July 4th

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Cherie

Hope everyone had an awesome fourth of July, there are so many cool traditions that many families have on the fourth but, the best of all that America shares is fireworks!!

Here in Prescott the fireworks are done out of Pioneer Park which is just within walking distance of the campus. There is also a fair that is held in the park all day until the fireworks at 9pm. I didn’t have the opportunity to go check out the fair but, I have heard that it is sooooo cool, its definitely something to go and see if you are lucky enough to be here for the fourth. The fireworks are gorgeous and you can actually see them from the lower fields on campus. A good amount of people from the community come on to campus and watch them with us.

A fun tradition that my family and I have always done is a barbeque in the afternoon before the fireworks start. The Fry’s down the street from campus has some amazing steaks that you can cook up for the holidays or for just whenever!! Most of the dorms on our campus have bbq set ups nearby so you can always use them at your convenience 😀

Hopefully sometime you can come join us here in Prescott for the holidays and enjoy some of our traditions as well as your own!!

Update on my Internship!

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Jason

Hello from Seattle! I am about ready to begin week 9 of my awesome internship and so far, it has been surreal. Wait. Week 9?? Already?? How am I almost done? Times really does ‘fly’ when you are having fun! As much as I want to share every minute detail of my internship, sadly I cannot; due to the company’s privacy policy. However, I will give a general picture of what I have been up to!

My desk

The first few weeks were mainly updating aircraft manuals (pages upon pages of them) and swapping them out on board the aircraft. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t the most thrilling project, but when we got to got to the aircraft to swap them out, that was awesome! The next few weeks were full of little projects around the different departments like the technical pilots, flight operations administration, and technical publications in Flight Operations. I currently have 3 projects that I am working on which all involve different things. Without getting into too much detail, I am working with the ACARS system (the magical computer box that you can program routes, performance, flight plans, etc into), an Operations Specification (Ops Spec), and a taxi time project where the other intern and I have to travel to Anchorage and LAX and, of course, Seattle to complete it!

Working on the taxi project

Other things I have done are helping out in the 737 simulators, tours of ATC and airport facilities and helping out over at the corporate building. One thing that is interesting is there is always food somewhere in the building. One day every month, without fail, there is “the food cube” in one spot of the office. It becomes “active” when food has been brought in. Various employees bring in food, under no obligation, to share and eat! Here is what it looked like one week.

The food cube

As far as how I feel about the internship, it has honestly been the most amazing and incredible experience of my life! The people at Alaska Airlines are one of a kind. They are kind and welcoming and really care about you as a person. I talk with the Manager of Flight Operations and the Chief Pilot everyday and both of them always stop to ask how I am doing, regardless of their busy schedule. I am incredibly fortunate to be interning with them and I know it will be really hard to leave when the internship is over. I will keep you updated on more cool stuff next week!

Fire Fighters

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Cherie

A recent tragedy as a result of the Yarnell fire, which is still burning about 35 miles from Prescott has left 19 of our local firefighters dead as a result of their heroic battle with the wildfire. We are a community in mourning today as we seek to recognize the brave individuals who are no longer among us. If you were a family member, friend, or someone who would like to support the community during these unhappy hours I ask you to please join us in a memorial service which will be held at the following location and time:

YARNELL FIRE MEMORIAL SERVICE
MONDAY, JULY 1, 2013
START TIME: 4:00PM
DOORS OPEN: 3:00PM
LOCATION: Activity Center, Building 83
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
3700 Willow Creek Road
Prescott, AZ 86301

We must not forget to honor those who put their lives on the line for the good of the community, it takes a special type of individual to sacrifice their own well being in order to serve the interests of the community as a whole.

For more information on the fire and the fallen firefighters please click here, and please remember to be a supporting hand to those who have lost their loved ones today.

Heat Wave

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Cherie

As some of you might have noticed, depending on your location of course, there has been a massive heat wave passing over certain parts of the country (a current map is displayed below 😀 ). Many of the people across the nation just rely on their personal thermometers, their senses upon walking outside, or on the local news. However, this is not the case for a special number of students on the Embry Riddle Prescott campus, these students are Meteorology Majors.

Weather Patterns across the US, showing a heat wave in the West

As a little kid I was fascinated by the thought of analyzing weather patterns, however, we all know that didn’t work out as now I have chosen to become an Engineer. The point is that the meteorology students here on the Prescott campus never lost their fascination with the bizarre patterns of weather, whenever you see a student staring at the sky with no airplanes in sight, I can assure you that you are seeing a meteorology student.

The passion that these students have is alike the passion that each of our students has for their field of study. Embry Riddle Prescott’s campus is for students who know their hearts and also for those who want to find their passions. Follow your talents, interests, and dreams to Embry Riddle and you will meet students just like yourself, and together we can all stare up into the sky looking for planes, clouds, stars, UAVs, helicopters, and so much more!!!

Airway Traffic Controllers

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Cherie

So as I’m sure you have heard, the market for Airway Traffic controllers has been getting more and more competitive given the new regulations. As a result of this anyone interested in the Traffic Controller field must come from a highly renowned school with a great recommendation…..(drumroll please)…Embry Riddle Prescott can help you!!!!

Students in the Air Traffic Control Lab

We have an Air Traffic Control Lab that students are able to take courses in and run simulations to improve their skills. The Lab is very unique in the fact that it is modeled after the Traffic Control Center in Albuquerque New Mexico. It is actually supplied with live weather feeds from the Meteorology Lab on campus so that the students may get as real life of a simulation as possible. The ATC Lab actually communicates with the Air way Science lab as well so that during certain exercises the ATC students may practice telling pilots who are flying simulators in the Air Way Science lab what they need to do to react to weather patterns and other in Flight situations.

A student listening to the Air Traffic Controller before takeoff

This program is a great start to a career in the Air Traffic Controlling field because this school is well known for producing the very best Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, and Engineers in the Country. Because we are so well known we often have students that are hired right after graduation and some even get internships over summer which then lead to their future jobs.

So in this job market, Riddle is the place to be to insure that you have a great future in whatever field you choose 😀 Please stop on by or schedule a visit we are more than happy to see you!!

Like to Read?

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Cherie

Some of the cool facilities that we have here are some that you might be quite interesting like the Hazy Library. The Hazy library was built with funds that were donated to the University by the Hazy family, with these funds we were able to build an awesome learning center that has two floors and several rooms dedicated to studying.

The top floor of the library houses the second half of what we call the Kalusa collection, it has 6000 model airplanes that John Kalusa started building in 1937. They were donated to the University upon his death in 2003, and the first half of the collection can be seen immediately upon entering the library.The collection has actually achieved the recognition of a Guinness World Record.

Kalusa holding his creations

Another cool part of the library is that all printing form the 44 computers is free, there are 10 rooms in which you may study or practice presentations, and the library is connected with the other libraries in the county so if you need a book that is not in the ERAU library we can have it transferred to us from another library.

There are so many other interesting facts about the Hazy Library and the other facilities we have on our campus, if you would like to know more I highly encourage you to stop on by some time and/or ask me some questions!!!

Learning to Cook

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Cherie

So this summer I made the decision to stay on campus and take summer courses, the most important summer course I am currently taking is one I will most likely use for the rest of my life….cooking…

Herb Chicken and Cheese Tortellini

I never considered myself to be a good cook or to really enjoy cooking but, since I have taken up the pursuit of cooking (mostly so i wouldn’t have to pay for a summer meal plan) and also because I would like to cook whatever sounds good to me that day.

Some simple tips that I can give you are buy meats in bulk, separate them into portion sizes and freeze them. When you want meat just pull out however many portions you want and cook it. Buy your vegetables and fruits and Fry’s, they are a few cents more but, way better than the fruit and veggies at Walmart. Canned foods, dry pasta, and top raman are cheap!!!! These are great because you can mix them with cooked meat, pasta sauces, or veggies and have a tasty balanced meal. Do not waste all your money on fast food, you can pay about $3 a meal if you make it yourself instead of $10-$15 a meal if you eat out, this can drain your paycheck really really fast!!!

Red Velvet Cake

There are so many other tips I can give you, but so little space to write in so the best and very last tip I can offer (unless you comment with a question or helpful tip) is GO ASK YOUR MOMMA!!!…….or you auntie, or someone who can cook…..Google works too 😉

Summer Job -The YMCA

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Adam

Hey there readers in this blog you will learn about tips to finding a summer job if you are in high school or college so that you can make some spending money or just cash for gas. I will talk about somethings to look for in a job like any prerequisites and then my own personal experience that may help you.

So for those of you students out there that are looking for some money and or a job to keep you busy and start to build your resume. So for those that are looking to really start your resume and earn some money, The YMCA foundation is a great place to start! They have many opportunities for those that are age 16 and up. The company treats its employees very well. as i have learned from experience. But the best way to look for a job is by going into stores or business places and personally asking a manager if there are open positions available. This is the best way, sometimes they may give you some paperwork on the spot to fill out other times you will need to go online.

Some might think that they do not have many options and just get stuck with a job they do not want, this is not the case most of the time. look for SEASONAL positions as a way to start, usually water parks or any amusement park hires just before summer seasonal employees because the summer is a busy time.As friends and family about any jobs they can think of that could possibly hire.

Do your homework. You should always know what the job position requires physically as well as the description of the job. Such as life guarding, you should of course be a good swimmer. As well as the hours the business will require you, consider any summer classes you will take, if you have a car or take the bus.

A good idea for saving money is opening a checking/savings account at a bank. For students in high school or college the account is free of charge. You must of course be 18 or have a cosigner if not.

From personal experience i have worked every summer since sophomore year in high school and I have found it beneficial to start working summers because now i have a lot of money and I am still pretty young. I started at Knott’s Soak city for two summers as a lifeguard and now have a position at the YMCA as a lifeguard. I definitely prefer the YMCA more, the pay rate is better, the scheduling is way more flexible and i get free access to the gym and pool. On top of that it looks really good on a resume for any position. Not only does working in the summer have benefits but more then like;y you will meet some awesome people.

Thank you for reading, I hope you have been informed!

Junior Year Is Over!

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Maddie

High Five after I passed my Private Checkride!

Hello Blogosphere, I know I went a while between posts there! I got so swamped that I had to take some time off. I have to admit that this was a very, very busy semester for me. I didn’t really get a chance to sit back and think about everything that I had done. Looking back on the semester, I realize that I accomplished a lot! Since I last wrote, I made it through checkride season and finally got my Private Pilot Certificate for Rotorcraft! Yay! I also got the opportunity to go to HAI’s Heli-Expo in Las Vegas which was mind-blowing. My picture even made it into the rotorcraft pro magazine, woo! Another one of Embry-Riddle’s students Celeste Hadley also had a picture of her accepting a scholarship from MD helicopters which is awesome! I also turned 21 during finals week, and still managed to get an A on the final I took the next day. In fact, I got A’s on all my finals! I’m pretty proud of myself.

My course load this semester was made up of RS 300: Observing Asian Cultures, SIS 328: Intelligence, Analysis, Writing, and Briefing, and LCH 102: Mandarin Chinese II. It was the highest workload I’ve had from 9 credits, ever. On top of that, I was doing Private II ground and flight, which kept me really busy as I studied for the three stage checks/checkride I had this semester. Intelligence, Analysis, Writing, and Briefing (or IWB, as we call it) is basically an advanced Intelligence Writing course, which I’ve touched on before. Basically, we learned about methods by which to condense and present data in a concise manner. We also continued to write intelligence briefs about a country of our choosing, to keep our writing skills sharp. Mandarin Chinese was also a continuation upon the course from the fall semester. We learned at a faster pace this semester, and practiced putting together more complex sentences.

Our presentations are not as boring as this one apparently was.

RS 300 was my most difficult course. There were 5 female students in the course, including myself. That’s some girl power!! During the course we would have focus weeks on different countries or regions within Asia. Every class period, each student would give a 15 minute presentation on a specific topic about the culture of the region we were focusing on that week. Our presentations were on topics such as religion, folklore and myths, cooking and eating practices, history, war and revolutions, popular culture, and global business interaction. Writing two fifteen-minute presentations every week was a ton of work. On top of that, we were also assigned reading from our textbook and some multiple choice questions to answer from that. But I’ve mastered the art of going from nothing to ten slides with notecards and talking points in about 3 hours, which I predict is going to be a valuable life skill for me (At least I hope so). But whoever coined the saying that whatever you put into an activity is what you get out was absolutely right. Not only did I learn a ton of information from this class, I also learned to appreciate the fact that we have a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. All of the information that I learned was a direct result of our own research, and it made me realize that I don’t need to get a PhD to become educated on a subject matter.

Fire!

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Zach

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