Watch Your Career Take Off - Get An Education In (cheap flights) Aviation!
No commentsBy John Morris
Is it your dream to become a pilot? Have you always wanted to take to the skies, to feel the freedom that eagles and hawks enjoy all the time? This could be the start of something big for you.
1. Evaluate Your Skill Level
Are you a college graduate or not? This is a vital issue for you since most airline companies give a lot of bearing on a potential pilot’s academic proficiency as well as overall good physical and mental well-being. This is perfectly understandable on their part since they will be giving their pilots total command of a multi-million dollar aircraft. They would rather have one of these at the hands of a competent and capable pilot who can make crucial decisions during critical situations rather than someone who may be less proficient and easily loses composure whenever stressfull circumstances arise.
2. Plunging Into Unfamiliar Territory
By becoming a pilot you are subjecting yourself to a life that most often than not is always on the go. Expect work schedules that can last from two to even six days of continuous flights. Even holidays will not give you any reprieve. At the same time, however, this provides you with the opportunity to travel to distant lands here and abroad. This is as near as you can be from being a man of the world. It poses an exciting and fun career but on the other hand, its very nature can cause problems if you have a family that may have a hard time coping with your perpetually changing schedule.
3. Search For Your Ideal School
Looking for your ideal school can be exciting and enjoyable. Consider factors like the reputation of a school. Does it offer up-to-date flight programs? Is it in partnership with airline companies? Look at the competitive edge of your potential flight school. Make sure these aviation schools to measure up to your expectations.
- Location, Location, Location
Geography has a key role in your education because the time you will spend in the air learning to operate an aircraft will largely depend on the location’s weather. If foul weather abounds in the area that covers the site of your flight school, chances are that you will spend more time in the classroom learning about theories rather than learning it firsthand through experience.
- Be On Budget
Admittedly, enrolling in flight school is a costly endeavor. Much of the expenses of the course is related to your accumulation of flying hours. If you are limited by a tight
budget and you want to get the best aviation school education you can get, then consider joining the army. All your educational expeses will be paid for by the government and at the same time, you will be getting a first-rate education from very capable instructors. An important thing to take note of if you are thinking of joining the army is that they have a mandatory commitment time which lasts for a few years (you didn’t think you’ll get off the hook so easily, did you?). After that, you are free as a bird and can now proceed to jumpstarting your professinal career.
- Stay The Course
Your short-term goal is to get into a good aviation school and learn the basics. The next step, which will be your mid-term goal, is to acquire the necessary certificates and accumulate the required number of hours that will ensure you will land a job in a highly-regarded airline company.
- Be A Role Model
Like it or not, your ideal position is extremely competative, and companies will be looking not only at your credentials but also your personal character. Join organizations that promote good values and exemplify leadership, integrity, and responsibility.
- Stay Up There
Your learning should not stop after getting your certificates and earning your flight hours. Check out aviation magazines as well as journals. Use the internet, a lot of information can be gathered online and this will be beneficial for your professional growth.
For more great aviation related articles and resources check out http://www.flightschoolhq.com
Choosing A Good Helicopter
By Victor Epand
Well, that’s debatable. For one thing, the inexpensive electric helicopters are very difficult to fly in the wind. Yes you can buy a pretty good one for around $200. The CX is the easiest to learn to fly as compared to the CP and the equivalent, but all helicopters, fuel powered or electric, are difficult to teach yourself to fly. Chances are good you will break many parts in the learning process and most likely give up after spending too many hours fixing, practicing and/or tons of money in the learning process. Hate to discourage you, but this is the reality of RC helicopters.
People seem to think because the helicopters are electric and cheap; it will make it easier to learn how to fly. I’ve trained something on the order of 300 people to hover and fly helicopters over the years and I know for a fact that is the safest, easiest and cheapest way to learn.
Fuel powered helicopters are difficult to learn to hover and fly, small electric helicopters are even harder and the tiny ones are worse. You will need a large open area to practice hovering and even then, chances are you will break things. This is something you will unfortunately find out after you spent quite a bit of money on your helicopters and replacement parts.
If you haven’t already, tried installing a new and/or different type of glow plug. It is possibly there is a hole in your fuel line inside of your tank where the fuel line is attached to the metal pick up. That would cause it to stall when the tank is half empty. The engine might be overheating due to the lean mixture caused by the possible split fuel line. There are so many electric helicopters out there and it depends on what you consider is too expensive.
Save your $100 because buying those helicopters would be a total waste of money. As the saying goes, you only get what you pay for. The same goes for the cheapest electric ARF airplanes. You will need a proper trainer airplane, and any RC warplane is well beyond any beginner’s abilities.
Learning to fly RC airplanes is something that is possible to learn on your own, but definitely not recommended. If you ever get a chance to find a club or an experienced flier who will let you fly a proper trainer, then you will see what I’m talking about. I believe collective helicopters are easier to fly than fixed pitched helicopters. You are correct about the CP. The small electric helicopters are for the most part are harder to fly than fuel powered helicopters.
There are several different people who are considered to be the inventor of the helicopter. I could write a book explaining it in detail, but I’ll cover a couple of the primary contributors to the development of rotary wing aircraft. The ancient Chinese invented a toy for children that you can still see today. It consists of a propeller and a shaft through the middle of it. If you spin it quickly in your hands or with some other force such as a rubber band you could make it lift up and hover briefly before coming back to the ground.
The first recorded depiction of a possible manned helicopter is a diagram drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1400s. The knowledge of physics necessary to successfully build a working model did not yet exist, but he understood the concept of an “air screw” that if turned fast enough would be able to drive the machine and a pilot into the air.
Over the course of the next few centuries many other people toyed with the idea of a helicopter, but again the amount of power necessary to drive such a machine into the air was not possible to generate. The invention of the internal combustion engine made the power requirement a reality. The next hurdle that needed to be overcome was the concept of torque - the phenomenon that causes the body of the helicopter to spin in the opposite direction of the main rotor.
Paul Cornu invented a working piloted helicopter in 1907, but it was not a successful design. It only generated enough lift for about 7 seconds. Another Frenchman, Etienne Oehmichen built and flew a working helicopter for about 1 kilometer in 1924.
As early as 1910, Russian born Igor Sikorsky began working on development of a manned helicopter. By 1940, his working design had become the model for all modern helicopters. It consisted of a main rotor and a tail rotor that is used to counteract the torque generated by the main rotor. This design is still used in a vast majority of helicopters today, which is why Sikorsky is considered the father of the modern helicopter.
There are many other men who contributed to the development of rotary wing aviation - too many to list here, but a thorough search of the library and/or the internet can give you tons of insight into the development and design of all different types of helicopters.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant at http://www.SellModelHelicopters.com/. Sell Model Helicopters is a community of various independent model helicopter sellers from around the world. Each model helicopter seller represents a unique style of products all their own.
Steps To Take The Coast Guard Aviation Program
By Victor Epand
The following are opinions from soldiers regarding the Coast Guard Aviation program: “My questions are kind of difficult. I’ve talked to many different recruiters, and retirees. My goal is to fly in the coast guard, I want to fly Jayhawks or dolphins prefibly, but I will really fly anything and work my way there. I am very interested in joining CSPI, but I am not sure if my school qualifies. I think the minority rate is close, and I hope it does.”
“I planned on CSPI, OCS, and then blue 21 if I can. I also wanted to know the chances of becoming a pilot are, and what path there is the most efficient. Also, would joining another branch of the military, and then going direct commission into flight be easier. And if so what branch would be the best.”
“Take your education more seriously than you take your grammar and you may go somewhere. Flying is serious business, steps cannot be overlooked, (like the absence of caps and punctuation)… many people read these interviews, keep it squared away. You have to get selected to two programs if you go through another branch first (the first service then the second). Plus flying in the other services isn’t exactly a cake walk. Additionally, you may get stuck in a stop loss and not be allowed to leave the other service. So easy is not a word I would use.”
“Don’t you all think that it would be easier given our young lads experience, to get into say, Army aviation as a warrant than the CG aviator program? When I was in, if you were a pilot in another branch of service, it was a lot easier to get into CG Aviation. Course things change. Look at the information on CSPI. To find out if your school qualifies for CSPI. When you follow the link you will find out Embry Riddle does not meet the minimum 25% minority requirement. I don’t remember CSPI having a minority minimum for the program. I would double check on that, the website might be wrong.”
“When I was attending Riddle (99-03) I was in the CG reserves and I personally know two people that where accepted into the CSPI program. Well, only about 40% of CG aviators are prior aviators so 60% are home grown CG. So by numbers alone, you have a better shot going the CG route. Additionally, the DCAs are competing against other pilots and there are very few boards a year. One or two only so again, define easy. Any way you go it is difficult, just a different barrier to face.”
“CSPI does not guarantee Flight School. Only Blue 21 and Avcad (for Active Duty Members) do. Blue 21 is a different route to get accepted to OCS and guaranteed Aviation. You cannot go from CSPI to OCS and then Blue 21. You would have to apply for CSPI, attend OCS, and then submit a request to Flight School. Or you could just apply to Blue 21, but you would have to change to a school with a 25% minority population. There is also AVCAD for Active Duty Members. I am not quite sure how it works, but if you Google “Coast Guard OCS Portal” there is information on that message board about AVCAD.”
“You should look into the Army Warrant Officer Program. They have a 6 year commitment after Flight School, and you may be able to lateral over to the Coast Guard after you complete your six year commitment and until you are age 34. I believe the Navy may also have a Warrant Officer Program, but it might be for Active Duty members only. You can learn a lot more by looking around military.com, the OCS Portal, and even the USCG website.”
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for http://www.WarGear.info/. WarGear.info carries the best selection of military clothing, war gear, and combat accessories on the market.
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Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 7:25 am and is filed under aviation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.