New yob

Well five months has past since my last post, so I figured it is time to make a new one. I have been with skywest airlines for about 1.5 years and I had a hard time saying goodbye to my work family. I hated the job sometimes, but everyone else did to so that is what made working for this company so much fun. My last day at Skywest I will never forget, I was supposed to be off at 430 hang out with my friend Evie afterwards and head up to Donna house. Donna was supposed to introduced me to this new girl, which I still managed to be good friends with her till this date. But all of that went out the window, we had a late flight from IDA that never made it so SLC cause SLC was having the worst winter weather imaginable. So I didn’t get off till like 930 at night. So I decided to hang out with Evie since it was late at night, sucks saying goodbye to your best friend that you spent almost everyday with for the last two years and all of sudden you go months without seeing her. But anyways the next day was the toughest part saying goodbye to my parents, pets, and grandparents. Next thing I know I was heading for the great state of California, but I had to make a pit stop in Corvallis, Oregon to visit my sister and get some rest cause there is no way I can drive 12 hours in my small Eclipse. I love my car to death, but it wasn’t made for long drives. But after spending the night at my sister apartment I headed out for the last 6 hours of my trip and it was the worst. Thanks goodness for my friend Ann (girl donna introduced) she texted me a lot so I didn’t feel quite so alone, but it still sucked at one point, “I am a Barbie girl” came on and I had my hands swaying outside the car and I was rocking back and forth, while I was doing 65 down the highways( I know Oregon sucks 65 mph WTH?) But it was beautiful seeing mt Shasta. I remember seeing it when I came down in Nov when I did my interview and it is so pretty, basically feels like I am living in Seattle, but the weather was a lot more warmer and nicer. I arrived at the oxford suite where my company put me up until I passed my flight test, which took a month. Sucked living in a hotel for a month, but what the heck having someone clean up after me it was awesome. What was better they offered two free drinks a night, sucked cause I am a hard “A” guy but they only served beer and wine. For the next four weeks I alternated between ground lessons and flight lessons and finally in early January I passed my flight test and now I am a flight instructor for Iasco. So I was assigned four students and the weather was beautiful in January but end part of feb and march it sucked so bad it rained like everyday. I had to fly home cause I was going crazy here and it was really bad it rained two weeks straight. So I got the chance to come home for my birthday and spend it with friends and family, so I had a great time. So here I am now towards the end of April. I’ve been selected to start the instrument program, which is nice since I am only a CFI, I don’t have my CFII, which allows me to teach instrument flight. So with this I will be busy till august, until the next batch of students from china arrives. I have 750 hours and if I go decide to go through this instrument course I will be on lock down for the next 6 months. Which won’t be to bad because once I get 1,000 hours I will be a salary employee making a whopping 35k a year, which is amazing never made over 20 grand a year, so I am stoked about that. So stay tuned.

the new beginning

I've sort of forgot all about this website I had to do a google search and after awhile I was able to find my blog. It seems like it has been awhile since my last posting. Yes, I am still working at my wonderful job. It is hard to believe that I am approaching one year and six months at Skywest Airlines. I guess you're wondering about my title "the new beginning?" Well a couple weeks ago I was browsing the internet cause lord knows I have no life. I came upon this job website, can't remember what it was, but they were advertising flight instructors wanted. So I thought to myself do I really want to go through this again? I mean Tulsa was an absolute failure, but then again I got flight hours out of it. So I figured why not? Better get flying hours than work in a baggage office where I don't do much all day. My company sent decided to sent me to Denver to become a GSC which is basically a person who laughs at passengers who try to smuggle illegal items through TSA. But any how, somehow I sparked an interest in IASCO flight school and they offered me a phone interview. Next thing I know I am chatting with the assistant flight instructor over the phone for about 40 minutes and she says she will email me the results. Right before I supposed to ship out for Denver I get an email asking me to come down to Redding CA to do an face to face interview with their board of flight instructors. Good thing I have travel benefits otherwise I would have been screwed. I fly down there and I brought my monkey suit with me and I was burning up. Even though I looked like a professional, I was burning up cause it was close to 80 degrees and sunny. The interview consisted of me telling them about my background and a lot of what would you do scenarios. Then came the teaching part, nothing better than teaching people who have a lot more teaching experience than you do. After this they went and did a group huddle, if I were to pass this part the next portion would be the flight. They came back after 15 minutes and were still interested, so we jumped into a C172 and went for a flight. I must say that Redding is one of the most beautiful places I've ever gotten the chance to fly. I had to teach the assistant flight instructor how to perform slow flight, after that we headed back to the airport. On the ground she said I did a wonderful job and expect a phone call soon. No less than 30 minutes after I left I get a phone call from her asking me if I still wanted the job. So here I am looking forward to getting back into the air and start racking up those flight hours.

Autumn

Here we are going into the heart of the autumn season. I went running today up the street and I was shocked to see how the trees are already changing. It can't be October already, I'm not ready for winter. I really hope that we don't get a lot of snow this year, if we do I am moving far away!!!! Three great things has happened already this month; graduated from college, selected to take FAA ATC test, and 4 months at Skywest. Hard to believe that it has been four months already, I remember I started blogging when I went for training in Salt Lake, now here I am. Time does go by fast and I guess that what makes life so precious.

Fast forward

It's been a couple of months since I did my last blog. I must say that a lot of stuff has happened. It has been two full months since I joined Skywest and I must say I have mix feelings about it. I feel that I am a great assist to this company, just because of my knowledge of working on the ramp over at Horizon. But the company don't do a good job treating me well. A couple of days ago I was supposed to be off work at 7:30 in the morning, but I decided to hang around until 1:30 in the afternoon. Usually we are supposed to have 10 people on the ramp, but for some reason we only had 4 people including me. We had a Delta 737 and a Northwest A320. Normally it would take five people to turn a plane. Four wouldn't be too bad, but again NWA pulled in and two people had to bring in that plane. When I went over to help out NWA I saw a man stacking bags all by himself. Delta 737 loading bins are small in height and long in length. So imaging walking on your knees back and forth trying to load 110 bags. I love doing what I am doing, but it is real frustrating a lot of times. What is keeping me going are the people I work with. I have my wing man Scott who works very hard and he has been a good friend to me. Kurt who I beat all the time at Rochambeau. Amanda, who is leaving for good on Thursday, I enjoy making her laugh, since we have a strong passion for Family guy. I can't forget about Evie, who has been a good friend, we have been going out playing tennis, eating, talking, and watch the ducks swim in the pond. It's nice to join work collages out side of work, so we can talk about other stuff beside work, and to see their real true colors. These are the people that make my job very enjoyable and without them I would be gone in a heartbeat. I got some flying gigs that are coming up soon and I hope that I get them. I would be flying all over the United States doing aerial imaging. This will allow me to get paid to fly and also I can gain almost 600 hours, which will allow me to be more competitive if the airlines ever start hiring again. I've noticed that some people are reading my blogs and I thank you for spending some time reading my life story.

Week 2

I must say time goes by fast!!!! I've just finished my ground training portion at the Spokane airport, which means I am now a Skywest employee. The only downside is that I am stuck in Salt Lake City for another two weeks for customer service training. I wished that my job only had one side to it, but I must be trained on the customer service and ground side. Week one I was in Salt Lake for only one day, now I am back a week later. This training is completely frustrating!!! I am learning the customer service part and I must say that I bow down to whoever invented these computer programs. I remember going to the airport and checking in, it was fun watching agents typing really fast and getting me checked in lickety split. Now it is my turn to do this kind of work and I must say, how in the world can someone do this so fast? I'm having a hard time remembering all the accronoms. Oh well, one thing I am enjoying is the food! I think I had crembule almost every single day now, I can't stop eating it! I've gone to fancy restaurants every single day, since I arrived here three days ago. Skywest gave me $120 to spend on food for five days and I am putting this money to good use. I must say that I am addicted to Olive Garden bread, that is the best bread I've ever tasted. Now I am going to bed because it's going to be another long day tomorrow and I hope I'll continue to do well in training.

Week one

Skywest flew me out to SLC one day early, so I had some time to look around. I went down to Temple Square and looked at the Mormon temple. I must say my first impressions were, "WOW" this thing is huge! While I was walking around I met two Mormon women. One was from Brazil and the other was from Mexico. Many Mormons come all over the country for missionary training for 18 months. So it was interesting to learn about the Mormon culture and learn about these young women.

Then the next day, I spent most of the day at Skywest training facilities at SLC and it was mostly a orientation about travel benefits, health, money, and etc. I also had to do a pee test and agility test, there was one lady who couldn't lift a 60 pound bag above her head, so she was asked to leave. The flight back to Spokane was the bumpiest I've ever been on, but I had fun, I enjoy bumpy flights.

Today Tuesday I had to go to the airport to start my training at 2pm until 8:30pm. I must say I hate training because it is so boring. I have to take three tests today and I must get above a 80 percent on all of them. Sure enough I got a 100 percent on all of them, airline tests are like a joke to me, you must try really hard to fail. So I'm happy right now, but I still have four more weeks of training and I'm not looking forward to it, but oh well.

First time

Even though I am a senior in college, I still can't write. This is my first time doing this, so I'll try and recap about my life. As of right now I am 21 years old and I am a senior at Everglades University. I take online classes because weather plays a huge impact on where I live. I'm getting very excited because I only have three more months until I graduate. Afterwards I don't know what is going to happen, I have been thinking about getting my master degree, but the question remains, do I want to spend another 20 grand on school? Maybe someday down the road, when I get settled into a steady job.

My flying career has been filled with a lot of tears and joy. I love flying, but with this crazy economy, I'm not looking forward getting back into aviation. I have my CFI license which allows me to teach private, commercial, CFI, and ATP. But I want to get my CFII and MEI, which will allow me to teach other students as well. All together I'll have to spend another 5 grand on training. I was a instructor at Riverside Flight Center in Tulsa OK, which was a big change for me, since I am from Spokane WA. When I first got off the plane, I thought to myself, this is where I'm going to live now? This place looks so much different than home, since it is so flat and extremely hot. But my real goal was to teach, I lived in Tulsa for about 6 months and accumulated around 600 hours. I was planning on joining the airlines, but thanks to this economy that changed in a second. So I moved back home and I was stuck trying to find another job because I lost out, focusing all my attention on getting a airline job. It's hard to stomach to think, if I were still in Tulsa I might already be a MEI instructor and have around 1,000 hours. I enjoy flying multi airplanes, even though I had two engine failures so far, but I love the power and the speed a twin airplane can produce. Now I am forced to try and work as a ground agent for Skywest Airlines. I'm happy because in the past I worked for Horizon Airlines as a Ground Agent, I really love the free travel. This will give me time to earn some money, travel, and give me time to think. I been thinking about becoming a air traffic controller, since they get paid more and a lot better job security. So I'll sleep on, thanks all I can think of right now, but I'll keep on blogging.