Author Archives: Stephen

Amsterdam!

Posted on by

We have been in Amsterdam since Monday night. My first impression is that it was not as great went I went to it last summer. The people do seem a little more apprehensive than before. Maybe it’s the cold. Either way, Amsterdam has been fun. We have gone to see the Van Gough Museum, Anne Frank’s house (where she hid during WWII), the Heineken Brewery, went shopping for the girls (the ones that went on the trip with us), and did some regular sight seeing ending with nights at the local bars and brew pubs meeting the locals. This is our last day here and I don’t want to go back, well maybe for the free refills but not anything else. Yes, free refills. Anywhere in Europe we went, if we wanted more of a drink, like soda or water, we had to pay more for it. Our guess was because they don’t have fountain drinks like we do but just the bottles. Either way, not having a free refill is really hard during meals especially when I drink a lot during meals.

A quick story before I go back out to see another museum in Amsterdam, when we went to the Heineken Brewery, the cashier that gave us our tickets to go in, he knew what Embry-Riddle was! Amazing right! halfway across the world and they know about ERAU. He knew because one of his friends went to the Florida campus, that’s when we told him that he should have attended the Prescott campus :). Funny how small this world is, someone all the way in Europe knowing about Embry-Riddle. Anyways, got to go! TTYL! Next time it will be states side though!

Belfort, Trains, Fish, and Waffles…oh Belgium

Posted on by

So, we landed in Amsterdam yesterday at 6:30am. We lost 8 hours of our lives on that flight so the jetlag hit us hard. We decided to take a train to Brussels and kinda explore a little around the area. We get there, find our hotel and then go out to eat…kinda. Actually it was more like, I get everyone lost getting to our hotel taking a complete wrong turn so the trip was off on the wrong foot. Brussels was ok, the people were a little rude but that could just be the culture. Today we took the train to Bruges to do a similar thing, get to know the city. I was so glad that I was able to read a map and actually get us to where we needed to go. Felt kinda dumb though especially since ERAU drilled us at ready maps and scetionals during ground school. It all got figured out in the end so it’s all good.

Anyways, Bruges was amazing! SO much history, so many cool things, and so pretty and relaxing. We climbed up the Belfort, went into the Church of the Holy Blood, had some awesome seafood, and of course, a Belgian Waffle. I would talk a lot about each thing we saw but it would be a small essay so I am going to leave you with this. If you plan on going to Belgium, go to Bruges. SO much better than Brussels. Hope you enjoy the pictures below!

Spring Break!

Posted on by

So   my first day of Spring Break and in one hour me and three friends are going to Europe for Spring Break! Now we are not by any means rich kids but we found a great deal that we couldn’t pass up! It was $300 round trip ticket to Amsterdam and back! Amazing right! I really like the people that I am going with so it should be a fun trip. Now I need to get ready for the 2 hour ride to Phoenix. That’s one thing, ERAU is 2 hours away from a major airport. This can be both good and bad. Good because by not having a major airport close to Prescott, the city is always quieter, not a lot of people all while living a large town life. The bad thing is the 2 hour ride to/from Phoenix especially after a long flight. But honestly, I think it’s worth the drive for the sort of lifestyle that Prescott offers. Nice outdoor peaceful but yet actively lifestyle. Anyways, time to finish getting ready TTYL!

Flying from the right seat is weird

Posted on by

I have had a 2 flights this past week. Since I am in the CFI flight course, I get to do all the flying from the right seat instead of the left (which is what I have been doing for the past 3.5 years). Naturally, it all looks weird to me; like driving a car from the passenger seat. I feel like I am flying a brand new aircraft and learning my private pilot certificate all over again. It has been very challenging and sometimes my performance is not the best, but nevertheless, it has been fun. 

The cool thing about it is that I am beginning to look at every single maneuver I have done in a very different way. I am learning to break down every maneuver step by step so I can teach it to my future students. In fact, I am learning how to do the maneuvers better myself since I am breaking them down so much. I have a great instructor that is always motivating me and showing me really cool pointers along the way. That is what I hope to become this summer, an ERAU flight instructor. My instructor is so motivating and so friendly and knowledgeable that I cannot wait to be the same with students of my own. Embry-Riddle looks like a place that I would love to work for, at least until I get my hours for the airlines. Until then, ERAU is what I am looking to do.

Helping the community

Posted on by

One reason why I joined Greek Life, specifically Sigma Chi, was beacuse of the service to the community they serve. Just today we got to work with the Prescott Creek Society to help clean up a wildlife refuge that used to be an illegal dumping site. I thought that we were just going to pick up trash like wrappers and trash bags and things like that but man were we in for a shock. As soon as we get there I see a bunch of shovels out there for us. As the President of the Prescott Creek Societyexplained to us what we had to do, our enthusiasm grew. We were told that we could find anything under the soil. Doors, water heaters, tires, and big junk was some of the things that they had previously found.

We started walking and in the first 2 minutes, we spotted what looked like a bumper sticking out of the sand. We thought it was just a bumper so three of us began to dig. As we dig an dig, turns out half of a car was burried under there. Took us a good hours to dig and move the entire thing into the trailer (I’m working on getting pictures so once I get them, I will post them). In the end, we found (other than the car), a couple of water heaters, a stove, sheet metal, barrels, tires, and a really big piece of metal. I swear I think that we moved a ton, and I mean a ton of stuff. I’m really happy for what we did, and thanks to Sigma Chi and ERAU, I can also give back to the community.

LA for the weekend!

Posted on by

So I decided to go to LA as a last minute trip for the weekend. My friend had an interview over there and asked me to go with her so I was like, it’s only 6 hours awy from ERAU, why not? One of the best impulse thing I’ve ever done. Got the see the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, the Disney Concert Hall, eat at a Colombian restaurant, all while spending some quality time with a great friend. It was a really fast trip making it back at 2:00am on Sunday morning however, it was great. On the drive back I got to see some really cool wind turbines. Had no idea CA had so many of them. Overall, it was a fun trip.

That’s one the that I like a lot about ERAU Prescott. Location, Location, Location. Prescott and Embry-Riddle are only 1.5 hours away from Phoenix and Flagstaff, 3 hours from the Grand Canyon, 4 from Las Vegas, and 8 from L.A. We are in a spot that we can reach many fun cities within a day. That’s one reason why I chose ERAU Prescott. Sure I can also do that in FL, but I can’t go from a desert, to mountains, to a beach in one day like I can in Prescott. As a senior, I recommend to look at those sorts of things when picking the right school for you. That’s how I chose ERAU Prescott, because it was the best places to suit me.

Snow In Prescott and weekend fun

Posted on by

So I had my sim on Friday and man it was ugly. Fun but ugly. It felt like I had never flown a plane in my life. My muscle memory is off, my references, and viewing picture is all messed up, it was as if I were on a totally different planet. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun. Very challenging flying from the right seat but it was a great first time in getting ready to tackle this next step. Can’t wait for the real flight now, I have a feeling that one might be a little easier.

The biggest occurrence this weekend is the fact that it snowed in Prescott….a lot. Now I’m from Denver so I have seen my fair share of snow but to snow this much in Prescott is almost unreal. It was nice having to shovel the snow, reminded me of home, but it was tiring. It was heavy, wet snow compared to the light and fluffy kind but it was great. Got a picture of my house below if you want to look at it. This was taken after I had shoveled once already. When I went to school on Monday evening, I saw a bunch on snowmen and a snow cave next to the dorms and around campus. It’s always nice to know that college students can still be kids and have a great time with each other. More snow is predicted for this weekend so we might be seeing this again soon.

Snow in Prescott

My house and car covered in snow! isn't it awesome!

CFI finally underway!

Posted on by

Just got out of my CFI first oral at ERAU! CFI is the Certified Flight Instructor rating that will allow me to teach students and get paid to fly…finally. I really like the instructor I got, he seems to know a lot of his stuff and based on what we talked about today, I kinda wish I was taught his ways when I was learning to be a private pilot. Not going to lie, he definitely fueled my passion for flying even more. That’s one great thing here at Embry-Riddle, people have similar goals and we will push each other, and support each other in achieving these. I’m really excited to get going on all my other things. What is going to be interesting is flying from the right seat. I have a feeling it’s going to be really messy. Can’t wait for my sim tomorrow.

Snowboarding in AZ!

Posted on by

So I had a great opportunity this past Saturday. That was going to Sunrise Ski Resort in Pine Top, AZ for an awesome day of snowboarding. The really cool part about it was that it was a school planned trip! The Embry-Riddle Student Life department set up this trip by giving offering the students a ride and a lift ticket for only $50 total. This was really nice because one, I didn’t have to do the 4hr drive alone or with just a couple friends and two, it was really fun going up with 45 other ERAU students. We had a group of 7 seven people that stayed together (which I would have never been able to fit 7 in my car so that was nice to have a ride), which was fun because the more people, the merrier a time you’ll have I always say.

I really like how different organizations around campus plan these trips for students. This snowboarding/skiing trip was one of many that many other clubs and all do throughout the school year. This is just one of many ways for students to get their minds off of school and homework for a little while. After all, engineers, pilots, weather majors, and all other students have the right to have a life here at ERAU. The good part about this is that Embry-Riddle will provide those opportunities for you to have a life outside of studying. Never thought a university would do that for you at all. Anyways, snowboarding was a great time. Of course it’s nothing like the CO mountains (where I go and snowboard) but who would have thought that you could snowboard in AZ? Lol.

ERAU Greek life

Posted on by

I don’t know if you know but I am a member of the Kappa Phi Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity at ERAU Prescott. I have been a member for a year now and I got to tell you, its nothing like you would expect. There are so many bad stories associated with being a Greek that quite honestly, it discouraged me joining at first. But once I got to know the people in them, especially the people in Sigma Chi, I realized that being Greek was part of something bigger than just partying and all that. It was a commitment to what your own personal morals and values are as well as the Fraternity’s. I’m really glad I joined becasue I have met people that will be with me forever.

We just finished our Spring 2011 rush period in a successful way. We had cool events like going to Buffalo Wild Wings, Dodgeball, and a Bonfire. We got to meet some really cool people that we hope accept the bid that we are going to give them. Hopefully all of them, six of them, accept. We have pinning tomorrow so we will see who takes it or not. Regardless, whoever accepts, we are going to proudly put them through our pledge process and hopefully initiate this April.