Well, now the hard part starts: Finding a job. But at least I’m eligible for the job!
25 calendar months to go from zero to 1500.5 hours of time spent in airplanes.
917 hours of instruction given to students in airplanes. (Plus many more on the ground) ALL of it given while wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
1438 times landing the airplane. (Not including student landings where I didn’t have to help)
607 hours of “Cross Country” (Landing somewhere more than 50 miles from where we started)
Over 250 hours of flying around in circles in the pattern at the airport.
48 hours of flying in clouds.
79 hours of pretending to fly in clouds.
139 instrument approaches.
208 hours of flying at night.
212 hours of flying by myself in an airplane,
210 hours of instruction received.
16 different types of airplanes flown, 42 unique tail numbers.
98 hours in seaplanes. (128 landings on the water, not counting students landing without help)
24 hours in multi-engine airplanes.
7 checkrides. (First pass every attempt)
19 students passed their checkrides on their first attempt.
Flown from sea to shining sea, and from the Great Lakes to the gulf.
It’s been a long two years. And incredibly fun. And incredibly tiring. But mostly fun.
This was the flight that did it. I may have taken the long way home to get a couple extra tenths.
1500 hours is a big deal because that’s when you become eligible for flying for commercial airlines and stuff. Basically it means it’s time to start thinking about leaving the 8 hours of flying in 100+ degree temperatures every day to the new kids and start applying for big-boy jobs. I have truly loved teaching though, and I can’t see myself ever truly stopping. For now though, the industry is a little flooded with laid-off Spirit pilots, so it’s pretty hard to look for work, but at least if that door opensI’m ready to go!
And this weekend I get to go take classes in giant full-motion airliner simulators, which is going to be super fun too!