Well, well, well . . . it is time for journal number two. Overall life is going good down here in the wonderful sunshine state (although it has been raining all the time). Last journal I talked about my summer adventures and I now have those pictures up on my website and hopefully I will soon have the videos. I also posted some pictures of my recent trip to Colorado and the simulators here at Riddle. I will explain about both of those later, but for now I’ll clue you in on my classes and my amazing schedule!
I’m guessing a majority of you readers are in high school. When I was in high school, I had class Monday-Friday from roughly 7:00am – 3:00pm. I’m assuming that most high schools have a similar schedule, and my first year of college was somewhat like that. On Monday Wednesday Friday, I had a flight block from 8-12 and two classes from 1:00-3:15pm, and on Tuesday Thursday I had four classes from 8:15-3:30 with a lunch break in between. This means I basically had class from 8-3:30ish five days a week. Well that was fun to do for my first year, but now that I’m a sophomore, I feel that I needed a lighter schedule. Don’t ask me how I pulled this schedule off, but I only have classes Tuesday Thursday from 8:15am-3:30pm with a flight block that starts at 5:30pm. So this translates into me having a 4 day weekend! You heard right, one day of class, then a day break, then one more day of class, then a 4 day weekend. So far I am really enjoying this schedule. I originally had one class on MWF, but I took a test and got credit for the entire class. I’ll explain that in a little bit as well. So four classes + only two days a week = a very good schedule.
TTH 8:15am-9:30am – Aviation Weather – This class is very different than my previous weather class. My first weather class was very generic and didn’t directly relate to aviation; however, aviation weather deals a lot with aviation (kinda obvious, I know). There are nine separate sections of aviation weather, which means nine different classes that are all going over the same material, and my professor is the one who creates the PowerPoint slides for all the classes. So instead of someone just reading something from a slide, my professor actually created it so he knows what he is talking about. I can already tell that I am learning a lot more than my previous class. My professor seems really cool and I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of the year.
TTH 9:45am-11:00am – Business Communications – I’m not going to lie, I was not looking forward to taking this class, in fact I thought about pushing it off until my second semester as a senior. This class is basically a bunch of writing, and writing in class is my least favorite thing ever. I enjoy writing these journals and things like that because it brings me enjoyment, unlike writing in class where I get no enjoyment what so ever. So I was definitely a little afraid of taking this class, but I think it will turn out alright. The kind of writing we have to do is stuff like writing memos and letters so they aren’t 10 page papers, which is a big relief. We have already turned in our first project which consisted of 4 memos that were about 300 words long and a summary of about 750 words, so nothing too crazy yet.
TTH 11:00am-12:45pm – Lunch – This is where I eat food. Sometimes cheese burgers, while other times chicken wraps. I’ll go into detail about Embry-Riddle’s delicious foods in another journal.
TTH 12:45pm-2:00pm – Intermediate Aeronautics – This class once again is the class that is most vital in my career. We are discussing every aspect of instrument flying and that is the number one thing airline pilots need to know. I think its pretty cool to think that what I am learning in this class right know is what I will do in a plane in a few weeks, and what airline pilots do on a daily basis. My professor that teaches the class has got to be one of the nicest teachers I have ever had. He is so funny and easy to learn from, and I know that I will enjoy this class.
TTH 2:15pm-3:30pm – Air Traffic Management II – I enjoy this class for several reasons: 1. My good friends Aaron and Zach are in there 2. I really enjoy the professor and 3. A majority of the information covered is a review. Since I am a pilot, I have already needed to learn things like airspace and radio calls, but in this class, not everyone is a pilot so they don’t know about it yet. Therefore, while I am still learning things, I am also getting a review of the stuff that I already know and that I will need to know for a long time. We just took our first test the other day and I got a 98 so that always makes me happy.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier about my schedule. The 4 day weekend is a major plus, but the fact is that I really enjoy all my professors. They all know what they are talking about, they are very nice and approachable, and they all enjoy their jobs. They make class fun and they actually make me want to go! Imagine that.
TTHS 5:30pm-8:30pm – Flight – And now the good stuff! I have just recently started my flight activities and I am so excited! So far I have had one oral, two sims, and one flight. It feels great to get back into the airplane and go flying. I flew a couple times over the summer break with friends and family but I am definitely ready to start flying a lot more. The only down side of flying now is that I am training for my instrument rating which means that I don’t get to do anything visual. Basically, I fly around with things called foggles, which limit my vision to only my flight instruments. So I can’t look outside or enjoy the scenery like I was able to do for my Private pilot’s license. It’s all good though, because I get to learn about flying only by my instruments so I can fly in bad weather. My instructor is pretty cool and I think that he is going to make the next year go by pretty fast. He is a new instructor and I was actually his first student, which I though that was pretty exciting. He is always trying to make it fun and shake things up, for example, we had a sim the other day (sim=video game with the exact controls that are in the airplane but you are safely on the ground), and we got done a little earlier than expected so he had an idea of how to use the last 5 minutes. Apparently who ever designed the software for the simulator had some spare time because out in the middle of the ocean there is an aircraft carrier and I landed on it! I put some pictures on the picture website so be sure to check those out. It was fun to do that because I got the chance to practice a short field landing and now I can say I landed on an aircraft carrier, kind of.
So that is what is happening in my school life. I have to prepare for some tests that I have coming up next week and I also have homework here and there. I mentioned earlier that I had a class scheduled for MWF but then I didn’t have to take it. The class was IT 109 which is a basic computer class that all freshmen have to take. Well I didn’t know that I needed to take it when I was a freshman, but fortunately you can take a test and get credit for the class without taking the class, which is what I did. I’m pretty happy about that because now I have a 4 day weekend, which means I get to do fun things like fly to Colorado. That’s what I did last weekend because my friend, Alex, was celebrating his 20th birthday with his brother and I flew out to Boulder, CO to surprise him. He had no idea I was coming and I just showed up on his porch. We went hiking on a mountain that is right next to his school and we also went to a football game. The game was the Colorado Buffalos against Florida State and unfortunately Colorado lost. I usually don’t get into football too much, but being there in the crowd with thousands of people was pretty cool. I have some pictures from Colorado posted on the picture site, so those are there to be viewed.
Another thing that I have been up to lately is playing some volleyball, the BAMFs are back! For those of you new to my journals, last year I played on an intramural volleyball team titled “The BAMFs”. The name came from a Dane Cook joke and we are being led by Aaron who is a friend of mine that was the captain of his varsity team in high school. Unfortunately, we didn’t win a single game last year, and this year we already started with 0-1. But we have fun and we actually are getting a lot better. Who knows, maybe we’ll win a couple games this year!
Well that about sums it up. Life is going pretty good right now and hopefully it will stay that way for a while. I’m enjoying all my classes and life in general, so nothing to complain about. I guess I’ll try to find something to complain about for next journal, so wish me luck with that. As always, good luck to everyone out there reading. Hope your school/job/sitting at home is going well. If there are any questions/comments/concerns/facts/knowledge/food that you would like to share with me, just shoot me an email! Until next time . . .
-Blake
email: wasteofsoap@yahoo.com
