Over the course of the past two months, I have done everything from producing a video for ERAU, taking finals, flying 5 aircraft across the country, competing in a national flying competition, moving a friend, traveling home, and in a week, I will return to Arizona only to be flown out to Denver for an interview, then return back to Arizona to start working again. While all of this may sound like me rambling about my recent adventures, it brings up a very key lesson for students, and especially pilots to understand.

Being flexible is one of the biggest tips I can give to any student or person interested in becoming a pilot. Why? Because words cannot explain the time constraints, deadlines, overwhelming amount of tasks, fun, stress, achievements, and accomplishments that will lie ahead. Now before you read this and think, “That doesn’t sound like fun” and reject all of your dreams and plans for school, take a deep breath and plan it out. While plans change, there is always a plan or some way to accomplish your dreams. As a student in college, you probably would rank family, school, friends, and sleep in that order of most important things in your life, or something fairly close to that. That being said, lets give an an example of why flexibility is key to the success of a student, and a pilot (or both for you Aeronautical Science students).

For an incoming freshman student, no matter what you do to prepare for your first week of school, things will not go as you expect. You will be learning the balance of being on your own, taking classes, doing homework, meeting new friends, checking out the town, learning about all of the extra campus activities, eating meals, and of course the last and potentially most important thing, SLEEP. During your week, you will find yourself overwhelmed. Even if you think you have everything planned and taken care of, you will remember last minute that you have an extra homework assignment to do, a club meeting to attend, or maybe your new friends knock on your door and drag you out for dinner last minute and take away from your studying or bed time. The best way I can explain this feeling is learning how to become a college student. Everything is always a choice. Someone once showed me this college triangle:

To be honest, I don’t think this could be any more true. There is always a sacrifice with the decisions you make, but the decision you make isn’t always bad. College is your opportunity to start fresh from high school, to find who you really are, to succeed, to find your strengths and weaknesses, to grow up, and what I would say is the most important is to have fun. While I don’t think it is smart to let your grades tank because you are sleeping through classes and staying out with friends all night instead of studying, there should be a balance. This all loops back to my original topic of being flexible, because that is exactly what finding the balance is. Feel free to travel with friends over the weekend, but make sure you leave yourself with enough time on sunday night to prepare yourself for the week.

For pilots and Aeronautical Science students, flexibility will be the key to a less stressful life both in college and after. In addition to everything that was discussed above about college life, you now add the flight aspect. An extra part in your day dedicated to flying is a double edged sword when it comes to planning out your days. Your flight block allows you to have a dedicated time of the day that you will be scheduled, but also takes up a large portion of your day that you have to keep yourself available. No, this doesn’t mean you sit around and wait for four hours, but it does mean that if you are planning on doing something with friends, or counting on that time of day to be open for studying because you have plans at all other times through the day, it may or may not be available if you get scheduled. These activities are considered classes, therefore you can’t just tell your instructor that you are unavailable because you have plans already. With that, sometimes the weather will cause you to cancel, the aircraft may break, your instructor or you may end up sick, and so on. The one thing I have learned to do to plan for times like these is to always bring or prepare to fill that time with something else productive. If a flight gets canceled, or the flight line shuttle is going to be late, bring homework to stay ahead. It may also free up some extra time for you to go out with friends, or get to bed early. These are skills that will translate directly into the real world when you become an airline or corporate pilot. One day you may find yourself on reserve sitting at the airport all day, and get called in last minute to pick up a trip, or on the contrary, maybe the airport you are supposed to fly to closes due to weather and you find yourself overnight in a place other than you planned for.

College is an incredible time, and the fact that you can be a student and fly as a class is something that truly has always brought a smile to my face. The skills that I have learned at ERAU are skills that I will carry for my entire life throughout my personal life and my career. I hope this was helpful to some of you readers!

This February, I completed my CFI and CFII (Certified Flight Instructor, and Certified Flight Instructor Instrument) training through Embry-Riddle’s Fast Track program. This is a program that students apply and interview for, and if accepted, complete their CFII training in an accelerated course with the guarantee of an interview to become an instructor for Riddle upon the completion of the program. Upon the completion of my training, I interviewed with the school, and was officially hired on as an instructor for Embry-Riddle Prescott! I can officially say that I am now being payed to fly as my first real job as a pilot, and extremely thrilled to be a part of the ERAU Flight Department. Since I am still a student, I now have the fine task of balancing 14 credits, flight team, and four students into my daily schedule. As a student instructor, we are limited to working part time, and work the night shift, (since we take classes during the day). I have finally adjusted to the long days of classes starting at 10am, and not finishing my day until around midnight. As long as my days may be, they are extremely rewarding, and I couldn’t be happier with where I stand in my career now.

My epaulettes, wings, and name tag that I received the day I finished my training and officially was hired by the school.

Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Orlando, FL for the annual Women in Aviation International conference held at Disney World. I had the chance to meet many companies and pilot recruiters. Also, the conference hosted several seminars on different topics in aviation such as how to balance pilot life with family life, need to know information about aviation medicals, and corporate aviation information.

Deborah Hersman from the NTSB gave an amazing speech at the WAI Conference in Orlando.

After the conference ended last weekend, a friend of mine from my hometown in California (who attends ERAU Daytona), picked me up and is allowing me to stay this week with him in Daytona. Since I was already here and it is spring break for the Prescott campus, I figured I would take the week to check out our sister campus and enjoy the Florida weather. It is really cooling staying in the guest room of his house, being that it is located at a small private airport called Spruce Creek, just 20 minutes away from ERAU’s campus in Daytona. This place is unique being that the streets are all taxiways, garages are hangers, and it is more common to see planes than cars. Talk about a cool place to live as a pilot!

A common sight around Spruce Creek! A house with a plane in the garage.

Since arriving here, I have to say that I am impressed with their campus here. Having the campus on the airport means no waiting for shuttles, and everything is all in one place. However, I do see how the Prescott campus is so much more of a personal place and really makes you feel at home. The facilities here are much more built up and give you a modern and corporate feel to the campus. Although I am bias and will always prefer Prescott, I do like it here in Daytona, and wouldn’t mind coming back. The weather is nice, the ocean is close, and the area is much more urban than my desert home. I have gotten a lot of attention here with people asking me about how I like flying out in the desert and I must say I think that we have it pretty good in Arizona. The experience we take from flying at high altitude is one that I think is only beneficial.

I observed a flight in a DA-42.

The ERAU Flight Line in Daytona

The line of resorts and the beach in Daytona

Well as of today, the reality of my upcoming flight competition has hit me. Today as I drove to the airport to begin my flight practice, I noticed that at least four of the teams for our upcoming competition have arrived. The first official competition events begin on Tuesday morning, and will continue through Friday with an awards ceremony on Saturday. I will be competing in all 4 flying events, an IFR simulator event, and the aircraft recognition event. This year the competition for our region has been intensified by the decision to combine our regional competition with another region, adding the US Air Force Academy, Utah Valley University, and several others to our competition. Since the competition is being hosted by us, we do have the “home field advantage,” but it doesn’t mean we are taking our practice lightly. This is the only preparation we will have before we fly back out to Ohio in May to compete at nationals in Columbus, Ohio, and we will use this experience as a measurement to see the performance of this years team in a true competition environment. I cannot wait to represent my team and my school, but with that also comes the responsibility and pressure to succeed. I will try to continue posting as the competition gets underway!

Wow the last few months have sure been a whirlwind. I must first start by apologizing for my lack of posts and information over the past few months. Since this summer ended, I have been heavily involved with my activities and roles in my organizations, as well as taking a full class load, and continuing to work towards becoming a flight instructor. That being said, I guess I will start with some catch up as to what I have been doing. Since August, I have been fulfilling my role as the Chief Pilot for the Golden Eagle’s Flight Team for the ERAU Prescott Campus. The team has been well underway preparing for our regional competition which begins the first week of February. As the Chief Pilot, I am essentially responsible for the oversight of all of the team’s flying activities. It is my responsibility to create flying schedules for all of our pilots, ensure they meet the recent flight experience needed to fly, coach and teach members for competition, and prepare all of the aircraft for competition. On top of this, I am also the coordinator of the aircraft recognition event, where I teach members how to identify and differentiate the differences between aircraft for the tests that we take at competition. In addition to these responsibilities, I compete in a total of 7 of the 11 events at competition and have to put in a minimum of approximately 15-20 hours a week. As competition grows near, my responsibilities and dedication will increase exponentially. ERAU is hosting the competition this year, and approximately 12 other schools will be attending to compete including the Air Force Academy, Utah Valley University, San Jose State, Mt. San Antonio College, and several others.

Taxiing in one of the Flight Team Cessna 150’s.

Well enough about competition and the team, the biggest time commitment that I have had lately as an Aeronautical Science (Pilot) Major has been flying of course. I was recently hired by ERAU as a flight instructor, and have been working vigorously on my flight instructor training. In addition to working towards completing my instructor certificate, I am also conducting my “New Hire” training as they call it. This training is a system that is used by major aviation companies such as the airlines to familiarize all the pilots that they hire with the standards and methods of operation needed to work for that company. So between these two programs, I have had my hands full to say the least. I cannot wait to officially be given flight students and share my passion and knowledge for aviation with them! Also attached to this post I will include a video that I recently created that shows all of the flying I had the pleasure of doing during my multi-engine upgrade and the flight out to Oshkosh for the EAA Airventure 2013.

Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqa6DkZjH4g

We are finally in Oshkosh and ready for the show to start! We departed Prescott at 5am on Thursday morning and flew non stop to Colorado Springs, then on to Omaha, Nebraska, and finally Chicago for an overnight stop. On Friday we departed Chicago Midway airport around 10am with the intent of making it all the way in to Oshkosh, but encountered some bad weather and ended up getting a pop up IFR clearance into Appleton airport, just a few miles north of Oshkosh. We figured that it was the closest airport we could get to Oshkosh if we had the opportunity to get a quick shot into the airport later in the day. After arriving in Appleton, we checked the weather and were able to make the VFR arrival into oshkosh around noon. There wasn’t much traffic and the controllers were really awesome as we flew in. Finally on the ground at the largest airshow in the country, we had to find a street near the airport that was wide enough for our 44 foot wingspan to fit through. After having to hold a wing up to clear a bridge rail, and passing trees with just inches from the wing tips, we got our beautiful DA-42 in to our booth for display.

Yesterday (Saturday) we continued our set up and got familiar with the airport and display area, and got some time to sit next to the runway and watch aircraft arrive. At one point, we watched a flight of over 26 Mooney aircraft fly in and land all in a single file line. Today we watched the a flight of 37 T-6 Texan aircraft fly in, as well as 2 of the new Honda Jets. Hundreds of planes are here, and we already have tons of interest starting to show up around our aircraft. Daytona brought the universities newest 172 with the new paint job, and we have our DA-42. A Universal R-44 joined our display today after flying in from Scottsdale, and we also have a Diamond DA-40 aircraft that was sent out for us because of the University’s newest contract with Diamond. Tomorrow is the first day of the show, and I cannot wait to begin representing the school as the crowds poor in. Stay tuned as the show continues!

Sunrise out of Prescott

Rocky Mountains in Colorado

Rain line that we passed in front of over Nebraska.

Chicago Skyline

Our booth all ready to go for the show!

Break to land as the warbirds begin arriving at the show.

One of the two Honda Jets arriving at the show today!

I was just told a few weeks ago that I will be attending the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin! The flight department has chosen my friend Anna (from this years Women’s Air Race Team) and me to fly one of our school’s lovely Diamond DA-42 aircraft out to the show next thursday. The flight out is going to take two days because we will arrive too late to fly in to the show on that thursday afternoon. I am blown away at the opportunity to have the chance to represent my school at this show and promote what we do out here in the wild west. If any readers are planning on attending the show make sure to stop by and give us a visit! We would be more than happy to show off our airplanes and provide any questions and information that you may have about the school or even just flying. See you all there!

Flying over Sedona in the Diamond

The past few weeks have been one of the biggest roller coasters of my life. After the Doce Fire ended, the town of Prescott sadly lost 19 of our hometown heroes. The Prescott Hot Shots are no strangers to Embry-Riddle, as the flight line is located just down the road from their base at the airport. It has truly been a tragedy and I think its safe to say that everyone in this town is suffering from the loss whether they directly knew the crew or not. Yesterday, a chilling procession of 19 white hearses made their way from Phoenix to Prescott, for a memorial service tomorrow. I happened to be driving back up to Prescott from Phoenix after a short trip home for the 4th of July, and was in shock by the number of people lining the overpasses and sides of the freeway while waiting for the procession to pass by.

People lined every overpass and road to show their love for the 19 Firemen.

Fire tanker taking off out of Prescott.

In the mean time, since my last post, I have finally completed my multi-engine flight training, and now soaring through my flight instructor coarse. As a member of the “Fast Track” Program (an accelerated CFI program that students apply for to be trained and hired by the school before the end of the summer), I have been conducting several training activities every day to try and make up for lost time. This coarse is truly some of the most difficult and stressful training I have ever had to do, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and am working extremely hard to complete it.

My new perspective from the right seat in the Cessna for my flight instructing training.

Over the 4th of July weekend, I was able to travel back to my home in Northern California for a short change of pace for the first time since winter break. While it was relieving to return home, some unexpected events ended up happening on my short visit. On Saturday July 6, I made plans to rent the Cessna which I received my pilot’s license in nearly three years ago. My little brother, two of my aviation friends, and I decided to go for a fun flight out to lunch in the Bay Area. With wheels off just before 11am, we proceeded south towards our desired destination of Half Moon Bay, a small airport just south of San Francisco International Airport. The flight down was a typical day of flying in the bay: Sunny, 70 degrees, calm winds, and the fog sitting just on the edge of the shoreline down the coast. Being that our aircraft didn’t have the equipment to pick up an IFR clearance into Half Moon, we began circling over the town of Sausalito, to look at our options of places we could go for lunch. While listening in on Oakland Center in the anticipation we would be contacting them for a clearance through the SF airspace, we heard a strange call from another aircraft, “Skywest 389 on the missed out of San Fran, we aren’t going to bother trying, we’d like to divert to Sacramento.” Most people wouldn’t even notice the call, but my friends flying with me, one an airline pilot, knew something was off. Within seconds, the next plane called up on the missed approach asking, “How long will SFO be down? We can hold but if it is going to be a while we will go to Oakland.” At that point something truly was wrong, airplanes do not just begin diverting out of one of the largest airports in the world, especially with the beautiful conditions that morning. As we listened in, more and more aircraft began calling in to center asking for information about where they could divert, hold, and how long the airport would be closed. International flights inbound from Singapore, Germany, and the Netherlands, were all choosing to divert to Oakland International, an airport typically only used for cargo and domestic aircraft. We tuned in the frequency for HIWAS (Hazardous Inflight Weather Advisory Service) only to hear “Notice to airmen: San Francisco International Airport Closed until further notice.” But what could be causing this? Was there an accident? Did something happen at or in the airport? Being that air traffic control was so busy, we decided to switch to another frequency to get our clearance down to our new destination that we decided would be Palo Alto. I called the approach frequency and asked if it would be possible to even get to the airport and was told I could get there, but would have to divert around San Francisco and go over Oakland. We proceeded over Oakland at 2000ft and watched as the airport took in some of the largest aircraft in the world. I witnessed an A380, the worlds largest commercial airliner, touch down, and quickly followed by a 747 that was inbound to SF from Amsterdam. At that moment I looked across the bay to SFO, only to see a massive cloud of smoke. I got the chills realizing that everything we had just witnessed was an accident of some kind, and there was a serious emergency in progress. Before I knew it I was being transferred from controller to controller, switching frequencies  relaying messages to different towers, and attempting to stay focused on getting to our destination. We crossed the bay and landed in Palo Alto after a 40 minute flight of absolute shock and chaos. Upon landing, we still did not know what had actually happened, but found out quickly when we walked into the airport building to see breaking news on CNN with a Boeing 777 off of the runway and on fire. Initial reports were saying things such as the plane had hit wind shear, or hit birds, but I knew that they couldn’t be correct with such a massive and reliable aircraft on such a perfect day to fly. We decided to get a cab and go into town for lunch, and tried to get more information about what was going on, and how we could go about with our plans for the rest of the day.

The San Francisco Skyline just moments before we heard the first aircraft call.

Oakland International as the Lufthansa A380 pulls of the runway and KLM lands. You can see the smoke cloud of the burning 777 in the background across the bay at SFO.

After a few hours in town, we took back off and began our trip home. Although we didn’t stop for long, we found some gaps in the clouds and managed to stop in Half Moon Bay for another hour or so. We were able to get an IFR clearance out of the airport with the required equipment to meet the departure and enroute procedures, and punched through the fog layer on our way back up north. On the way back, we passed by SFO and were able to see the aircraft still sitting next to the runway. At this point the airport had been partially opened with just two runways instead of the four that they usually use simultaneously. We descended into the vineyard filled valleys of Sonoma County and landed just before dinner time. That day was truly the most intense flight I have ever had in my entire flying career, and an eye opener to the realities of flying. As a pilot, you never know what will happen, or how things will go, even on the most normal of normal days. Always be prepared for absolutely any circumstances, and always have several options ready if something changes. I learned more than on any other day I’ve had in an aircraft, and am thankful I was able to stay safe and keep my friends safe during such chaos.

San Francisco International on our way back north from Half Moon Bay. If you click on the photo you can see the white dot on the airport peninsula where the 777 still sat hours after the crash.

Even though there was already some information about the fire here in Prescott posted I figured I would add some information from the flight aspect of how it is effecting us here. As of yesterday afternoon (June 18th) a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) was put up just outside of the Prescott airport airspace. The flight restriction only covers the area over and around the fire so the ERAU flight line is still functioning and conducting flight training in the surrounding airspace that is unrestricted. The fire has grown to around 7,000 acres in just 24 hours. Fire aircraft have all priority for departures and arrivals into the airport so flight training is expecting slight delays as the tankers arrive and depart. Two DC-10 aircraft, converted into fire bombers, have been dispatched to the fire here and are operating out of Phoenix’s Mesa-Gateway airport as they are too large to operate out of the Prescott airport. Three other fire airplanes, and at least three other fire helicopters are currently based at the Prescott airport and have been flying all day long. I currently live just across the street from the airport, and have taken a lot of time to watch the aircraft as they operate. The DC-10 is currently the largest operating fire bomber, and is extremely awesome to watch. Growing up in northern California I am no stranger to wild fires, but I must say that being able to see flames from my window is something that really hits home. The fire is still not contained at all, but is not a threat to ERAU, the airport, or the general town of Prescott itself. I have taken several photos and videos that I will attach. I hope everyone is staying safe and out of the way if they live near the fire!

Fire Time Lapse

Fire Aircraft Taking Off

Flames on Granite Mountain as the sun sets.

I drove as close as I could to see the fire before it was very large but the Sheriff already had shut down the road within a few miles.

The DC-10 is a tri-jet airliner converted into a fire bomber.

The view from my apartment!

Smoke from the fire reached the AZ/UT border in just 8 hours!

Hello everyone!

My name is Zach Sargent, the newest blogger to the site. I figured I would make my first post an introduction about myself. I am going into my junior year at ERAU Prescott as an aeronautical science major with a minor in business. I am currently finishing up the last check ride for my multi-engine commercial certificate, and will be transitioning straight into my flight instructor training when I finish. Before coming to Prescott I lived in Santa Rosa, California, where I received my private pilot’s license in high school, and decided ERAU was the best possible place to begin working towards a career in aviation. When I came to ERAU in the fall of 2011, I joined the school’s Golden Eagles Flight Team, a nationally ranked flight team that competes against hundreds of other flight schools around the country in events such as power off landings, navigation flying, aircraft recognition, and other aviation related events. The team takes up most of my time at school outside of flight training and classes, but is well worth the hard work for the rewards that the team has brought me. This year, we won our second consecutive national title in Columbus, Ohio. Beginning this fall, I will be acting as the team’s Chief Pilot, and responsible for the team’s aircraft and flight operations. Outside of busy student life I enjoy activities such as cycling, hiking, shooting, and traveling. Choosing to attend Embry-Riddle was one of the best decisions I have made and I have enjoyed every bit of my time since I arrived here.