A Personal Introduction

Hi all,

This may be a long introduction, but I didn't want to leave much more out of it!

1) Background

      Aviation has always played a significant part in my life. I’ve spent my entire life, thus far, living on a private airport. My family home connects to a hangar that has always housed airplanes in various states of airworthiness. My family’s history in aviation began with my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather owned his own business as an electrician and was a pilot in the mid-1900s. Pop, as we called him, purchased a Cessna 195B from a corporation that has remained in my family to this day. My grandfather followed in his father’s footsteps and fell in love with aviation. From a young age, he was passionate about aviation. He spent time working line crew, went to Western Michigan University for Aviation Maintenance, and has spent his life flying, acquiring, and maintaining aircraft for the family and for Northwest and Delta Airlines. To this day, my grandfather remains a private pilot, an aviation mechanic with inspection authorization, and an FAA-designated mechanic examiner. Many who will see this post know my grandfather as a teacher of Aircraft Systems at Eastern Michigan University. Many other family relatives have ties to aviation, but I am only going to include my direct family line.

      My father grew up with the same passion as his father and his father’s father. My father took his first solo flight at sixteen years old and became a private pilot in high school. Flying as a profession was always my father’s dream, unfortunately, his poor uncorrected eyesight prevented him from pursuing aviation professionally.  Through twenty years as an automotive engineer and the recipient of two Master’s degrees from the Universities of Michigan and Syracuse, my father’s circumstances do not discourage him from staying current and pursuing advanced flight training to work as a contract pilot and eventually fly professionally once he is eligible for retirement with a pension. With three generations of pilots in the family before me, I don’t have to look far for a role model. I am the second oldest of my siblings, and my older brother also pursued aviation. He is a commercial pilot for a jet management company and flies King Airs, Hawkers, Leers, and Challengers while he works towards Delta Airlines. With a history such as this, I could not think of anything I am better suited to do for a living than fly.

2) Current status

       I am currently a graduating junior at Eastern Michigan University. I am finishing my third year and graduating in April 2018. My major is Aviation Management with a business concentration and a minor in General Business. I am progressing in flight training outside of the University’s aviation program. Currently, I have my private pilot certificate and more than 245 hours of logged flight time. I have just over one hour logged in a Piper Arrow, just over 50 hours in a Mooney M20C, and nearly 200 hours logged in my family’s award-winning Cessna 150. I anticipate completing my instrument rating and earning my single-engine commercial pilot certificate and multi-engine add-on very near to graduating from Eastern. 

3) Future plans

To preface my plans, I have no intention of flight instructing as a job, but every intention of earning my flight instructor certificates at a later time in my life.

      

      Once I graduate and complete the necessary flight training, I will be faced with a lot of options. I am keeping an open mind to the many possibilities expected in the near future; however, it is my intention to fly the Leer 35 for Royal Air out of Pontiac International Airport. Royal Air also operates a King Air, a Leer 55, and two Falcons, and I would be happy to fly these aircraft as well, but my intent is the Leer. I have a connection at Royal that logged 900 hours in his first year as a Leer S-I-C. Once at Royal, I hope to fly with the same level of activity and eventually upgrade to captain either there or at another Part 135 operator. Once I have over 1000 hours turbine PIC, I intend to go to Delta Airlines, from which I will retire at 65 and continue flying for as long as I am physically able.
      I have many ambitions for my future in aviation. I plan to pursue seaplane ratings, a tailwheel endorsement, flight and ground instructor certificates, earn Gold Seal for student success, and become a certificated A&P, along with the coveted Airline Transport Pilot certificate.

4) Interests

      I am interested in hearing about flight and duty restrictions and the exemption of cargo carriers, because I have a potential interest in flying cargo in the future. The application, interview, and hiring practices of airlines is a subject that I find very interesting, and would greatly like to know more about. I also find the Restricted-ATP topic particularly interesting because it is relevant to Eastern Michigan’s flight program, although I will not be eligible as a student of Part 61 training. As a future beneficiary, the pilot shortage is another current aviation topic that I would find interesting to discuss.