The Great Gig In The Sky: Persistence Pays Off

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Persistence Pays Off

Today I received a phone call from the VP in Florida of the flight school that I attend. After a week of vacillating, the finally agreed to move me from Part 142 commercial training in to Part 61 training.

I don't know if I covered the differences between the two before or not, but there are many. Part 61 training is less structured and requires more hours of experience to achieve a specific rating. Part 142 training utilizes a lot of time in an Flight Training Device (FTD). The FAA recognizes a significant amount of FTD time which allows a pilot to earn a commercial license in 190 hours, including FTD time. Part 61 training requires 250 hours total time, with a recognition of 20 hours FTD time.

For now, I'm free from flying the Senecas (at least trying). Starting next Monday, I'll be assigned a new instructor and begin the time building phase. A few long cross country flights should get me there. Then it will be about 15 hours in a Piper Arrow for the complex portion. Part 61 check rides are done in the Arrow and the maneuvers, especially power-off 180's, are quite different than in a standard Cherokee. Once that is done it will be time for the single engine commercial check ride. Following that, it will be time to get back in the Seneca and finish up about 10-15 more hours for the Commercial multi-engine add-on. Hopefully all will be done by the end of December.

I have to say that I'm impressed that the flight school chose to do the right thing. I really didn't expect them to, but am glad they did. Changing flight schools is not something I was looking forward to doing, but would have done if necessary. They knew it and thought better of calling my bluff.

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I need a new instructor. ExpressJet has claimed my friend and instructor, Mike. He interviewed on the 20th and has a class date of 11/27! ExpressJet is hiring like crazy and I'm glad to have several good friends there now. I think that having several letters of recommendation will definitely come in handy next year.