Our Dumb Blog

My flight commander printed my name up on a bunch of magnets for the big magnet scheduling board in white flight’s ops. After flying with me today, he’s optimistic that I’ll pass my acceptance ride on Monday and start working for him quickly. He’s in pretty desperate need of instructors, and plans to give me some lieutenants who are nearly complete because they’ll be easier. I can’t decide whether I’m more worried about the acceptance flight or my first ride with students.

One of the guys I’m working with quit today. He doesn’t like Embry-Riddle, and doesn’t like the Air Force. He really doesn’t like the reports of how poorly the instructors are treated, and like all of us, can’t stand the guy in charge of standards and new hire training. This is good for me, I think, because I’m quite willing to work, and they really need instructors.

I’ve got my profile for the flight Monday. I have to fly to an east area, flying either an East or Woodmen Departure depending on which runway is in use, and fly to an east practice area. Once there, I have to demonstrate power off stalls and a simulated forced landing. Then Jason will take the controls and pretend to be a student, and I have to explain what he’s doing wrong and teach him. After that, I have to fly the east arrival and perform a no flap landing.

The downside of the someone else quitting is that I’ll probably have to work 6 hour dispatch shifts most mornings. Which means waking up at 0430 to get there by 0530, in the dark, to open the place. Yay.

I got my first paycheck today. It looks like my minimum guaranteed salary will be more than Joanna was making, so that’s good at least. So now if she can just get a job, maybe we can work our way out of debt sometime before we die. We’re hoping she finds something she actually likes this time around.