Attention ladies and gentlemen, we are now beginning our descent to the end of the semester. We are now coming back from Thanksgiving break, where most of the campus, including myself, went home for the holiday. We had Wednesday before Thanksgiving off until the Friday, so I decided to leave Tuesday night and not come back until Sunday. So it was definitely a pretty decent sized break.

 I believe I said this in my past entry but I feel the need to reiterate the idea. After becoming a student pilot, you take commercial flying so much differently. You understand more things like the delays. When you’re approaching the hold-short line, you know the pilots are contacting ATC and going over their final items. I also met a fellow Riddle student, who sat next to me on the flight back. We talked about school for a bit and who we going home to see. I should take this time to give you a notice. When traveling home for holidays or breaks, you have a choice of flying out of MCO (Orlando Intl) or DAB (Daytona Beach). Those are the 2 closest main airports. I have flown home in both of those airports and they both have their pros and cons. Pros of MCO is that usually is cheaper because you have access to cheaper airlines, like Southwest and JetBlue.

Also, MCO has more routes so you can generally get home quicker. Cons of MCO is that if you don’t have a friend willing to drive, you will have to use the shuttle which is a bit costly, or the cost of parking, if you drive yourself. Some pros of DAB are that it is close and cheaper. Cons of DAB is that only 2 airlines fly out of the airport, Delta and US Airways, who only fly to their hubs, Atlanta and Charlotte, respectively, which means it will take longer to get home. Especially since Atlanta has bad weather and in either airport you could get delayed or have a large layover. So, overall, if you have someone to drive you, choose Orlando, if not, it would probably be better to fly out of DAB.

Once home, I got to visit my brother and his fiancé, who were a pleasure to see. I spent Thanksgiving at my aunt’s and cousin’s house. It was amazing to see everyone and to tell them about my experience. Great food, great friends and family, that’s why Thanksgiving is my 2nd favorite holiday, after Christmas of course. After living in Florida for several months, many people, including myself, adjust to the heat. I used to despise the heat, now it’s not bad at all. 80‘s in November and probably a little bit for December is nice, but disappointing because it doesn’t feel anywhere close to Christmas, which is sad. Flying home, the temperature went from 85 in Daytona to 45 in Annapolis. A huge difference, so I made sure to pack plenty of pants and sweatshirts.

During the holiday, I also reviewed the itinerary for the upcoming weeks at school. I realized that once we fly home, we only have 9 days of classes left, I have 1 exam, and then we fly right back home again. It’s a dream compared to high school, where you come back from Thanksgiving break and have about a month left, and then exams.

Overall, it was a great break and can’t wait to finish my classes, my 1 exam, and get back to Maryland. I will definitely miss my friends and the atmosphere of college but more on that next time. I believe that I have 1 more entry until the end of the semester. Until then, make sure your seatbelts are fastened, seats and tray tables in an upright and locked position. Thank you. 🙂