Training at C90

Training on North Satellite

I started the classroom and lab for North Satellite (north sat.) in the middle of August. Training on north sat., despite the max hours being lower, can take longer than departures simply because the traffic isn't always consistent, and certain days have busy periods of traffic while others are very slow. It is certainly not the same as knowing that there are departure rushes at certain times of the day and they are consistent. Also, instead of having...

It has been a while since my last update and a lot has happened. I have learned a lot more working on my own than I could have with a trainer. I also moved days off for the summer so I got to know and work with a different group of people. I also started my next phase of training which is both fun and exciting.

Working On My Own

Two days after certifying on departures, my wife and I went on vacation. It was a great way to celebrate, but it wasn't so much by design....

I guess the light was pretty close. I certified on departures today. It is a huge weight off of my shoulders now that I don't have to try to guess when I will get certified or if I will or whatnot. It is a great feeling. I worked for the first time on my own this afternoon for one session at the end of the day. It was really fun doing everything on my own. I thought it would be kind of scary actually because there isn't someone there, but that is actually more of a relief knowing that you can control...

At this writing I am still training on departures. I have just over 300 hours under my belt, and my checkride seems so close yet so far away. I was hoping that I would have been certified already, but I wasn't quite ready yet. Going into February I was doing really well. My trainer released me to the crew so that everyone else could give their opinions and offer technique advice. That was going well for about a week and then I hit a wall. I had one bad session and it started an avalanche of more...

So it is November and a lot has happened since my last update. I haven't been very good about keeping it up to date (obviously) but I will try and give an overview of everthing that has happened.

Flight Data

After getting out of the lab I started training on Flight Data. Although flight data is not the most glamourous position in the facility, it is still an important role to the entire operation. There are a lot of times when it is a rather slow position, but it provides...