My CFI Initial check ride.

 I'm not sure where to start. My last post was when I got my commercial single engine add on.. and a lot of things have been going on after that.
I started CFI school at ATP on July 23rd at Lawrenceville Airport. CFI class is advertised as a 2 week course. I have a full time job doing consulting and sales for the motor sports and active sports industry  on the timing and scoring part. My job requires some domestic and international travelling and so far I have been able to squeeze work and ATP within the 10 month program.
For the CFI part, I had to request 2 weeks off from work so I could focus full time for the flight instructor class.
There are rooms with beds on the second floor of the Lawrenceville ATP location and also showers, so we lived there for two weeks, my house is 60 miles away from that airport. There was no way I was going to do that commute every day. I did go home two or three nights but I couldn't do it every day.
We were 6 in our class, we take classes from an instructor on every subject on th Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, sometimes we did group study and sim. We were studying everyday from 7 am to 10 pm, it is very intense. Our instructor was awesome. His class was interesting and funny, he stayed there late covering material with us and making sure we didn't have any doubts.
One of the most memorable things was definitely the spin training.. we went on a C172M over Lake Lanier and it was AWESOME! I didn't get dizzy as I thought I would.. but it is a great experience.
On the flight, your instructor acts as a student and you need to teach him everything.. basically you need to talk everything that you are doing on the aircraft.. telling your student about exchange of controls, taxi procedures, collision avoidance, checklist usage, etc..
On the maneuvers, you need to state the purpose of the maneuver, know the PTS standards and talk through the maneuver while you are demonstrating it. If you make any mistakes you need to say it and how you are correcting for them.
On Monday July 30th, we got the dates for our check rides.. mine was one of the last ones, scheduled for August 16th!! With Mr. Brooks Black at Ft Lauderdale Executive Airport. I stayed at the school until August 1st and then returned to work.
During the weekend I went back to the airport and took advantage of the quiet rooms for studying and gave some class to my classmates (role playing), I also used the sim to practice my maneuvers and talking.
The next weekend, three of my classmates had already taken their tests; two of them passed and one didn't.
I did my second flight on sunday Aug 12th. I had to practice the Vmc maneuver, steep turns and short field and single engine landings. We departed a little late and pretty much I felt comfortable with the air maneuvers, we returned to PDK and flew in the pattern; the night got us and we still did 4 more landings.
On August 15th I flew down to Ft Lauderdale with one of my classmates, we both had our test with different examiners on the 16th at 7:00 am.
Anxiety kicked it like it never had before.. I was extremely nervous, and at moments, I wasn't even sure If I've made the right decision on choosing this path; why didn't I just stayed at my job and don't have to go through all these expenses, all these check rides nervousness,  all these written tests... what if I fail?? How was I going to afford another expensive checkride and how was I going to get the time off from work to travel  back to Ft Lauderdale.. the train of fears was just rolling through my brain..
The morning of Aug 16th I arrived at ATP in Ft Lauderdale at 6:00 am.. I started working on all my airworthiness sheets, weight and balance, performance sheets. My examiner arrived at 6:45 and started working on my paperwork while I was finishing up my calculations.
Well, long story short, after 3 and a half hours of oral and one of the coolest flights I've ever had.. we taxied back to the ramp.. parked, and the examiner just walked away.. he just looked back while I was securing the airplane: "I'll see you inside!! You passed!"
This is what is considered the most difficult checkride, the odds of passing the initial instructor are a lot less than any other checkride.. I am very happy and now looking forward to my CFII.. I have a business trip to Bogota and Quito next week, I'll try to do some studying and I'll take this check ride when I come back on the first week of September.

Commercial Pilot Single Engine and Multi Engine Land

It was a long day today; after arriving at 9:30 am at KLZU, my instructor and I went for a flight to practice all maneuvers for the commercial checkride again. It is easier to fly from LZU because you spend a lot less time on the ground, contrary to PDK where besides tons of taxiways, it is also extremely busy sometimes and your hobbs can take .4  hours without even  taking off. Also LZU is closer to Lake Lanier, which is a great practice area and Winder KWDR to practice landings; PDK has nothing around.
So up we went in a scatterred cloudy day, I performed every maneuver within limits and we returned to LZU.
There were several examiners and students taking their CFII and CFI checkrides; the school looked pretty busy.
My oral went fine.. it wasn't perfect.. the examiner asked me some tricky questions about maneuvering speed, performance and density altitude. Then we went up flying, we went up to Lake Lanier and I started with a Lazy-Eight, Chandelle, Steep Spiral and Eights on Pivots.
Then we went back to LZU and did a short (bouncy) landing, a perfect beautiful soft field landing and a so-so power-off 180. The flight only lasted one hour and now I am completely done with ATP's phase 4..
I took a break this afternoon and went to the pool with my family, I enjoyed the rest of the day with them. Tomorrow and the rest of the weekend it will be all about studying for my FIA (Instructor Written Test) and then on monday I will be at CFI school at LZU. I am very excited! I can't believe I am almost done!

Commercial Single Engine Add-on Training

There have been a few changes in the past weeks after I took my FOI. Apparently, one of the instructors at PDK got hired by a regional airline and my instructor was basically unavailable due to a high volume of fast track students at this location. ATP sent an instructor from LZU to PDK and he became now my instructor for the commercial single engine rating.
This is by far, the best instructor I've ever had at ATP and I'm really grateful that he is teaching me these commercial maneuvers.
We have had two flights this week, one on Sunday morning and one yesterday at 7:00 am. I'm pretty sure I have nailed most of the maneuvers except for the eight on pylons. We went up to Lake Lanier and we circled an island on the lake about 10 times, I got a little better on it but we are still going to brush up that skill tomorrow evening. I must not eat anything prior to this flight because it made me dizzy.
Chandelles and Lazy Eights are easy now.. what I did is to watch the UND aerocast videos and practiced the procedures with Microsoft Flight Simulator.

http://youtu.be/UGaGzlXR3ls

http://youtu.be/px2GpLF3COI

One of the most difficult skills is the power-off 180, which is basically closing the throttle when you are abeam the numbers on the traffic pattern and land the airplane on the thousand footers or captains' bars. I nailed it on Monday and I also did it very well yesterday; this is probably the maneuver that gives me a little anxiety but I think I got it now..
My checkride changed and also my DPE.. It will now be this Thursday with Mr. Billy Smith at KLZU.
I have also been studying the Cessna 172R systems thoroughly.
I also start CFI school this Monday the 23rd at KLZU.. It will be a 14 day intensive program where I will be getting my CFI, CFII and MEI certificates. I also have one written test pending for this, the FIA
If everything goes according to the plan, I will be done with ATP on August 3rd. and I'm still not sure where am I going after that.
There is a career fair this weekend by Aero Crew Solutions where there will be a lot of regional airlines; minimums are around 1000 hours right now but I know that there will be a couple of flight schools hiring instructors; I am still not sure If I'm going or not (US$129.00) yet.
I think that's all so far, I'll try to post after my checkride, please wish me luck.

FOI Written done

Yesterday I took the Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI) written test. It was not easy at all and at some point I thought I was going to fail it. I read the FAA Instructor's Handbook twice, did the IPAD lesson and listened to the ASA FOI course on my car every day while going to work.
Well thank God I passed with an 82%. I now only have one written test left, which is CFI and 4 more practical tests.
I'm back to flying on July 14 and will probably have my commercial single-engine add on checkride on tuesday 17th with Mr Fred Houston. I need to master all single engine commercial maneuvers and have a complete knowledge on the 172 systems.
I also signed up for CFI school and I start on July 24th, It will be two intense weeks of training and studying.
Wish me luck.

Commercial pilot - multi engine

Today was a great day!! An amazing day.. probably the best day in my life so far.. today I passed my commercial multi checkride. And I am extremely excited. I got the license I was looking for since I was a kid.. now I gotta build the hours to build the dream..
After the cross country phase, everything starts to go pretty fast. I started the ATP Self paced Airline Pilot Career Program on December 28th.. It is now June 13th and I am almost done with it.I am a commercial pilot with almost 100 hours of multiengine time.
It has really worked pretty well.. I have been able to keep my full time job, even though it involves a lot of international travelling; I have kept up with my family, and I am 5 months ahead on the program already.
So this was phase 4.. Next is phase 5 and final.. CFI school. Where I will have to devote 14 days of full training and study in order to get my CFI, CFII, MEI and single engine commercial. For the rest of the month, I will try to get my CFI and FOI writtens done and then I'll call ops and see what are my options regarding CFI school.

Runway Markings

The past few days I've been studying hard for my multi commercial checkride.. I have more than 200 hours of which 94 hours are multiengine. The weather in Atlanta has not been the best lately and I have my checkride schedules for June 13th. The day after tomorrow. If the weather clears tomorrow, I will be practicing multiengine maneuvers and then I will work on my cross country plan for this checkride.

Here is some interesting stuff about runway markings.. Now that you are becoming a commercial pilot, you will be visiting new airports further away and you will need to become more professional and knowledgeable in everything.

There are three types of marking for runways; visual, nonprecision instrument, and precision instrument. The following table identifies the marking elements for each type of runway.

Marking Element	Visual Runway	Nonprecision Instrument Runway	Precision Instrument Runway
Designation	X	X	X
Centerline	X	X	X
Threshold	X¹	X	X
Aiming Point	X²	X	X
Touchdown Zone			X
Side Stripes			X

¹On runways used, or intended to be used, by international commercial transports.

²On runways 4,000 feet (1200m) or longer used by jet aircraft.

Precision Instrument Runway Markings

-Runway Designators.  Runway numbers and letter are determined from the approach direction. The runway number is the whole number nearest one-tenth the magnetic azimuth of the centerline of the runway, measured clockwise from the magnetic north. The letters, different, differentiate between left (L), right (R), or center (C), parallel runways, as applicable.

i. For two parallel runways "L""R".

ii. For three parallel runways "L""C""R".

-Runway Centerline Marking. The runway centerline identifies the center of the runway and provides alignment guidance during takeoff and landings. The centerline consists of a line of uniformly spaced stripes and gaps. 

-Runway Aiming Point Marking. (Thousand Footers) These two rectangular markings consist of a broad white stripe located on each side of the runway centerline and approximately 1,000 feet from the landing threshold.

-Runway Touchdown Zone Markers. These markings consist of groups of one, two, and three rectangular bars symmetrically arranged in pairs about the runway centerline. They are coded to provide distance information in 500 ft increments.

Nonprecision Instrument Runway and Visual Runway Markings

-Runway Side Stripe Marking. Delineate the edges of the runway. Consist of continuous white stripes located on each side of the runway,

-Runway Shoulder Marking. May be used to supplement runway side stripes to identify pavement areas contiguous to the runway sides that are not intended for use by aircraft. 

-Runway Threshold Markings. They either consist of eight longitudinal stripes of uniform dimension disposed symmetrically about the runway centerline, or the number of stripes is related to the runway width. A threshold marking helps identify the beginning of the runway that is available for landing. It may be relocated or displaced in some instances.

-Relocation of a Threshold. Sometimes construction, maintenance, or other activities require the threshold to be relocated towards the rollout end of the runway. When a threshold is relocated, it closes not only a set portion of the approach end of a runway, but also shortens the length of the opposite direction runway. In these cases a NOTAM should be issuedidentifying the portion of the runway that is closed.



-Displaced Threshold. Located at a point on the runway other than the designated beginning of the runway. It reduces the length of runway available for landings. The portion behind a displaced threshold is available for takeoffs in either direction and landings from the opposite directiom. White arrows are located along the centerline in the area between the beginning of the runway and displaced threshold.

-Demarcation Bar. Delineates a runway with a displaced threshold form a blast pad, stopway or taxiway that precedes the runway. It is 3 feet wide and yellow, since it is not located on the runway.

-Chevrons. They are used to show pavement areas aligned with the runway that are unusable for landing, takeoff, and taxiing. Chevrons are yellow.

The XC phase

I have been very busy with work and studying that I haven't been able to post in a while. Even though I'm not sure anybody reads this, but it will be a good memory for me in the future.
The second week of May I was done with my 50 hours of XC flights.. well actually I did about 47 hours so I have 3 extra hours for any emergencies (checkrides far from home or extra training). This is definitely the funnest part of the ATP Airline Career Program.
Usually how it works for a fast track student is that they will pair you up with someone for a week and a half or two weeks and you'll be doing your XC flights with that person. For me it was quite different  and I think it was better. Since I am self paced, scheduling needs to check my availability and they will try to put me with another cross country student during those flights and for that reason I flew with 7 different students from PDK, LZU, BWG and FXE who also were in their XC phase and It worked pretty well. It was pretty cool to learn about other students on these cross country flights, their different personalities, learn their stories and their future plans as soon as their earn their ratings.
I visited several cities like Tampa (KPIE), Daytona (KDAB), Jacksonville (KCRG), Concord, (KJQF), Indianapolis (KEYE), Meridian (KMEI), and Knoxville (KTYS).
The only problem is that if you are going to fly from PDK; most, if not all of your XC flights are going to be out from LZU.. why? it could be because of student availability to pair you up with, or airplane availability. It sucked for me because I had to drive 1:30 hrs to get to LZU and a couple of times we would not be able to depart because of wx below minimums. Even though I flew with a student from PDK, they made us takeoff from LZU and both of us complained and the reason dispatch gave us is that there were no available airplanes for us at PDK.
By visiting other schools during my XC phase I would highly recommend Daytona, and Lawrenceville they have the best facilities on the SW. PDK  has a very old simulator or I would say, very limited.. you cannot fly from the right, you are flying a Seneca instead of a Seminole. Other facilites have much more better FTDs than PDK. Another thing about PDK  is that I only flew 1979 models. I had the chance to fly the 2000 Piper Seminole only once during my cross country but if you are going to PDK expect to fly 79 models. Ask that question also.
ATP just ordered Piper Seminoles with G500 and delivery started last month, If I get a job with them I really hope to be instructing in one of those :).
Why I love PDK? It is the closest facility from home and you will get good airport operations experience for communications and situational awareness, it has lots of runways and taxiways and it gets veery busy.
But that was during my XC phase in May 2012; PDK is now growing. We now have 3 instructors instead of 2 and the place is getting too small for all of us. Maybe when you read this it is not the case anymore; but do your homework and ask questions when contacting ATP.
Also my second instructor got married and left ATP.. which I still don't understand. My dad told me to accomplish my goals first and then think about marriage but anyway..I am now with my third instructor for my commercial training. He has plenty of experience and a near perfect passing record.
I took my commercial written test last weekend and scored a 96!!! I definitely recommend the Gleim book, read it from cover to cover about 3 or 4 times. 

I remember this airport from the Private Pilot Sporty's video, CDK (Cedar Key).

The Daytona Motor Speedway from the airport

An ATP Seminole and a Alleghian MD-80 at KPIE (St Petersburg, FL)

Flying along the coast

Flying over John Travolta's home (KPIE-KCRG)

The fleet at Craig

KCRG

Craig Airport - Jacksonville, FL