Lesson 21: Long John Silver XC
07/21/2007 Filed in: Flying
Saturday - 07/21/07
Ok, let's check the weather forecast for tomorrow... lemme guess, "Partly cloudy with X% chance of thunderstorms". Wait a second... "Clear" ?? What does that mean?! I'm not buying it.
You can't fool me. I'm being punked. Bob Saget or Pauly Shore or whoever the hell is in charge here, you might as well come on out! I was born at night but it wasn't *last* night.
Well, just in case it's not an elaborate prank coordinated between the NWS and the admins at weatherunderground.com, I called CFI1. Oh, I see now... "Clear" means that the plane is about to enter its 100 hour and I can't fly. Yeah, that's more like it.
Wait... what's that? He says it's only got one renter for the rest of the day and he can move them to the other DA20. That'll leave *just* enough time on the Tach for me to do my long solo XC the following morning. In vain, I fight back the tears of joy and promise CFI1 I'll name my next child after him.
Now all that has to happen is for a) the forecast to be right and b) me to (re) plan this flight. I can handle (b).
So I wake up at 5am to get the very latest wind forecast and call all the AWOS/ASOS for the sites I intend to grace with my presence. My intended route (the one I planned before) is KMQY -> KUOS -> KCSV -> KMQY. Everything's looking good by 6am, except for the pesky 400 ft ceilings at KUOS. Suck.
Ok, no problem. I'll just replan it as KMQY -> KCSV -> KUOS -> KMQY to give Sewanee time to defog the area for my arrival. The trip will be a bit more difficult to navigate this way, but with my trusty Garmin 420 travel buddy, I am unphased.
Fast forward to MQY and there's a minor snafu. Another CFI was supposed to meet me and sign me off. He didn't show, so CFI1 was kind enough to come up on his morning off to sprinkle some ink on the ole logbook. I now owe him two named offspring.
Alrighty then... flight plan? Check. Weather? Check. Gas? Check. Logbook and documents? Check. Holy shit! I've actually got to fly this thing now... I'm out of excuses!
Hop in, fire up, and away we go to CSV. I open my flight plan and order up some flight following. It kills the time and I just like doing it.
Me: Nashville approach, 223NH is 10 miles west of Smyrna, request VFR advisories.
NA: 223NH, east or west?
Me: Uh... sorry, east.
NA: Well which is it?
Me: It's really east.
Geez, no reason to get pissy about it, chief. Anyway, he humors me with radar contact and then hands me off to Atlanta. Atlanta is even less accommodating:
ATL: 223NH, piss off and stop bothering us. You're on your own.
Me: Uh... ok. *sniffle* Sorry.
Well, I don't remember his exact words. It may have been more like "there's no traffic in your area, squawk VFR and call us back if you need anything" but the end result is the same. Great, now I gotta sing to myself for entertainment.
So having done this exact leg only a few days ago, I have no trouble navigating it. Psst! Between you and me, I didn't even write down my checkpoint times. Shhh, don't tell!
I find the airport with no trouble at all and, having begun my descent several miles out like a good little student pilot, I make a radio call and announce my intent to enter the pattern on a 45 left downwind.
It wasn't until I was turning base that the following mental conversation occurred. One side is dumbass me (DM), the other is clever me (CM).
CM: Which direction you turning there, sport?
DM: Uh... right. <annoyed at the stupid question>
CM: Uh huh. And uh... which direction do you turn for left traffic?
DM: Oh hell. I suck.
CM: Yes, yes you do. Now get it right.
I have become so accustomed to right traffic during my pattern practice at Smyrna that, apparently, I can no longer tell left from right.
Turns out I also chose the wrong runway for the wind, so I announce a go around, then do it, and announce my stupidity to everyone who hadn't yet caught it. Fortunately, the pattern was empty, but I'm sure someone on the ground got a kick out of it. I'm happy to entertain.
Next I perform a spectacularly crap landing, taxi over, shutdown, and find a nice gent to sign my logbook. Having planes to fly and places to be, I waste no time hopping back in an getting underway for stop 2 (UOS).
Now, I've never flown from CSV to UOS, and worse, there's *nothing* to see on the route. There's one little airport about halfway through, but other than that, you're just SOL.
I actually found the airport at the midpoint with no issue. Then as I got closer to UOS, I deviated west to catch I-24 and follow it down. I quickly flipped the GPS over to the map just to make sure I didn't mix up east and west or left and right again. Low and behold I had it right. Er, correct.
I found UOS among the trees and entered a... ahem... left pattern for the intended runway and performed a landing that may have woken any neighbors still sleeping in. I can't figure out what's going on... my landings were so bad today it's almost as if I had completely forgotten some important step that just will not make itself apparent.
Again, a nice fellow signs my logbook and I hop back in. I see I've got more Hobbs time to kill so I do a few patterns to try to correct this landing funk. I am unsuccessful. Slightly discouraged but still upbeat, I begin the third leg home.
This will be by far the easiest leg to navigate as all I have to do is follow I-24 back to MQY. Having no need to differentiate east/west or left/right, I think I can handle it.
I make a very leisurely flight back to Smyrna, stopping briefly in the practice area to do some steep turns and then I contact Smyrna tower to let them know I'll shortly be violating their airspace.
Tower guy has marbles in his mouth again, and I thought he said "straight in" but I decide to ask to make sure.
Me: Confirm straight in on 32 for 223NH.
Tower: You can make right base from there.
Me: Ok, right base for 32, 223NH.
So I've begun my descent to pattern altitude but I'm still higher than I'd like to be. I have firmly in mind a previous lesson from my early days of landing with CFI2. That lesson imprinted the importance of being at pattern altitude when you are setting up to land, so that's what I'm intending for this descent.
I'm almost too embarrassed to tell you this next part. It's extraordinarily gross, but I figure if the shame of telling it helps me prevent it from happening again, it's worth the keystrokes and finger wear.
I'm thinking I'm at about 2100 ft and still descending for pattern altitude of 1500 ft. I'm nearing that right base when tower comes on.
Tower: 223NH, say altitude
Me: Uh......... (I actually keyed the mike for that and then realized I was not at 2100 ft)
Me: I'm a little low at 1100 ft
Tower: Just checking if that's you, you are a little low out there.
I had actually been thinking the approach looked low but I thought it was some kind of illusion. It wasn't. I was 400 ft below pattern altitude because I misread the altimeter The part that bugs me about that is that Tower noticed before I did. So the real question is... would I have noticed before I plowed my airplane through someone's roof?
Honestly, I think I would have, but that doesn't mean what I did wasn't extremely dangerous and stupid. Either way, that's a lesson that will stick with me forever.
What's almost as bad is that I couldn't remember if he actually cleared me to land during all of that. Either way, I got her back up and landed without incident and tower guy didn't leave his phone number under my wiper blades.
After shutting down I spoke with CFI1 about it and he didn't seem overly concerned. Nevertheless, I can't make myself believe I'm making too big a deal of it.
So the long solo XC is done and I've survived. I hate that I made a mistake in the last 2 minutes that put a rather unpleasant mark on the trip, but who knows... maybe making that mistake will save my bacon somewhere in the future. Fate is one fickle lady.
Logged: 3.2
Comments
nathan42100
Student Pilot-Lesson 4
Registered: Jul 2007
Location: KHPN
Posts: 111
Like usual, great writeup. Only one question though...you said it was a solo cross country yet in the beginning you wrote:
...
Hop in, fire up, and away we go to CSV...
Jeff S KDTW
Patent Pending
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Flying at Mach 0.30
Posts: 7794
Nathan, I think he is using the term "we" in the general sense. Heck, ATC tells me there is traffic, 1 o'clock, 4 miles, 4,500. My response, "We're lookin"....even as I look around the airplane and the other 5 seats are empty.
Jeff, one of the great things about training is the humbling that we go through and the critical memories we take with us. Just when we think things are falling in to place, our landings go to the dogs, we can't read a simply gauge, etc. That said, you will never misread your altimeter again, so long as you continue to respect the lesson you learned.
I do have to say, I'm dissappointed with you. Honestly. Your writeup did not contain any "fart" references.
__________________
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nathan42100
Student Pilot-Lesson 4
Registered: Jul 2007
Location: KHPN
Posts: 111
That made me think...banana.
DAMN...now I want banana bread...banana.
soulie13
Senior Member
Registered: Feb 2006
Location: KHEF
Posts: 364
Nice write up. With everything going on with the long XC flight, your landings were probably just a matter of not getting your eyes up the runway. Bites me everytime I'm not dialed in.
Congrats on a big milestone. Everyone has to have one "Holy Sh*t" moment during the long XC. Mine was almost mowing down a handful of hang gliders over Ridgley, Md while trying to land on a 50 ft wide runway.
Now go bang out that night XC and start checkride prep! If your lesson posts are this entertaining, I can't fathom what the checkride post will be like. "So, I get into the plane, and promptly farted on the DE...."
__________________
PP-ASEL
5/22/2007
battmain
Checkride Passed!
Registered: Oct 2006
Location:
Posts: 335
Or the DE said banana.
__________________
PP ASEL
jaweaver
Junior Member
Registered: Jun 2007
Location:
Posts: 8
Jeff, love your posts and the prose in which you write them in.
One OT question (no threadjack, just curious) : What's your flavor? I was a S(low)aris guy, myself, until I got into the networking biz.
-Jason
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by nathan42100
Like usual, great writeup. Only one question though...you said it was a solo cross country yet in the beginning you wrote:
We sometimes do that purely as a literary device if we think it helps us get our point across. Pay it no mind...
(to self) Silence! You've told him too much!
Uh, we gotta go...
Jeff
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by Jeff S KDTW
That said, you will never misread your altimeter again, so long as you continue to respect the lesson you learned.
You can count on that. Well, I may misread it, but I won't misread it the second or third time I double check myself, which is what was missing here.
I do have to say, I'm dissappointed with you. Honestly. Your writeup did not contain any "fart" references.
If it helps, there was plenty of involuntary gastro-intestinal activity after my mishap
Jeff
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by soulie13
Congrats on a big milestone. Everyone has to have one "Holy Sh*t" moment during the long XC. Mine was almost mowing down a handful of hang gliders over Ridgley, Md while trying to land on a 50 ft wide runway.
Heheh... how many points are those worth anyway?
Now go bang out that night XC and start checkride prep! If your lesson posts are this entertaining, I can't fathom what the checkride post will be like. "So, I get into the plane, and promptly farted on the DE...."
If history is any indication, the DE will be subjected to a veritable barrage of noxious gases... many of them coming out of my mouth
Jeff S KDTW
Patent Pending
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Flying at Mach 0.30
Posts: 7794
Originally posted by Sysvr4
Uh, we gotta go...
, said the pschizophrenic.
__________________
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Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by jaweaver
One OT question (no threadjack, just curious) : What's your flavor? I was a S(low)aris guy, myself, until I got into the networking biz.
These days I'm a tried and true OS X fan. I'll spare you my fanboy missives, but you should recognize the effort that requires.
When I made my living off networks, I liked linux, Solaris, and IRIX. The last two more than the first for critical servers, but linux was often found on my desktop.
__________________
"It's more art than science" simply means the speaker is unable to achieve consistent results.
jaweaver
Junior Member
Registered: Jun 2007
Location:
Posts: 8
Originally posted by Sysvr4
These days I'm a tried and true OS X fan. I'll spare you my fanboy missives, but you should recognize the effort that requires.
When I made my living off networks, I liked linux, Solaris, and IRIX. The last two more than the first for critical servers, but linux was often found on my desktop.
I'm more of a PC guy, but I do have a Mac Mini on my desk as well, nothing wrong w/OS X.
Funny enough, my CFI is a former IT Pro -- 12 years doing all sorts of development and DBA stuff. He got sick of it and I can definitely relate.
As CFI and I were walking back across the ramp the other day:
CFI: So why flight training, are you just looking to scratch an itch, or wanting to do something else?
Me: At first it was an itch that needed scratching, but after thinking ALOT about it, I wouldn't mind getting paid to do something in this field. Besides, I'm sick of working in IT.
CFI (Verbatim): Amen to that, Brother!!!
So yeah, it's interesting (to me, at least) running into quite a few IS/IT folks in my humble beginnings as a Student Pilot -- Them Golden Handcuffs gotta come off sometime...
-Jason
Ok, let's check the weather forecast for tomorrow... lemme guess, "Partly cloudy with X% chance of thunderstorms". Wait a second... "Clear" ?? What does that mean?! I'm not buying it.
You can't fool me. I'm being punked. Bob Saget or Pauly Shore or whoever the hell is in charge here, you might as well come on out! I was born at night but it wasn't *last* night.
Well, just in case it's not an elaborate prank coordinated between the NWS and the admins at weatherunderground.com, I called CFI1. Oh, I see now... "Clear" means that the plane is about to enter its 100 hour and I can't fly. Yeah, that's more like it.
Wait... what's that? He says it's only got one renter for the rest of the day and he can move them to the other DA20. That'll leave *just* enough time on the Tach for me to do my long solo XC the following morning. In vain, I fight back the tears of joy and promise CFI1 I'll name my next child after him.
Now all that has to happen is for a) the forecast to be right and b) me to (re) plan this flight. I can handle (b).
So I wake up at 5am to get the very latest wind forecast and call all the AWOS/ASOS for the sites I intend to grace with my presence. My intended route (the one I planned before) is KMQY -> KUOS -> KCSV -> KMQY. Everything's looking good by 6am, except for the pesky 400 ft ceilings at KUOS. Suck.
Ok, no problem. I'll just replan it as KMQY -> KCSV -> KUOS -> KMQY to give Sewanee time to defog the area for my arrival. The trip will be a bit more difficult to navigate this way, but with my trusty Garmin 420 travel buddy, I am unphased.
Fast forward to MQY and there's a minor snafu. Another CFI was supposed to meet me and sign me off. He didn't show, so CFI1 was kind enough to come up on his morning off to sprinkle some ink on the ole logbook. I now owe him two named offspring.
Alrighty then... flight plan? Check. Weather? Check. Gas? Check. Logbook and documents? Check. Holy shit! I've actually got to fly this thing now... I'm out of excuses!
Hop in, fire up, and away we go to CSV. I open my flight plan and order up some flight following. It kills the time and I just like doing it.
Me: Nashville approach, 223NH is 10 miles west of Smyrna, request VFR advisories.
NA: 223NH, east or west?
Me: Uh... sorry, east.
NA: Well which is it?
Me: It's really east.
Geez, no reason to get pissy about it, chief. Anyway, he humors me with radar contact and then hands me off to Atlanta. Atlanta is even less accommodating:
ATL: 223NH, piss off and stop bothering us. You're on your own.
Me: Uh... ok. *sniffle* Sorry.
Well, I don't remember his exact words. It may have been more like "there's no traffic in your area, squawk VFR and call us back if you need anything" but the end result is the same. Great, now I gotta sing to myself for entertainment.
So having done this exact leg only a few days ago, I have no trouble navigating it. Psst! Between you and me, I didn't even write down my checkpoint times. Shhh, don't tell!
I find the airport with no trouble at all and, having begun my descent several miles out like a good little student pilot, I make a radio call and announce my intent to enter the pattern on a 45 left downwind.
It wasn't until I was turning base that the following mental conversation occurred. One side is dumbass me (DM), the other is clever me (CM).
CM: Which direction you turning there, sport?
DM: Uh... right. <annoyed at the stupid question>
CM: Uh huh. And uh... which direction do you turn for left traffic?
DM: Oh hell. I suck.
CM: Yes, yes you do. Now get it right.
I have become so accustomed to right traffic during my pattern practice at Smyrna that, apparently, I can no longer tell left from right.
Turns out I also chose the wrong runway for the wind, so I announce a go around, then do it, and announce my stupidity to everyone who hadn't yet caught it. Fortunately, the pattern was empty, but I'm sure someone on the ground got a kick out of it. I'm happy to entertain.
Next I perform a spectacularly crap landing, taxi over, shutdown, and find a nice gent to sign my logbook. Having planes to fly and places to be, I waste no time hopping back in an getting underway for stop 2 (UOS).
Now, I've never flown from CSV to UOS, and worse, there's *nothing* to see on the route. There's one little airport about halfway through, but other than that, you're just SOL.
I actually found the airport at the midpoint with no issue. Then as I got closer to UOS, I deviated west to catch I-24 and follow it down. I quickly flipped the GPS over to the map just to make sure I didn't mix up east and west or left and right again. Low and behold I had it right. Er, correct.
I found UOS among the trees and entered a... ahem... left pattern for the intended runway and performed a landing that may have woken any neighbors still sleeping in. I can't figure out what's going on... my landings were so bad today it's almost as if I had completely forgotten some important step that just will not make itself apparent.
Again, a nice fellow signs my logbook and I hop back in. I see I've got more Hobbs time to kill so I do a few patterns to try to correct this landing funk. I am unsuccessful. Slightly discouraged but still upbeat, I begin the third leg home.
This will be by far the easiest leg to navigate as all I have to do is follow I-24 back to MQY. Having no need to differentiate east/west or left/right, I think I can handle it.
I make a very leisurely flight back to Smyrna, stopping briefly in the practice area to do some steep turns and then I contact Smyrna tower to let them know I'll shortly be violating their airspace.
Tower guy has marbles in his mouth again, and I thought he said "straight in" but I decide to ask to make sure.
Me: Confirm straight in on 32 for 223NH.
Tower: You can make right base from there.
Me: Ok, right base for 32, 223NH.
So I've begun my descent to pattern altitude but I'm still higher than I'd like to be. I have firmly in mind a previous lesson from my early days of landing with CFI2. That lesson imprinted the importance of being at pattern altitude when you are setting up to land, so that's what I'm intending for this descent.
I'm almost too embarrassed to tell you this next part. It's extraordinarily gross, but I figure if the shame of telling it helps me prevent it from happening again, it's worth the keystrokes and finger wear.
I'm thinking I'm at about 2100 ft and still descending for pattern altitude of 1500 ft. I'm nearing that right base when tower comes on.
Tower: 223NH, say altitude
Me: Uh......... (I actually keyed the mike for that and then realized I was not at 2100 ft)
Me: I'm a little low at 1100 ft
Tower: Just checking if that's you, you are a little low out there.
I had actually been thinking the approach looked low but I thought it was some kind of illusion. It wasn't. I was 400 ft below pattern altitude because I misread the altimeter The part that bugs me about that is that Tower noticed before I did. So the real question is... would I have noticed before I plowed my airplane through someone's roof?
Honestly, I think I would have, but that doesn't mean what I did wasn't extremely dangerous and stupid. Either way, that's a lesson that will stick with me forever.
What's almost as bad is that I couldn't remember if he actually cleared me to land during all of that. Either way, I got her back up and landed without incident and tower guy didn't leave his phone number under my wiper blades.
After shutting down I spoke with CFI1 about it and he didn't seem overly concerned. Nevertheless, I can't make myself believe I'm making too big a deal of it.
So the long solo XC is done and I've survived. I hate that I made a mistake in the last 2 minutes that put a rather unpleasant mark on the trip, but who knows... maybe making that mistake will save my bacon somewhere in the future. Fate is one fickle lady.
Logged: 3.2
Comments
nathan42100
Student Pilot-Lesson 4
Registered: Jul 2007
Location: KHPN
Posts: 111
Like usual, great writeup. Only one question though...you said it was a solo cross country yet in the beginning you wrote:
...
Hop in, fire up, and away we go to CSV...
Jeff S KDTW
Patent Pending
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Flying at Mach 0.30
Posts: 7794
Nathan, I think he is using the term "we" in the general sense. Heck, ATC tells me there is traffic, 1 o'clock, 4 miles, 4,500. My response, "We're lookin"....even as I look around the airplane and the other 5 seats are empty.
Jeff, one of the great things about training is the humbling that we go through and the critical memories we take with us. Just when we think things are falling in to place, our landings go to the dogs, we can't read a simply gauge, etc. That said, you will never misread your altimeter again, so long as you continue to respect the lesson you learned.
I do have to say, I'm dissappointed with you. Honestly. Your writeup did not contain any "fart" references.
__________________
Personal Photo/Aviation Website|FARs|AIM|AC|PCG|FAA Opinions
nathan42100
Student Pilot-Lesson 4
Registered: Jul 2007
Location: KHPN
Posts: 111
That made me think...banana.
DAMN...now I want banana bread...banana.
soulie13
Senior Member
Registered: Feb 2006
Location: KHEF
Posts: 364
Nice write up. With everything going on with the long XC flight, your landings were probably just a matter of not getting your eyes up the runway. Bites me everytime I'm not dialed in.
Congrats on a big milestone. Everyone has to have one "Holy Sh*t" moment during the long XC. Mine was almost mowing down a handful of hang gliders over Ridgley, Md while trying to land on a 50 ft wide runway.
Now go bang out that night XC and start checkride prep! If your lesson posts are this entertaining, I can't fathom what the checkride post will be like. "So, I get into the plane, and promptly farted on the DE...."
__________________
PP-ASEL
5/22/2007
battmain
Checkride Passed!
Registered: Oct 2006
Location:
Posts: 335
Or the DE said banana.
__________________
PP ASEL
jaweaver
Junior Member
Registered: Jun 2007
Location:
Posts: 8
Jeff, love your posts and the prose in which you write them in.
One OT question (no threadjack, just curious) : What's your flavor? I was a S(low)aris guy, myself, until I got into the networking biz.
-Jason
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by nathan42100
Like usual, great writeup. Only one question though...you said it was a solo cross country yet in the beginning you wrote:
We sometimes do that purely as a literary device if we think it helps us get our point across. Pay it no mind...
(to self) Silence! You've told him too much!
Uh, we gotta go...
Jeff
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by Jeff S KDTW
That said, you will never misread your altimeter again, so long as you continue to respect the lesson you learned.
You can count on that. Well, I may misread it, but I won't misread it the second or third time I double check myself, which is what was missing here.
I do have to say, I'm dissappointed with you. Honestly. Your writeup did not contain any "fart" references.
If it helps, there was plenty of involuntary gastro-intestinal activity after my mishap
Jeff
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by soulie13
Congrats on a big milestone. Everyone has to have one "Holy Sh*t" moment during the long XC. Mine was almost mowing down a handful of hang gliders over Ridgley, Md while trying to land on a 50 ft wide runway.
Heheh... how many points are those worth anyway?
Now go bang out that night XC and start checkride prep! If your lesson posts are this entertaining, I can't fathom what the checkride post will be like. "So, I get into the plane, and promptly farted on the DE...."
If history is any indication, the DE will be subjected to a veritable barrage of noxious gases... many of them coming out of my mouth
Jeff S KDTW
Patent Pending
Registered: Jan 2003
Location: Flying at Mach 0.30
Posts: 7794
Originally posted by Sysvr4
Uh, we gotta go...
, said the pschizophrenic.
__________________
Personal Photo/Aviation Website|FARs|AIM|AC|PCG|FAA Opinions
Sysvr4
Senior Member
Registered: May 2007
Location: KMQY
Posts: 150
Originally posted by jaweaver
One OT question (no threadjack, just curious) : What's your flavor? I was a S(low)aris guy, myself, until I got into the networking biz.
These days I'm a tried and true OS X fan. I'll spare you my fanboy missives, but you should recognize the effort that requires.
When I made my living off networks, I liked linux, Solaris, and IRIX. The last two more than the first for critical servers, but linux was often found on my desktop.
__________________
"It's more art than science" simply means the speaker is unable to achieve consistent results.
jaweaver
Junior Member
Registered: Jun 2007
Location:
Posts: 8
Originally posted by Sysvr4
These days I'm a tried and true OS X fan. I'll spare you my fanboy missives, but you should recognize the effort that requires.
When I made my living off networks, I liked linux, Solaris, and IRIX. The last two more than the first for critical servers, but linux was often found on my desktop.
I'm more of a PC guy, but I do have a Mac Mini on my desk as well, nothing wrong w/OS X.
Funny enough, my CFI is a former IT Pro -- 12 years doing all sorts of development and DBA stuff. He got sick of it and I can definitely relate.
As CFI and I were walking back across the ramp the other day:
CFI: So why flight training, are you just looking to scratch an itch, or wanting to do something else?
Me: At first it was an itch that needed scratching, but after thinking ALOT about it, I wouldn't mind getting paid to do something in this field. Besides, I'm sick of working in IT.
CFI (Verbatim): Amen to that, Brother!!!
So yeah, it's interesting (to me, at least) running into quite a few IS/IT folks in my humble beginnings as a Student Pilot -- Them Golden Handcuffs gotta come off sometime...
-Jason