The countdown is approaching the end. Classes finished on December 9th and final exams are scattered between then and December 16th which is the day students have to check out of the dorms. For me, I only have one exam, a business exam, on Monday at 7:15pm. It will be weird to have a test that late at night, but they schedule it like that so that students can have enough time, more than the normal class time.

Friday December 10th was dedicated a “Study Day” which is basically a day off where you can begin to review everything for exams. On that date as well I signed up for my FAA Written Private Exam, which is basically the exam you have to pass in order to get your private license. Before taking the exam, however, you take AS121 aka Private Pilot Operations, which is a class dedicated to teaching you the basics on flying and how to pass that exam. Throughout the course you are required to take Gleims, which are basically practice tests for the FAA Written. They are practically the same thing and at the end of the course you take a LaserGrade, which is the last practice test and combines all units and chooses 60 random questions, just like the written. You have to get an 80% to pass the final gleim, even though you only need a 70% on the written to pass. The teachers do this to basically make sure that you could pass the real thing, which is a good idea. Thank goodness, I passed. The tests are $130 which is the increased price after it got changed from $80 this past April.

I will be leaving school on Tuesday evening and I am extremely excited to get back home but I definitely will miss my friends and the whole environment. It will be weird not flying for a month but I might be trying to fly a little bit at my local airport. When I go home, I plan on working over the break, just enough to get a little bit of money but I want to be able to enjoy my break. If you are my friend on facebook, you will most likely see pictures of me dressed up as an elf. I work at a grocery store and the thought it would be funny if they brought in a Santa and had an employee dress up as an elf and take pictures of the kids with Santa and give out candy canes. Of course they chose me, one of the tallest elfs you would ever see. Alot of people said I reminded them of the movie Elf with Will Ferrell.

Here’s a picture of last year so you can have a laugh but it was definitely fun, a good way to get in the holiday spirit, which you don’t really have as much down here because it usually is warm, however, it has been some crazy weather here in Daytona Beach. Never did I expect it to get as cold as it has. This past week I preflighted the airplane when the temperature was 27 and the wind chill was about 20 or so. Even if you’re coming to Florida, bring gloves! Once you’re here for a while, your body adjusts to the heat. So even when it drops to about 60 degrees or so, it feels a lot colder.

I also have applied to be a Resident Advisor since the last journal, so hopefully I might be one of your RAs next year. If I don’t become a Resident Advisor, I will most likely move off campus to one of the local apartment complexes with a friend. I like living on campus, seeing how everything is so close, but I like having my own place, where there is more to customize. I can buy my own sofa, own bed, and own desk. Well I guess this basically wraps up our last journal of 2010. I cannot wait to start a whole new set of classes and I hope you all have happy holidays and a great new year! Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been cleared to land into Daytona Beach, local time is 1232 and temperature is 57 degrees. Please make sure one last time your seat belt is securely fastened. The flight attendants are currently passing around the cabin to make a final compliance check and pick up any remaining cups and glasses. Thank you.

Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing well. It turns out I will end up writing for you one more time prior to the end of the semester, however I don’t have that much to say! Why, you may ask? Well, because the majority of the last two weeks have been spent studying for finals.

Perhaps the most significant thing that has happened since I wrote last is me receiving my instrument rating. After about 4 months of work and a good deal of studying, I passed my checkride and am now certificated to fly in the clouds, shooting approaches down to minimums. Would I do that right away? Absolutely not. Training does not always constitute experience and to push your privileges to their maximum with little to no actual experience is foolish. By working your way down (in terms of the weather) to minimums and building experience is truly the only way to do it.

Finals have come and gone, thankfully. I actually really lucked out this semester in that I had no cumulative final exams. Either because no exams were given by the professors or because I had a high enough grade going into the exam where I could bypass it with no effect on my grade, I was able to get away without a tedious week of studying. What I did have, though, in terms of finals were a practice FAA Commercial Pilot Written Exam, a normal class exam in lieu of a final exam, and the real Commercial Written exam.

For any pilots who are reading this, I will clarify a bit about the finals/written exams for your flight ratings. Essentially, at the end of any ground school class for a rating at Riddle, you take a “practice” written exam for the respective real written exam that you would take for the rating. You must pass this practice written with an 80% or higher to receive the endorsement from your professor to take the real written exam. Additionally, if you pass this practice exam with an 80% or higher, 10 points are added to your final grade for that class. This may make the whole situation sound stressful, but if you study (and memorize) the Gleim studybook, you are essentially certain to pass.

Tomorrow night, I head home for just under a month before returning to Riddle for the Spring 2011 semester. The end of a semester always has an exciting feeling to it. Unfortunately, if you live on campus, there is a lot of cleaning that must be done before you leave to ensure that all perishable food items are disposed of and the room is left clean. Of course, you must also pack your things up, which can be challenging especially at the end of the second semester. But, don’t worry, I will discuss that when the time comes!

One misconception you might have about Florida is that it is hot ALL the time. This, unfortunately, is not the case as when a cold front moves through the temperatures can drop into the 30’s and even 20’s. As I write this now, it is only 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside. It can be helpful if you are trying to get into the Christmas Spirit though, as you can see in the picture above of Santa, Mrs. Claus, and even the reindeer driving down a road. One good thing, for me, that comes with cold weather is that usually it means that the airport switches to a runway 34 operation, resulting in airplanes landing right in front of my window as you can see. Crazy!

Sorry guys, but that is really all I have for you this time. I wish you and your families a happy and healthy holiday season and New Year. Talk to you in 2011!

Take care,

Pete

Hello everybody!

I hope all is going well with everyone! I am doing well, just working to finish up the semester. It is about time for finals and the due dates for semester projects have come and gone. In nearly every aspect of my academic life, things are starting to wind down. Just a final push and I will have a nice month off to relax! Several things have happened since I last wrote. For one thing, Thanksgiving was last week. It is hard to believe that it is already that time of year. This year, my family decided to try something new for Thanksgiving, so instead of me going home as usual (which often didn’t make sense because I would fly home and back just to fly home two weeks later), my family came to Florida and we spent Thanksgiving at Walt Disney World.

If you’ve read my other entries, you already know how crazy I am about Disney World. Next to flying and aviation, Disney World is truly my other passion in life, from going there for fun to its technical workings and operations. In any case, it was truly a great time. We stayed at my favorite Disney resort on the property, Disney’s Boardwalk Inn. This resort recreates Atlantic City, New Jersey around the turn of the century complete with a full wooden boardwalk and vendors to boot. It is quite something. It is also within walking distance of both Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney’s MGM Studios) and the EPCOT theme parks.

My grandparents came on Thanksgiving morning and we enjoyed a day together at Hollywood Studios where we later had a great dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant in the park. It was actually one of the best Thanksgiving meals I can remember and I for the first time understood the full-to-capacity feeling that people get after Thanksgiving meals. Being my grandparent’s first visit to Disney World in many years, it was fun showing them all over the parks. One of the greatest parts about Disney World at this time of year is the decorations for Christmas. All of the resorts and parks are decorated for the holidays. Perhaps the most impressive of these decorations is at Disney’s Hollywood Studios where the “Streets of America” facade is decorated with 5 million LED lights amongst other decorations in the style of the Osborne family’s house in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is truly amazing, particularly when they have the lights dance to Christmas songs.

Other than Thanksgiving, my focus this week has been on my Instrument rating checkride, which I have this Saturday. I am very nervous but I know I am prepared for it. Checkrides are something that take a lot of effort and energy and cause a lot of stress, but it is important to remain calm and remember what you know. Nonetheless, I will be glad when it is over. For any future pilots wondering what is involved for this rating, essentially you must learn to fly solely by reference to the flight instruments due to you now having the ability to fly in clouds. This includes learning approaches to airports without being able to see the runway until you are a few hundred feet above it. Wish me luck!

Now that the majority of the semester projects themselves have been completed, it is time for the associated PowerPoint presentations that must be presented to the class. This is usually the easy part of the project and somewhat enjoyable, and once this is completed, I am totally done with the associated classes.

I sort of lucked out this semester in that I only have 1 final exam, and that exam is not cumulative. In addition to that test, I have to take the Commercial Pilot Written exam which is required after completing AS321, or Commercial Pilot Operations (the ground school for the commercial rating). After that, I head home December 15!

I am not sure that I will talk to you all again before then, but even if I am not writing, please do not hesitate to e-mail me your questions. I love hearing from you. If I don’t talk to you, Happy Holidays and talk to you next year!

Pete

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. 🙂