Iceman, the later years

Good stuff.

Cleared direct IND, climb and maintain FL370...

Well, the unthinkable has happened. I actually caught a break. Now, this isn't a little break as in a good deal on a TV or a hurricane being downgraded to a Cat 1. This is a big one. This summer, my wife and I will finally be able to move back to Indianapolis. I was hired as a first officer for Republic Airways. I will be flying a 50-passenger Embraer 145 regional jet.

I used to work for Republic (then known more commonly by the name of their only "child" airline, Chautauqua) as a records clerk. It was the only aviation job I could get in Indianapolis immediately after 9/11. Being a graduate from Purdue's flight program, I was able to get an interview there for a first officer position after being a records clerk for about six months. The interview went okay but not great. They put me in a "hiring pool" that they said they would call from if they needed more pilots. They said that getting more flight experience would help move me up in line in the pool. Well, after about six more months I had received no calls and could not find a good way to get some flight hours.

It was closing on summer 2003 at this point. My wife and I decided to move to Florida where flying was much more abundant. After getting there I found out I wasn't qualified enough to flight instruct at most of the schools there. It took us over a year to get on our feet after the move and that setback (I had to add a rating to my flight instructor license). Then in early 2005 I was offered a job at a very good flight school, the same one I had used to get that needed rating. It was a great job compared to the other jobs I had worked since 9/11 (substitute teacher, taxi driver, records clerk, fax pusher, and internet tech support). The pay was significantly less, but it was ok, because I was finally making some career progress for the first time in nearly three years.

After about a year of instructing I was introduced to corporate charter flying, mostly in a Piper Navajo (twin-piston engines, 8-10 seats). It was a lot of fun, and made me seriously consider changing my career goal from airline pilot to corporate jet pilot. We still wanted to get back to Indiana someday; maybe I could find a corporate job up there after getting a couple of years on a Learjet or Citation in Florida. The nice thing about corporate flying is it's a little more independent, and you make more money sooner than airline pilots, though it doesn't usually top out as high.

In the mean time I had been keeping tabs on Chautauqua. Its holding company, Republic Airways Holdings, had started Republic Airlines and acquired Shuttle America. It had been growing very steadily since I left, I just wasn't sure I wanted to go that route any more.

Lately however, I suddenly became very sure I'd rather go to Republic after thinking about it for a bit. The main goal has always been to get back to Indy. Florida is pretty nice, but the bottom line is it's just too damn expensive. The higher corporate pay compared to regional airline pay is more than offset by the much lower cost of living in Indiana. There are many other pros and cons of both types of flying, but I've pretty much covered the main ones.

It all happened so fast. After my last post, on my "day off" I totalled up my logbook and discovered that I met almost exactly the new (higher) minimum flight experience required to fly for Republic. Up until that time I had pretty much only been considering the corporate aviation route, but then I thought "we could move back to Indy next summer." Working for Gulfstream the past couple months made me realize how much I missed working at a regional airline. The fact that I was flying for Gulfstream on call almost 24/7 made me realize that the similar lifestyle of corporate flying might not be all that great. I tossed and turned over it that night, and the next day I applied online to Republic. That was Friday the 10th.

I joked that I expected a call on Monday, knowing it could easily be a week or more, if ever. Monday came and went and no call. They called on Tuesday. They offered me an interview that Friday the 17th or a later date if I preferred. I chose Friday. I was sent a ticket and flew up on standby on Thursday. For some reason, I had no problems getting to sleep Thursday night.

The interview itself and the entire day was unreal. It was more like homecoming than anything else. I saw a lot of my old coworkers who knew me from when I was a clerk. They were all happy to see me and wished me well. After a very painless interview (I was very thoroghoutly prepared, despite the two days I had to do so) I was offered a job on the spot. I can't take all the credit; they are growing fast and really need pilots. They asked when I would be available to start. I joked that I would like to start Monday. To my surprise, they (non-jokingly) said that Sunday would be better. As much as I prefer to be professional and give the traditional two-week's notice, I could not pass this up. I could have taken a later date, sure, but seniority is everything in the airlines, and any waiting would not have been productive anyway. I was immediately flown home so that I could pack and fly back the next day.

On the flight back out of Ft. Lauderdale, looking out the window I could literally see over half my aviation career passing before my eyes, as I could identify and remember landing at almost every single airport in the eastern half of Florida. I had a great time flying there, and will miss it, but I know that future memories await.

My training consists of two weeks of indoctrination training (company policies, regulations, etc.) in Indianapolis. The second week of this starts Monday. This will be followed by three weeks of training on the aircraft, most likely in St. Louis. Then several simulator training sessions spread over the following three weeks, either in St. Louis or Houston. Finally, there will be a couple weeks of real-world flying with a training captain before I go off to my base and am officially "in the system."

I might not and probably won't get Indy as my base right away, but I will be jumpseating back and forth to Ft. Lauderdale till the summer anyway. Then we just have to sell our place in Florida and find a new job for Abee up here and it will be "mission accomplished!" We can call Florida a 4-year vacation. Most of it was far from it though we did enjoy what there was to enjoy (namely the weather and the ocean) and we made some great friends there, so we will miss it, but coming home means so much more.

What else can I say? I'm thrilled that this change is happening. I'm sure it will not all be sunshine and puffy clouds (that's the technical term for them), but a main underlying goal will be met. If any part of it sucks I'll be sure to post it here. :P

In the mean time, since many people have not heard of Republic or Chautauqua, here is one of their PR videos showing just how much they are growing. If you want to learn more, go to their website at www.rjet.com



See you in February...

So Busy...

Today is my first legal day off since October 20. Legally meaning "a period free of all responsibility for work or duty should the occasion arise." There have been a few days when I've been on call, but not been called in. Also it's not really a day like most people think. I am officially "off" from 4 p.m. yesterday till 4 p.m. today, which is a day as far as it's 24 hours. I'll gladly take it though.

I'm not complaining though, just needed the break. In fact most days I wish I were flying more hours. I got way more hours in my first month here than any month at my old job except for one. Yesterday I hit the magical 1500 hour mark. It's not as magical as I thought though, since my life hasn't dramatically changed since yesterday. I'm now eligible to apply for an Airline Transport Pilot license, which is basically the highest pilot's license you can get. I have to find time to take the written test first, then once that's done, I can get the ATP on my next checkout for work. Other than that, here's to 2500 hours....

So what am I going to do on my day off? Maybe play Flight Simulator....maybe not, though I would like to fire up the F-16 and blast around South Florida for a little bit. Now that baseball is over, I'm done playing computer baseball and can maybe finish Need for Speed Most Wanted. I'd also like to ride my bike again (haven't been able to do that in weeks), and maybe wash my car. One thing's for sure though, I'll never get around to any of that stuff if I keep typing on here all day, so...have a nice day!

White & Nerdy

This is the best Wierd Al song since "It's All About the Pentiums" but this video is way better. (Yes all I've been doing lately is posting videos...sorry)

Thunderbirds Video

This is one of my favorite movies of the Thunderbirds. There are some really cool shots of them flying through downtown Chicago.

Best Star Wars Fan Movie Ever

Just thought I'd put a fresh post on the new site. "Part 1" of this movie has been out for a while, but I know there are some who have not seen it. The special effects are incredible. You can click on the post title to go to their site, and the little "Google Video" button in the corner will let you watch it in a bigger view. Enjoy!

First "real" charter flight

Originally posted October 9, 2006

I took my checkride last Tuesday (finished it rather) and did well. Then I had a bad cough the rest of the week, like I used to get when I lived in Indiana. I think that's only the second or maybe third time I've been so sick since we moved here, so I guess that's pretty good. On Friday and Saturday there were some trips to Havana that I could have flown, but I didn't want my very first solo trip to be to Cuba (I'm more worried about getting the paperwork right; the flying's easy). I wanted someone to go with me, but there wasn't enough room in the plane weight-wise for two pilots and all the baggage, so someone else did both of those trips. The people I work for understood that I didn't want to go to Havana by myself yet and didn't have a problem with it. I'm sure there will be a trip soon enough where I can take someone with me; then after that I can do it on my own.

Last night at about 7:30 Abee and I were starting to make dinner and getting ready to watch a movie when my cell phone rang. It was work, and they said they needed me to take a mechanic to Nassau. I said sure, just don't tell the mechanic it's my first flight. I got to the airport around 8:30 and took off around 10:20 (I spent some extra time making sure all the paperwork was right). I landed an hour later (great landing). The mechanic was most likely spending the night, but it took me about an hour to get through customs and get confirmation that I was indeed leaving the mechanic there and stuff. I landed back in Ft. Lauderdale at about 1:45 (not quite as great a landing), went through customs, had the plane refueled, taxied it back to the hangar, and did all the post-flight paperwork. I was on my way home by 2:50 and in bed at 3:25. I woke back up at 1:00 this afternoon.

It was really nice; after almost a year of trying to do this charter stuff (most of it at my old job) to finally start doing it on my own. I felt more like a real pilot last night than I did in a long time (flight instructing and being a copilot is just not the same). It was a perfect night too, with a clear sky and a full moon shining off the ocean.

The Passat

Originally posted October 3, 2006

This past summer my Taurus died. Or rather, I had it put to sleep. New brakes: $200 New tires: $300. New alternator: $140. Paying someone to replace the alternator, sperpentine belt, and power steering pump pulley after I broke all of the above trying to get the belt loose: $335. New battery after destroying the old one due to not having an alternator: $100. Trade in offer from the dealer: $800. Total value for the car: "worthless." Not to mention I had only just finished paying it off.

So why a Passat? I hadn't even considered a Volkswagen until the night before when I noticed some attractive lease offers. I knew I wanted a new car for my next one, if possible. I don't see myself owning a car much more than 5 years at a time, so why have a 5-year loan on a used car when you can make the same payments on a new car? That's my reasoning anyway. I'll let you know how this line of thinking plays out in 48 months.

I wanted my next car to have leather seats, automatic climate control, a sunroof, fog lights, and a nav system. I'm still flying piston-engined planes so I'm basically dreaming for most of that stuff. I was planning on looking at an Accord too, but the VW dealer was closer, so we went there first. I'm not totally nuts about the look of the Passat, to be honest. The chrome grille is a bit much, and the tail lights are kinda funky looking. Everything else on the car looks good though, and they had it in a color that I loved.

The best part of the car is the inside though. It has leatherette seats, semi-automatic climate control (temp is automatic but the fan is not), and a neat MFD that tells me things like what speed my cruise control is set to, if a tire is low or it's time for maintenance, or that I have to press the brake if I want to get the car out of "park." Maybe if I ever get a jet job I can put an aftermarket nav in it and add some OEM fog lights. It drives great - it's the most solid and fun-to-drive car I've ever driven. Props to the Germans. They really know their stuff. Pretty much the only non-German part on the car is the transmission, which is Japanese (and I've already had to replace a part of it). I never made it to the Honda dealer.

MySpace sucks more/New job

Originally posted October 3, 2006

Second post in a week??? I've added some lists and messed with some of those MSN Gadget things, which I've decided are mostly useless. I included a link to my MySpace account, which I only made so that I could post on other people's MySpace sites (which I haven't done yet.) I kinda hate MySpace because it seems to be the geocities of today. You remember geocities, right? "free website" and the people who visited your site were bombarded with banners and popups. I almost had a seizure from those. Unfortunately nobody else knows better, and nobody seems to use these Windows Live Spaces either, so it looks like I won't get any visitors on either site. Not that I have anything compelling to say anyway. Someday I'd like to get some kind of blog template thing and add it to my Comcast site, so I have more freedom as to how the whole thing looks.

So what's new? My job! Wait? Didn't I keep posting how much I loved my old job? Well I did, but you gotta move on. Flight instructing isn't going to put kids on the table. I'm flying a Piper Navajo (8-seat twin propeller plane) for Gulfstream Air Charter. It's mostly support flights for Gulfstream Airlines; things like transporting extra luggage and ferrying around mechanics and parts. I'll be flying all over Florida, The Bahamas, and (gasp) Cuba. Cuba's actually quite safe. In fact, in no other country have I had the privilege of an armed escort wherever I go. I expect I'll be loving this job as well. It's another step up in the long, wobbly ladder of being a professional pilot.

Take Two

Originally posted September 29, 2006

Alright, after some dormancy, I'm going to try this again. Not sure what I'm going to put or how often I'm going to post, but I'm going to give it a second go. Stay tuned, but don't hold your breath (both of you).

Back Home in Indiana

Originally posted March 18, 2006

Abee and I were back home in Indy this entire past week for the 4th of July. The weather was incredible. Not only were there no hurricanes, but the entire week went by without one drop of rain. I'd like to see that happen this time of year down here.

As usual, the trip home was both very relaxing and very busy. The highlight was probably when we took Katie and Luke to Chicago for a day, with our friend Dena. We stopped at Purdue on the way up to see the campus again and raid the gift shops to restock on memorabilia. It was nice to see Purdue's fleet of Piper Warriors all lined up out on the ramp. Lunch was at Jimmy John's of course.

In Chicago we did the "usual" routine. Dinner was at Gino's (the sausage deep dish is the best), with a visit to the Sears Tower, a walk down Michigan Ave., and a visit to Grant Park.

I can't remember the rest because I started this post back in July. I'll try to post updates more frequently from now on, but no promises (Mike).

I love my job Part II, and other stories...

Originally posted June 16, 2005

Sorry for not updating the space. I've been quite busy with work, and in most of my recreational time, playing Need for Speed Underground 2 with my brother. That's a fun game. A really fun game. I remember playing Need for Speed High Stakes back in college. I've always got such a rush from that game. I'll post a screen shot of my in-game car when I get it all customized. Now, where was I? Oh yes, Part II...

I get to see a lot of cool sights at my job, having a better view than any CEO, but without air conditioning. At about 5:15 p.m. today I was on a training flight with an instrument student. It was late in the afternoon and a few of the clouds were letting loose some rain, as usual. As we were flying past this one shower, a rainbow appeared. It was a full, solid, perfect rainbow, and we were flying next to it. The picture I took with my camera phone doesn't do it justice, but I present it here anyway.

It's amazing how quickly things can turn bad. All at once the sky opened up and more of these showers started popping up. We could see that Executive Airport, our home base, was completely covered in a thunderstorm, so we had to land at Pompano Beach Airpark, which is only 5 miles away from Executive. A few minutes after we got inside it started pouring there as well.We sat there for two hours waiting for the weather to get better, but it never did. Not good enough to bother trying to risk flying home anyway, even if it was only 5 miles. I called Abee and she drove out to pick us up. Tomorrow morning I'll drive to Pompano and take the airplane back to Executive.

While maybe this sounds a little scary, I assure you there was never any danger to us. As I've said previously, being a pilot is more about being able to make decisions than anything else. In our local area there is an airport about every 5-15 miles, and the thunderstorms are so scattered and easy to spot here, you'd have to try pretty hard to fly into one. Even so, you always need to have a backup plan in mind, and a backup plan for that. Most of the "idle" time spent flying should be spent thinking about "what if". Not so much "what's going to happen to me if...", but "what action am I going to take if". Anyway, I could ramble on about this for a bit, but I'd rather now, and I'm sure you've had your fill of it anyway. :)

On a related note, this same storm seems to have brought down the Goodyear Blimp. There's not much news on it yet, other than that the pilots walked away. I guess when your top speed is only 15 miles per hour, there's only so much you can do. Like I said, that rain picked up a lot quicker than it usually does. Here's a link to the story.

There are other things I've been meaning to add, such as pictures from the Air and Sea Show, or my trip to San Francisco, but they'll have to wait for another time.

Be safe...

Yes, I'm still here

Originally posted May 30, 2005

I know I haven't updated this spot in a month. Sorry to anyone who may actually be checking up on it. I have quite a bit to talk about, including the airshow on May 1, and seeing Star Wars in San Fancisco on May 7, and also how things are going at work. Hopefully in the next week or two I'll have some stories and photos put up. Until then, keep checking back.

I love my job

Originally posted April 30, 2005

Ok, I know as flying jobs go, the position of flight instructor is pretty far down the list of "most desirable." That doesn't mean it doesn't have its rewards. Seeing someone go from not knowing how to land, to greasing it every time, and knowing you taught them that, is very satisfying. Also, the scenery is pretty nice. On Thursday, when I went up with my instrument student, we were up at 7,000 feet after finding a space between the scattered clouds to climb up there. It was a cool 40 degrees and smooth up there, with plenty of wind to help me teach him VOR and NDB tracking. Not to mention how beautiful it was to have pure blue above and around us, and cumulus (puffy) clouds skating by 1,000 feet below us. Of course, my student couldn't see any of this, because he had his instrument hood on. :P After that, on my way home from work, looking up at the clouds and knowing that just a few minutes ago I was up there, above them, "working" was something very nice to think about indeed.

Then yesterday we went up to the same altitude, but it was clear and you could see forever. We were about ten miles inland, and the Thunderbirds were practicing their routine over the shoreline for this weekend's airshow. Granted, they only looked like specs with smoke coming form behind them from 10 miles away, but it was still fun to be up there saying "The Thunderbirds are right over there, in the same sky as I am, doing the exact same thing as I am!" Of course, it wasn't the exact same thing. That's kind of like driving past a race track in your minivan while a race is going on and saying "hey, I'm driving too" but don't spoil my fun. ;)

My student and I (I let him take his hood off for a minute to see this) saw one of them flying down by the water, then shoot straight up. Three seconds later, he was as high as we were, and three more seconds later, he was twice as high. Incredible. It took us ten minutes to get to 7,000 feet!

Don't be in such a hurry to die.

Originally posted April 19, 2005


About a week ago, one of our former students died. He was a really rich guy who just got his private pilot's license in December. He could afford a brand new A36 Bonanza, a $750,000, 300 horsepower plane. Below is a picture of what it looks like now.

He flew it to Tampa for a 25 hour oil change. They took too long and it got dark. He was flying by himself. After getting topped off, he tried to taxi with the chocks still in. When the line service guy told him this, he responded, "I'm still a little nervous/uncomfortable (I forget which) in this plane." That was the last thing he said to anyone in person before he made a 20 foot deep crater just south of Lake Okechobee. Somehow he became disoriented and flew the thing right into the ground.

It's so senseless the way this guy died. He could have asked an instructor to go with him (one offered to even), he could have waited till daylight when he was more comfortable. I'm sure he had the money for a hotel room.

I guess the moral of this is that just because you have a piece of paper that says you can fly a plane and the money to buy one, it doesn't mean you can do it without thinking. A monkey can be trained to operate a plane. Being a pilot is all about making decisions. This guy made a couple wrong ones, that probably didn't even seem like that big a deal at the time.

I am a washing machine. Do what I say.

Originally posted April 18, 2005

Guess I should add something to this. Let's see...what happened in the last week? Well the flight instructing's still going pretty slow. I can't complain still, not after what I went through the last three years. I help out around the school, mainly in the maintenance hangar, when I don't have any flying to do. Our school bought four acres to build a new facility on, and I got to mow it. I haven't mowed grass in years. I didn't know how much I missed it. Back in Indiana I grew up on 9 1/2 acres, and I had to mow about 1/4 of that every week with a tractor. I used to pretend the tractor was an airplane. It wasn't exactly a tractor I got to ride on last week, but it was close enough. It was like one of those self-propelled mowers with a seat towed behind it. It took a bit to get used to the differential steering, but I managed it. There were a couple other things, like the dirt and weeds down here are brutal when chopped up into dust. Even with full-blown safety goggles on, my eyes were red and in extreme pain at the end of the day. Still, it was fun, and took me back, and I'd like to do it again.

I got a new student last week as well, my second. This guy's a psychiatrist who's getting his license to overcome his uneasiness with flying. Pretty cool. I hope he ends up enjoying flying as much as I do.

Oh, and I beat Splinter Cell finally (the first one), after playing it on and off for a year. It was fun, but I thought the story was kind of lacking for a game with Tom Clancy's name on it. Still, I'm looking forward to playing the second one.

First Entry

Originally posted April 12, 2005

Well, I found MSN Spaces today. I guess that makes me a professional blogger now. It's not like I don't waste enough of my time on the computer already, or that I expect anyone to care what I think. This is just something new to try out. Maybe my family will read up on it, or my online friends, or my "real" friends as Abee calls them. I kind of doubt perfect strangers will take an interest, since there are several thousand others out there by now who are "published" now, like me, thanks to one of any several cookie-cutter blogging sites. Anyway, I don't expect things to get too interesting here, since I usually try to keep my opinions to myself. We'll see. Time to play Splinter Cell.

Welcome to the new Positive Rate!

Positive Rate started out as my MSN Space, which was my first experience with a blog site. It was nice, but I didn't update it much. Earlier this year, my wife got a My Space account which made me want to get back into blogging, but I immediately hated My Space because of all the ads. That's too bad for me, because everyone uses it anyway.

I went back to my MSN space (now called a "live" space), but wanted to customize it more, so I started looking at alternatives. I'm hosting this page from my own ISP account and using Blogger to set it up. Shortly I will be transferring all of my posts from my MSN Space to this one. Welcome!