The story of a middle-aged Egyptian man

Jan 28th 2012

"Chris, we are really glad to have you and it looks like you have a lot of instructing experience.  I've assigned you two students.  The first is a Private student starting from zero time.  She got a 98% on her written test and seems pretty motivated.  The second, well, the second is more of a challenge."

A challenge.  Coming from the Chief Flight Instructor at flight school with a business model that caters to foreign students, this was a troubling first conversation.  

"Your new student is from Egypt and is a LITTLE older.  He is 34 and has had problems with his last two instructors and we think it's because of the age difference."  Many of the flight instructors here are fresh out of college and many of them look young.  Being a little older, he did not appreciate criticism from his younger flight instructors (whom he referred to as just children) and requested a new one.  I wasn't really surprised when I was given the older student.  I know it may not have been an experience thing for them (there are plenty of flight instructors here with a year or more of experience).  They saw me as an older looking flight instructor who might be able to give criticism without offending him.  So, I just smiled and said I'd take anyone.  I know I wasn't the best flight instructor or pilot, but I know that I'm a pretty good teacher. 

March 17th, 2012

Yes, I fast-forwarded almost 2 months.  When I was first given this new student, all he had left was 4 flights.  We were going to go on 2 cross-country flights and two practice for the end-of-course check ride flights.  It should have taken a week.  To say that his skills were lacking was an understatement.  He had a hard time understanding air traffic control, he was consistently missing important details, and he was dangerously unsafe in the air.  After a month of flying and simulator training, I put him up for his end-of-course.  I knew he wasn't ready but he insisted.  As expected, he didn't get out of the simulator portion.  So, for another few weeks, we got him ready for the recheck and he failed again.  

I used to think with enough time and money, anyone could learn how to do anything.  I'm not entirely sure I believe that anymore.  In the last few weeks, he seemed to be regressing.  We actually had to spend a few simulator lessons going back to fundamentals of instrument flying.  It was depressingly frustrating to watch someone fall apart the way he did.  After a week in the simulator, we finally got into the airplane again to polish him up.  If you've been reading my blog, you've probably heard me tell stories of the student who froze and wouldn't let go of the controls.  This was the same guy.  

When we got into the air, we started the first of 3 or 4 planned approaches.  The first was so bad that I had to take the controls twice to get him back on course.  My persistent nagging to fly his heading wasn't working.  On his missed approached, he almost flew us into the Daytona International Speedway. 

"Approach, Epic 523.  We'd like to cancel the rest of the approaches and return VFR to New Smyrna."

"Epic 523, so you don't want to do the VOR 18, RNAV 7 or the Hold?"

"Affirmative, we would like to return VFR for a full stop in New Smyrna. Epic 523"

"Epic 523, proceed direct to New Smyrna, descent approved, squawk VFR, and contact tower."

He seemed confused.  I told him that we'd talk about it on the ground but we aren't going to do any more approaches today.  His first approach was so bad that it appeared like he had completely forgotten how to fly the airplane.  I could almost sense the dejection from him and tried to lift him up a little.  His landing was good so as he rolled onto the taxiway, I told him that he had a really good landing but knew that it would be no consolation.  

We went back up the next day and everything was a lot better.  As we got out of the airplane, I said, "Well, that was really good today.  I'm going to go ahead and put you back up for your end-of-course."

"Thank you Chris.  This will be my last shot in my life to do this and I will not let you down."

His comment caught me off-guard.  When you get into the grind of instructing daily, it is sometimes easy to get lost in what you are doing.  I never once made him fly with me because I wanted to make more money or get more time.  I am 100% positive that I do what I do so that he can be the best pilot he can be.  On the other hand, my time with my students is a direct correlation to how much money I make.  When he told me this was his last shot, I couldn't help but feel bad.  I thought of how I would feel if I was in his shoes.  I couldn't imagine if I had to say that this was my last shot at living my dream.  What a humbling realizion to make.

A day in the life...

Whew, I have been busy.  So, I decided to take time out of my busy schedule to give you all a glimpse into a day in my life...more specifically, yesterday.

7 am: I've found myself starting to wake up before my alarm on most days.  So, I am up and moving before 7.  I turn on my iPad and tune into my favorite XM morning talk show as I shower, shave, make breakfast and brew some coffee.  Most days I'll always take a few minutes to make lunch and a snack to bring with me to work.  Today, I didn't.  I was supposed to have a cross-country with a private pilot student but it was cancelled due to maintenance.  So, as I scoured over my schedule for the day, I decided I would just come back home after my 9-11am flight.  The next thing on my schedule wasn't until 5 so I would have plenty of time.  My schedule for the afternoon had me in the simulator from 5-7, a practice instrument flight from 7-9 and a night cross-country from 9-11.  I sighed to myself as I looked at the next day where I had scheduled a flight for 7 am.  I got a little overzealous and thought that it wouldn't be that bad.  Note to self: it was that bad.  

I arrived at the school a little before 9 and walked into pilot prep room to take a peak at the weather for the day and see if any airspace had been closed for whatever reason (usually the President will shutdown the entire east coast when he comes for a visit).  Today looks like a good day so I told my student to grab the keys and go pre-flight the airplane.  It usually takes 10 to 15 minutes to do, so I opened up the scheduling program and starting to plan my next flights.  We are allowed to schedule 3 days in advance so I usually try to take time in the morning before I fly to get on the schedule otherwise it fills it and you end up like I did today: flight at 7 am followed by a flight at 5pm.  

I went into the lounge and started talking with some of the other instructors when one of the dispatchers walks in.  He asks a nearby instructor what he has scheduled for the day.  He replies that he's flying until 5.  I perk up and ask, "What's going on?"  

"We have an airplane that needs picked up in Sebring."  Without even thinking twice I jumped at the opportunity.  "I'm free.  I'll do it!"  After I volunteered for some free flight time (over 4 hours to be exact), I realized I needed to see when my lessons were.  That flight cancellation worked out in my favor after all. I just didn't realize how long my day was going to be.  So, another instructor and I flew down to Sebring (directly south of Orlando about 40-50 miles) to pick up the airplane.  As we are flying down, the other instructor asks if I want to test fly the airplane.  Sure, more free flight time, I thought.  As we get down there and I go to get in the airplane, the mechanic explained to me that this was a new engine.  I was not to fly anymore than gliding distance from the runway in case the engine fails unexpectedly.  Also, if it starts running too hot, I need to land ASAP.  I had to essentially circle the airport for 30 minutes while waiting for something to either blow up or stop working.  It was a little unnerving to fly an airplane with a rebuilt engine but everything seemed to be working as expected.  When I got back to the hanger, he said he needed about 30 minutes to see if there were any leaks and we would be good to go.  

By this time it was already 2.  I was really regretting my decision to not make lunch.  We went by the airport restaurant where I picked up a sandwich and headed back to the airplane.  By the time I had arrive, it was back on the ramp and ready to go.  To the south, storms were starting to build.  Since this airplane had been out of service since August, the GPS database was out of date and probably not legal to fly IFR.  If I was going to make it back today, we had to leave soon.  The other flight instructor hopped in his plane and me in mine.  We started the engines and he started out to the runway with me in tow.  Over the common frequency, he said, "well, I'm going off to Ocala.  Keep a close eye on the engine gauges and if anything starts running hot or abnormal, pull the power and find an airport to land.  You should be fine but if anything happens, play it safe."

It wasn't until that moment that I realized I was flying an airplane with a rebuilt engine a hundred or more miles back to New Smyrna.  He took off and I followed shortly after.  As I climbed out, he said, well, I'm going to contact Orlando Approach.  Hope it all works out okay.  See you back at base....and that was it.  For the first time since July, I was flying on my own. 

The flight, needless to say, was pretty uneventful.  As I scrolled through glass cockpit's menus, I found that this particular aircraft had a subscription to Sirius XM satellite radio.  Bonus!  I turned it on got to listen to commercial free music all the way back home.  Since I was cruising at around 1000 feet, I didn't have to contact anyone on the radio so the radio blared in my headphones almost non-stop.  On the rare occasions when I would hear some radio chatter, the radio would silence itself for a few seconds and then come streaming back into my headset.  I even took some time to take some pictures which I will add to the end of the blog.  

When I arrived in New Smyrna at around 4:30, I was tired.  After over 4 hours of flying, preceded by over an hour in the morning before I left, I was pushing 8 hours and had yet to start the hard part of my day.  I ran to 7/11 where I had to get my dinner for the night.  I grabbed a deli sandwich and loaded up on coffee.  I ended up hitting up the snack shop at the school for some cans of Diet Coke between each of the flights.  My night cross-country landed at around 11:30pm and I was home by midnight.  I got ready for bed and set my alarm to start the process all over again at 6am the next morning.  I cursed myself quietly for scheduling the 7 am flight and started to hope for some bad weather to move in so I could cancel it and go back to sleep.  Then I thought to myself, "Self, you get to go fly tomorrow at 7 and get paid for it.  That's not so bad."  I smiled to myself as I realized that I never once thought that when I was in the Air Force.  Winning.  

Circling the airport waiting for the engine to explode

Yes, that is the cockpit and yes I am spoiled.  

Cruising at 1000 feet across flat southern Florida

In Montana, I flew around mountains.  In Florida, I fly around GIANT 2000 foot towers.  At least the mountains were easy to see.  In case you are wondering, the top of that tower is 1000 feet above me.