Hello Everyone! Well, this is it. I am officially done with classes. WHEW! It feels so great!

The past two weeks were spent finishing up my classes and the CRJ simulator course. I only had one final and it was in my History class. It was over a lot of material, but it wasn’t too hard after all. Other than that, the past two weeks were primarily spent in the CRJ simulator. What an experience! The course really does prepare you to fly a true jet aircraft in the real world environment. When I was done, my partner and I were able to fly the CRJ completely by ourselves from one airport to another! What a rewarding experience.

Well, this is it. I walk across the stage on May 5th and I will officially be in the real world. I will be returning home on the 7th of May to see the family for the summer. After that, we’ll see where the world takes me. It was a pleasure sharing my experiences with all of you guys for the past year. Thanks for listening and good luck to you all!

Hello everyone! I’m on the final stretch of my college career. Two weeks and I will officially be a college graduate. Real world here I come!

The last two weeks have been extremely hectic. I had four tests last week; however, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Today I had my first simulator for the CRJ course. It was so much fun! My simulator partner and I put together everything we learned in the CRJ ground school and used it to fly the simulator with perfection. It was amazing to see how all of the studying pays off. Flying this 50 passenger jet isn’t much different than flying a smaller propeller driven aircraft. The only difference is that there are more switches and it goes A LOT faster! What I am trying to say is if you study and know the aircraft inside and out, you can fly anything. From a piper cub to a Boeing 777, they all fly on the same principle. Pull back on the yoke and the ground gets smaller, push forward on the yoke and the ground gets bigger.

Other than the simulator course, I’m pretty much just winding down for the semester. My classes are coming to a close and I’m beginning to pack for home. I have a job interview at a local flight school when I return to Dallas, Texas for the summer. I can’t wait!

Hello everyone! Wow, what a crazy past few weeks. I have never been busier! The CRJ simulator course is so much fun but so much work! Last week we started going to class everyday at 7 a.m. We are now learning everything there is to know about actually flying a jet aircraft. It is so much fun putting everything you have learned into one class. The amazing thing is that I remember a lot from all of my previous aeronautics classes. My previous teachers really did a great job teaching the information. I have one and a half more weeks of the CRJ ground lab, and then I begin my simulator sessions. I will keep you updated.

The next few weeks are going to be extremely intense! I have two papers and three tests next week alone. I’m definitely going to be a busy bee, but it will all be worth it in the end. I can’t wait to graduate in less than a month! I am so extremely excited. I am going home this summer to see the family and hopefully find a flight instructing job back in Texas. Then I am going to apply as a full-time instructor here at Embry-Riddle for the fall semester. I hope I get accepted! My goal is to teach here for the next 3 years and get my Master’s in business. Even though I have always wanted to be a pilot, I want a good backup plan. Just in case I can’t fly because of a medical issue; I want to be able to go somewhere else with my career.

Finally, remember the internship I interviewed for at Southwest? Well I got up early a few Wednesday’s back and flew to Dallas, TX for an interview with their safety team. I entered their amazing building, got fingerprinted, and toured the facility. It was so neat to see just how friendly everyone was at Southwest. After the tour, I was called in for my interview. There were four people interviewing me and it was extremely relaxed. The interview lasted about 40 minutes long and they pretty much just asked me about my self. What were my favorite classes, interests, and job experience. Finally, they asked me a few basic technical questions about safety. It was an extremely worthwhile experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the internship because I was pursuing an Aeronautical Science degree and they were looking for someone with a safety major. Despite that fact, I still walked away from the interview with experience and knowledge. It is always important to apply and interview for as many opportunities as possible. Even if you don’t get the job, the experience is priceless.

Well, I hope everyone continues to have a wonderful semester. I’m off to bed. I have a long week ahead of me.

Hello everyone! I can’t believe it is already March. In less than two months, I graduate from college. That is incredibly hard to believe. I am extremely excited to see what the future brings as I step foot into the real world.

The past few weeks have been extremely exciting and busy at the same time. The first topic of discussion is my weather class. Remember the long weather project I mentioned in my last journal entry? Well, my seven member group and I presented our findings last week to the class. It is amazing just how different weather can be in another country. We studied the Middle East and determined how weather affects aircraft operations. Our presentation was 2 hours long and consisted of 170 power point slides. Whew, that was a long one. But, the good news is that we learned a lot about international weather.

Another exciting thing I experienced over the past few weeks came about when I decided to apply for another internship. I did an internship last summer as many of you may already know. It was the best summer of my life! Because of that fact, I am trying to get one more internship this summer before I step foot into the real world. Last summer, I worked in the safety department at Continental Airlines. This was the first time I have ever worked with safety information. I loved it. Because of this fact, I decided to apply for a paid safety internship with Southwest Airlines this summer. Southwest is based in my home town of Dallas, Texas, therefore this would be a perfect opportunity. I would be able to live at home and still have the time of my life. I am flying to Dallas this Wednesday for an interview, wish me luck!

Finally, I had an extremely awesome week with my flight students. First off, my private pilot student flew by himself last Friday for the first time. This was a truly amazing experience for the both of us. We flew to New Smyrna Airport early Friday morning. When it was time for him to solo, I went up into the control tower and watched my student fly an airplane completely by himself. I was extremely proud of him! Taking a student from not knowing anything about flying, to flying an airplane completely by himself is the best feeling in the world. Secondly, yesterday, my instrument student passed his checkride on his first try! He was a Korean student I have been working with since the beginning of last semester. Now he is fully certified to fly in the clouds! I love my job!

Spring break is coming up!!! I’m going to stay in Daytona and catch up on some of my projects and chill at the beach. I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing break. Time to finish up my homework for the evening.

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful long Presidents’ Day weekend. I sure did! I decided to take advantage of the long weekend and go up to New York City to visit my girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. What a fun and exciting time! I have actually never been to New York before so I really enjoyed myself. We saw the Statue of Liberty, went to the top of the Empire State Building, walked through Central Park, and ate amazing food. It was a well-deserved vacation.

Now that I’m back to the grindstone, classes have been progressing rather smoothly. Last week was pretty calm; however, the upcoming week is gearing right back up again. I have my first US History test on Monday. I’m really curious about how that one will go. I also have a weather project that will be due in a few weeks. The teacher divided us up into groups of eight. Each group will explain the weather phenomenon that occurs in a certain region and how it affects travel. My group gets the opportunity to research and explain the weather in the Middle East. This project should be pretty interesting. I’ll keep everyone updated as my research progresses.

This weekend is Parent’s Weekend in the College of Aviation. During Parent’s Weekend, the students get the opportunity to give their parents a first-hand look at what it’s like to be a student here at Embry-Riddle. The parents get to experience personal tours, attend classes, and even observe flights. It is truly an exciting time, especially for the current freshmen. I even took my student’s little brother and sister flying with us during our training flight yesterday. The look on the little girl’s face as we took off was priceless. Times like these make me realize how lucky I am to have such a rewarding and exciting career.

I hope everyone has a wonderful February, well, what’s left of it at least. I’m off to a flight instructor get together. Remember; don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions.

Dodd

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful January, I sure did! January was a good relaxing month for me. However, February is going to be extremely busy. It started off last week with two big tests, followed by a paper that is due today. Whew! I’m finally starting to feel the pressures of this semester.

My first test last week was in my humanities class. It went extremely well! When I first started studying I was not interested at all. I mean, how can a Humanities class be interesting? But, as I studied, I realized that the information was extremely interesting and useful. I learned how the advancement of technology affects different jobs, cultures, and even sports! The test consisted of multiple choice questions, as well as an essay at the end. I was glad it was over, however, I actually enjoyed studying and learning all about the advancement of technology. That is the beauty of Embry-Riddle. Even though I am taking a humanities class, it still relates to aviation.

My second test was in my weather for aircrews class. I love weather! For this test, the professor gave us a bunch of weather information and an international flight. She asked a bunch of application questions on how the weather affected the route of flight. She also had us predict the weather over Italy using only a weather depiction chart, a chart only giving you the basics of the atmospheric weather patterns. What a learning experience! I’ll be able to take all of this information I learned for this test and enlighten my flight students on the wonderful world of weather. I can’t wait!

Finally, I just finished my history paper that is due today. My assignment was to write a five page paper on a book we read during the month of January. The Jungle was a book about a family that moved to Chicago to experience the American dream. However, what they experienced was a life of death and defeat in the filthy meat packing town of Packingtown. It was an interesting book depicting just how life was for immigrants in the United States.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day this weekend! I’m off to class. Again, if you ever have any questions about Aeronautical Science or the flight program, feel free to email me at allen624@erau.edu.

Hello! Well I just got back from an amazing day of flying. I went flying today with one of my private pilot students. I took him north to a small airport to practice landings. We flew up there at 10:00 this morning and had a blast. After I perfected his technique, we flew to another local airport about 25 miles north of Daytona. Here they have a fantastic restaurant called High Jackers. We landed, parked the plane in front of the restaurant, and had lunch. Their food is excellent and it’s only about a 10 minute flight away from Daytona. After a wonderful lunch, we flew back around 2:00 p.m. and called it a day. I love my job! Who can say their workday consisted of flying all around the Daytona area and eating lunch in another city?

Classes are going well, just busy. They aren’t hard this semester, but there is a lot of busy work. I spend most of my evenings reading and doing small homework assignments for my weather, history, and humanities class. I haven’t really had any tests or quizzes yet, but I’ll keep everyone updated when they occur.

One neat thing that I forgot to tell everyone about in my last journal was the fact that I got a new camera for Christmas! I finally had the opportunity to use it and I have some fantastic pictures for you guys of the Embry-Riddle flight-line at night.

Finally, we had a very exciting day here at Daytona Beach International Airport last Friday, the 23rd of January. I was getting ready to climb into one of our airplanes and begin a flight lesson when I noticed an airplane approaching one of the inactive runways. It was then I realized that an emergency was in progress (this is not one of Embry-Riddle’s planes). As the airplane approached the runway, I noticed that its nose gear was not extended. Therefore, the pilot had to land the aircraft with only two wheels, instead of three. The pilot made two practice approaches, and the third one was the charm. The aircraft touched down and was magnificently stopped on the runway without any problem. Both pilots walked away unscathed. Fortunately, I had my camera and got the whole incident on film. Here are some pictures I took of the wonderful landing. Enjoy!

Well, we officially have less than a month of school. Whew, it’s been fun. I’m going to miss my Aeronautical Science classes.

Today was awesome! Remember how I told you guys that I would be taking a final in AS 420 which consisted of a simulator session on the computer? Well today, we did a practice version of the test. It was so awesome to see a group of 5 people working together as a whole. I was the captain and my group played the role of first officer, dispatcher, air traffic control, and the flight attendant. We all walked up to the “airplane” and began our preparation. My first officer and I ran the checklists, programmed the flight management system, and received our clearances out of Daytona Beach for a routine flight to Miami. After departure, we experienced an interesting issue at 21,000 feet abeam Orlando. The flight attendant called the cockpit and said that a passenger found a note written in Arabic and the passengers were a little upset. While my first officer and I discussed our plan of action, the flight attendant called back. He said that a passenger translated the message and it said that there was a bomb on board. The message indicated that it would explode 30 min after takeoff! My first officer and I immediately decided to divert to Orlando International Airport. I then proceeded to transfer control of the aircraft to my first officer while I explained the situation to air traffic control, the flight attendants, and dispatch. Everything went extremely well. I was very impressed on how much our professor’s stories and exercises helped us succeed in the cockpit! The situation was handled, and our aircraft touched down exactly 25 min after takeoff in Orlando. What an experience! I can’t wait to do the real test. Hopefully we will do as well as we did today.

I can definitely tell the semester is coming to a close. Next week is going to be the busiest week of the semester. I have 2 tests on Monday, a presentation and group paper due Wednesday, another presentation and group paper due Thursday, and my simulator exam in AS 420 Thursday afternoon. I definitely will be in the library all weekend preparing for next week.

Finally, for the past few weeks I have been trying to decide what my plans are after graduation. Well, I made the bold move and decided to get my masters! I’m really excited about it. My plan is to upgrade as a full-time instructor, hopefully, and then take master’s classes at night. I am going to apply for the MBA (Masters of Business Administration) program. It will not only prepare me for the constantly changing airline environment, but it will also help me be successful in my own life experiences. Also, I wouldn’t mind working in upper management for an airline and flying on the side later in my career.

Well have a great week everyone. I’m going to start on the pile of work I have for next week. Wish me luck!