictly it's extremely rare for a planes engine to just stop working. So I have to decide whether I trust this school and their maintanence program, and just put my faith in the senario that this was just a freak accident that could not be prevented, or I need to withdraw from the school because I don't think their maintanence department was doing a good job and is not taking care of their fleet of planes as they should. I'm still trying to figure it out, but as of now I'm still leaning towards going to the school. The plane that crashed is junk, so the good news is that they will have to replace it with a newer, nicer plane for me to fly.

If you want more information on the crash, you can read the official NTSB report.

Oh, and by the way, neither of the pilots in the plane were injured.

"Kill the pain, integrity won't keep you warm and sane,
throw me out, with the bath water.
Don't wanna be, anyone that would wanna know me."

Weekly Update 8/15

The party this weekend kicked major ass.

I'm still waiting on approval for my loans so I can go to flight school.

Mckell left for Aruba yesterday.

1 Down, 1 To Go

Well one of the two big hurdles I faced getting into flight school is now no more. Yesterday I passed my doctors exam and got my FAA First Class Medical and Student Pilot certificate. Basically the FAA has 3 flight medicals that they administer depending on what you want to fly. A first class medical is the highest certification you can get. I was worried going into it that I might have some problems, mainly with my eyes and eyesight. I did have to make a quick and expensive trip to Lens Crafters before my medical to get a pair of glasses since I didn't realize that you actually had to prove that you had 20/20 vision as opposed to just showing them a prescription. Either way now that my medical is out of the way the only thing I am waiting on is my student loans and financial aid to come back. As soon as that comes back which should be within the next few days, I'll be ready to enroll in school.

As for which school I am going to go to I think I have decided on Cedar City. I just like the fact that it starts soon, I will have all my certifications within 6 months and it's fairly close to home so I can still see Mckell and come up every now and again. By going to Cedar City I'll also be able to fly up to SLC, pick up friends and take them on my various cross country flights I'll have to do while building time. I've already planned a few Vegas trips! The Cedar City school will put me in the same place as the Mesa Pilot Development program in 6 months as opposed to a little over 2 years for the latter. It will be a little more work to find a job, but I figure by getting the year and a half head start I'll have a lot more time to do so.

Cedar City

Tomorrow I'm going down to Cedar City to check out the flight school that I am starting to seriously consider. I have an appointment for my class 1 FAA medical next Monday and will be turning my loan applications in when I go down to Cedar City. Considering everything checks out, and I like what I see, I could be starting flight school as early as September. It's about time!