So What Is It Like to Fly in College

      College, as they say, is the best four years of your life. You make life-long friends, discover what career you want to purse, and obtain valuable leadership skills and experience through clubs and organizations. More often than not, it's your first time out on your own. About the only thing that makes it better is when some of your classes are taught in a cockpit.

First flight in a Cessna

     Flying is one of the great experiences I've ever had, and the single best major out there in my opinion. Most students study in the classroom, learning the material from books and real world examples. However, it's not often that you get hand's-on experience; maybe for a semester or two during an internship. For aviation students, we get to do it every semester, several times a week. The airport become as familiar as our classroom.

     The average week is mixed between the flight training, classes and other activities like working out and student organizations. We'll be studying for accounting, transition to filling out a navigation log and then off to the airport or the gym. There will be times when we're at the airport 4 or 5 times a week, while others we may only spent once or twice. There are plenty of times where it isn't so different than any other student at our school. Classes, homework, social life, and of course naps. Then there will times while the rest of our friends are sitting in class or at practice, we're flying over the school at 4000 ft. as we set up for an approach into the international airport.

Campus from 4000 feet. 

     As aviation majors progress in school, slowly but surely everything begins to revolve around flying. You get out of the general education classes, and into the more aviation classes. It's no longer just the basic of flying in private pilot, it's learning how to fly advanced jets and learning to be a commercial pilot and/or flight instructor. Even organizations you're involved with can become aviation focused if they're not already. Bright side about being a pilot, we don't care one bit that everything has become aviation focused. We're pilots after all.

     It's definitely a different experience being in a professional pilot program at a 4 year university. You quickly make friends with the other pilots (after all, we can talk about flying for days), and get connected with the aviation faculty. For the most part, we're just regular college students, but not everyone has a classroom at 6000 ft. or goes hundreds of miles and back in a day for a grade. One of my favorite quotes wraps it up nicely:

The cockpit was my office. It was a place where I experienced many emotions and learned many lessons. It was a place of work, but also a keeper of dreams. It was a place of deadly serious encounters, yet there I discovered much about life. I learned about joy and sorrow, pride and humility, fear and overcoming fear. I saw much from that office that most people would never see. At times it terrified me, yet I could always feel at home there. It was my place, at that time in space, and the jet was mine for those moments. Though it was a place where I could quickly die, the cockpit was a place where I truly lived.

   

Experiencing the Corporate World First Hand...From none other than the Cockpit of a TBM 900

TBM 900

     Aviation students love flying. We love new experiences during our flight training, going to new places on our cross-countries, and just getting the chance to fly. However, you talk to any aviation student, and they’ll admit that there are times when it gets redundant. The beauty of being in collegiate aviation is you have the flexibility to do stuff on the side. When my professor offered me the opportunity last week, I jumped at it!  I got my first taste of corporate flying in a Socata TBM 900.

     Corporate flying is a lot different than flight training. At the flight school, we have smaller, lighter aircraft that normally don't have more than 4 seats. They're relatively slow and the main purpose is recreational flying. However, when corporations or affluent individuals purchase their own plane, they're going to want something a little bigger, comfortable, and definitely a lot faster. Going from flying a Piper Seminole to the TBM 900 was like going from your first car to driving a 2014 Cadillac. The plane was high performance, high altitude, and twice as fast!!​
 

Piper Seminole

     Corporate flying can be more relaxed, but there are also things you need to be keener on. For example, when you are a pilot for an individual, you want to make sure that you and the aircraft are ready to go by the time they get there. You don't want them to be waiting around for you finish pre-flight, getting fuel, etc... People don't like to wait. So be on time, or you could lose your job. Picking the fastest route and altitude that will save you the most fuel is another consideration. Flying can get expensive, so as a corporate pilot, you want to try and save your client as much money as possible. The upside to corporate flying in college is you finally get the chance to go apply what you learned; getting to go out and do some "real flying.”
      My professor flies for a private citizen on the side. He has had the opportunity to take up some of his students and let them sit right seat. I was definitely excited when he offered me the chance. It was Sunday after Thanksgiving. My professor and I arrived at the airport about an hour before departure. We got the airplane out of the hanger, pre-flight done and ready for departure. It was definitely more relaxed than getting ready for flight training, and it felt like an actual crew. My professor had me hop in and get the weather and our departure clearance while he did the inspection of the aircraft. Soon after, the folks show up and we got ready to go. Hearing that turbine engine start-up was amazing. I expected to watch and learn from my professor during the flight, but he put me right to work. I had the communication radios (or “comms”) and conducted different tasks as needed. We taxied and took off to 26,000 feet cruising altitude.

      It was definitely an amazing experience as we flew down to Ft. Myers; getting to be in the cockpit at high altitudes, talking on the radios, and adjusting the autopilot as necessary. We definitely worked as a team instead of the usual flight training environment; the student doing most of the flying and the instructor making sure he/she is doing things correctly. About the time we got over Tampa, the sun was setting out over the right wing. Watching another plane fly by in the distance as I saw the sun setting from 26,000 was breathtaking. Pretty soon, we were coming into Page Field and landing the plane. We got a crew car and drove the lady back to her house (to which she offered us grapefruit from her tree). As we flew back, we got up to 31,000 feet to test out the pressurization system, which was working just fine.

      In just around an hour, we were back in Jacksonville. It was a rewarding experience getting to fly with my professor on a corporate flight and I was exposed to a whole new aspect of the aviation industry. I talked with Fixed Base Operators (FBOs), flight crews, and enjoyed the trip while still working. Of course we can't forget that I got my first experience in a high-performance/turbine aircraft. While we often get focused on the busyness of college, doing flight training and combining the extra-curricular activities, getting new flight experiences outside of training definitely leaves you with highlights in your collegiate aviation days. If the opportunity arises, go for it! You never know what you'll learn.

The Weather....a Pilot's Best Friend, or His Worst Enemy?

     Unlike driving a car, there's a lot more to flying a plane than most people realize. Regulations, factoring the weight and balance, weather, etc.  As a matter of fact, you can't go through a stage check, FAA exam, or aviation course without talking about weather. Thankfully, I enjoy learning about it. If my university started a minor in weather and meteorology, I'd be the first to sign up. I love learning about clouds and pressure systems, and seeing them change almost on a daily basis. However, at times, the weather can be the deciding factor if you fly or not. Funny as it is, this happened to me today!

Instrument conditions
over St. Augustine 

     Today was the day I was finally going to do my long, cross-country flight. For those of you that don't know, a cross country flight is one in which you land at an airport more than 50 nautical miles away from your start point. For our commercial license, we have to do a cross country to an airport that's over 250 nautical miles away. Cross country flights are my favorite; flying new to places, enjoying the sites, new experiences, and not doing maneuvers over and over again. Today was going to be that day I head up from Jacksonville to Peach Tree, Georgia. Peach Tree is right under Atlanta's airspace. Training to be a commercial pilot, it’d be great experience being around the busiest airport in the world. As I pull up to the airport in Jacksonville, that sinking feeling set in; low visibility, low clouds, and instrument conditions. I go inside and talk to my instructor. As I’m doing so, we go and check out the weather. As long as most of the flight is in visual conditions, it's ok if we take off using only instruments. The issue though was getting back into the airport in the evening.  As an instrument rated pilot, I would have loved to go and get the additional experience in the clouds. However, of the two aircraft available for this flight, we ended up with the older model. The plane is more than capable of flying in instrument conditions, but with slightly older equipment and without a GPS, we may or may not have been able to make it back into Craig Airfield. I really didn't want to divert and spend the night in Daytona, so we ended up cancelling the flight. 

Thunderstorms over Jacksonville

Weather is the single biggest reason why a flight will get cancelled at an academy.  In fact, just the other day I was headed out to do a night flight to Sanford, FL. The weather was reporting clear, and the forecast was calling for some scattered clouds. By the time I got to Craig Airfield, fog had rolled in and the visibility was less than a mile. While we could have gotten out, there was no way we would have made it back in, especially with the weather deteriorating. So it got cancelled. Another situation that isn’t fun is on days when it's nice outside, but it's really bumpy and not that comfortable to be in, especially after eating. However weather isn't always bad. Sometimes I get done early cause the winds were in our favor flying back. It gets really interesting when you start approaching Jacksonville and there's a storm system right over it (makes for some cool pictures as you can see to the left). Or when it's clear and a million like the image below and I get to go up and do some maneuvers. It's a love/hate relationship.

Clear skies over Daytona Beach

     Weather is huge in the aviation world. It decides how smooth your ride is, how far you will go on a tank of gas, and whether or not you have to divert somewhere else. Weather can get your where you're going faster, or be the reason you never take off: it'll be your best friend, or your worst enemy.

How It All Started

     It all started when I toured Jacksonville University my senior year of high school. I had been toying with the idea of being pilot since I was a little kid, but my junior year of high school I started to seriously consider it. However on that day the fall semester of my senior year, my mind had been made up.

     My mom and I got up early on that Friday morning and drove over to Jacksonville. We got to the University, talked with admissions for a little bit and one of the student ambassadors gave us a tour around campus. I really liked the JU campus. It had the small town feel despite being in a large city, beautiful scenery and good atmosphere. We got the chance to talk with folks over at the Davis Aviation Center in the Davis College of Business (DCOB). Captain Willette was extremely nice and helpful. He told me that I could tour the flight school and even do a discovery flight. I jumped at the opportunity and we headed off the Craig Airfield. We got to Craig, one of the flight instructors showed us around and my mom setup of the discovery flight with dispatch. It was then that I got introduced to weight and balance as I sat in awkward silence as he calculated it. We headed out to the plane, did a pre-flight and hopped in. 

     We started up the plane, the instructor started talking to ATC over the radio. I could feel the excitement growing inside of me. We hadn't even started moving and I was already like, "dude, this is awesome". He let me taxi the plane a little which was a little more difficult than I had thought at first. Quickly did a engine check and we got cleared for takeoff. As the instructor put in full power and we started the takeoff role, I was almost bubbling over with excitement, then just all of a sudden, we were airborne. As the plane climbed, I just started out the window at the ground that was slowly getting smaller, taking in the moment. The instructor turned to me and gave me the flight controls, and he showed me how to do some basic maneuvers. It was in that serene moment as I softly gripped the controls that everything else faded away. The engine's throbbing dulled, the radios went quiet, and the beauty of the earth and the clouds left me awestruck. As I looked out with a wiry grin on my face I knew in that moment that I was meant to fly. 

     The entire ride home I wouldn't shut up about my experience in the airplane (that was of course when I wasn't sleeping). I couldn't wait to graduate, go to JU and start my flight training. It's almost all I could think about as my senioritis started kicking in. In just under a year, I was at JU and starting my flight training. Now, two years later, I'm an instrument rated pilot working on my commercial multi, a member of the International Aviation Fraternity Alpha Eta Rho, and the Flight Team Safety Officer. 

With that first flight in the little C172, my love of aviation began.