A Flight Lead Student Advisor’s View From Above

by Martin Kurkchubasche

Me with my best friend Daniel’s 1975 Cessna 172M after flying IFR with him on a rainy day in San Jose, CA. He’s now a CFI at Purdue. Photo taken by my childhood friend turned professional photographer Meredith Williams!

Hi there! I’m Martin Kurkchubasche, a Senior studying Aeronautical Science with a minor in Aviation Business Administration. I’m from San Jose, California and I came to Embry-Riddle Prescott having already earned my Private Pilot Certificate with just about 100 hours of experience. This put me on track to graduate a semester early, December 2020 instead of May 2021. Throughout my time here, I have earned my Instrument rating and finished my Commercial Single-Engine training in our Cessna 172 fleet and am now in the process of earning my Commercial Multi-Engine training in our Diamond DA 42 fleet.

I am also a FAA-certified Advanced Instrument Ground Instructor and work as a Peer Counselor where I tutor students, endorse written exams, and for the past year I have taught labs for the College of Aviation. During the school year, there’s a very high chance you’ll find me in the Hazy Library until closing working with students. During admissions events such as Preview Day and Orientation, you’ll probably see me rocking out with our two awesome College of Aviation advisors Merrie and Stacey. I help create schedules for all you students and I make sure you end up with my favorite professors! For those of you reading this, we’re currently dealing with COVID-19. So, for any of my students reading this, I’m very proud of the work you all have completed as well as your adaptability and ability to deal with anything the world throws at us!

My involvement with our Flight Department and Flight Line is extensive. As the Lead Student Advisor for the Flight Department, I work one-on-one with management and help take suggestions students have and implement them at the Flight Department. As a student myself, I was always uncomfortable talking to my higher ups, which is why our department chair refers to me as his “feet on the ground”. I make sure students have someone they can comfortably talk to and share experiences, good or bad. I am incredibly lucky to be able to work with and call everyone in management a friend. If you’ve been at any of the admissions events, there’s a very high chance you’ve met and talked with me during the Flight Breakout Sessions. I have a great team of flight students that help me out and sit on the Flight Line Student Advisory Board and help plan student-led workshops on tough topics, and plan special events like socials and barbecues. I’m always looking for volunteers to be on the Advisory Board so swing by my office at the Flight Department and say hi!

Photos from when I was observing a demo-flight when Cirrus was demonstrating the ability of their SR-20 aircraft as a possible trainer for ERAU.
A name tag for every position I work.

You’ll also find me working behind the desk as a Flight Dispatcher and occasionally on a shuttle-run as a Shuttle Driver. I also sit on our No-Show Review Board where I take part in the determination if we should excuse a no-show or reduce costs of unexcused no-shows. The Flight Department always jokes about getting me a name tag reading, “Ask me, I probably know” because of the variety of qualifications I hold. I work on special projects, most recently having participated in helping choose the new fleet for ERAU, migrating our Dispatch team from a paper schedule to fully online, redesigned the entire shuttle route to make it easier for our students to make it from class to our Flight Line, and am currently taking part in helping select the new software to replace our Dispatch / Scheduling / Academic Tracking software.

I am on my third summer working for our Summer Programs Department, second summer working as a Housing Supervisor. I visit our office frequently because, quite frankly, I love the people I work with. I worked as a Teacher’s Aide throughout high school teaching 4th through 8th graders photography, so getting to teach high schoolers about aviation is probably one of the most fun things I’ve gotten to do. Also, shout out to Wendy, Shelby, Tori, Seyi, Logan, and Hayden over in the office! Hopefully I’ll see you all soon for the summer kick-off! I’m looking forward to my final year working with Summer Programs!

The 2019 team from our Summer Programs Department.

In my free time, I fly, believe it or not. I have over 300 hours of experience in a wide variety of aircraft. I earned my High-Performance and Complex Aircraft endorsements flying the most unique plane in the Prescott fleet, our 1980 Cessna 182-RG, affectionately known as Riddle 82. Sometimes I even fly two different types of planes in one day. One of the most memorable experiences was flying Riddle 82 in the morning with one of our Training Managers and going straight into Riddle 94, one of our Diamonds, with our Chief Pilot. If you ever see me in person, please ask me about it! There’s more that happened that’s just too much for a blog!

Team 3 Training Manager Dave Warnke and I taking off in Riddle 82 in 25-knot winds at Prescott, taken by Instructor Cameron Rojas through binoculars.

I’ve flown almost every Cessna 172 model from 1970 onward. I’ve done cross country flights to Vegas, up and down the California coast, and all throughout Arizona. Through my time as a Peer Counselor and my flight experience, I’d like to believe I’ve become an expert with the Cessna 172, but there’s always more to learn and experience. As students we never stop learning about the planes we fly.

My roommate took this photo of me relaxing on a bench at Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort after a long day on the slopes.

When I’m not in the air, I try to stay active and take advantage of the weather we have. In Prescott, we’re about 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix on any given day, which means I can be outside year-round and not hiding from the heat. When the weather is good, I can be on our tennis courts hitting with my friends or relaxing poolside watching planes fly over. Sometimes I’ll make the dive down to Phoenix and hang out at the air-conditioned malls in Scottsdale. When it’s winter and we have snow, find me on the slopes in Flagstaff with my buddies.

As if I weren’t busy enough, I also run a research program with the Undergraduate Research Institute. This involves me running a brand-new virtual reality lab which is located at our Flight Department’s Simulation Center. The project was started by one of my professors, Professor Michelle P. Hight. I’ve been working with her from the beginning of the project and have become the resident student expert on flight simulation under VR. I have two awesome research assistants who I couldn’t work without. They happened to be two of my friends, Jake and Daniel. Jake and I were almost-neighbors freshman year, he lived one suite away from me in the Mingus Mountain Complex and I happened to be friends with his suite-mates, so I was always invading their dorms. Daniel is a sophomore who I met through my work as the Student advisor to the Flight Department and we immediately clicked. Our goal is to reduce the cost of flight training and hopefully play a part in reducing the global pilot shortage. I’ve presented at the Industry Advisory Board in front of many major companies. It’s only been our first semester working, and we didn’t get to do very much due to the on-going pandemic, but we’ve adapted and changed everything we’re doing. Right now, we’re designing an experimental course that will hopefully be offered by the College of Aviation in the fall! So, for all you incoming students, keep an eye out for the course offering and I might get to be your teacher!

My two research assistants Jake (left) and Daniel (right) testing out our VR equipment before the students get working on their virtual private pilot course.
Me presenting about my research at the Industry Advisory Board taken by CoA Advisor Merrie Heath.

Springtime at ERAU!

Spring is in full bloom here at Embry-Riddle Prescott! Even though we’re still seeing a little bit of rain, overcast skies, and even some sleet, springtime is definitely here. With Preview Day just passed and Parent’s Weekend right around the corner, vibrant colors and (mostly) sunny days couldn’t have come at a better time! Here’s an inside look at our campus in full motion during the start of spring.

 

 

Earhart’s Dining Hall

 

 

Hall 5 of the Mingus Complex, and our dining hall (a bit blocked behind the tree)

 

Waiting for the annual Easter egg hunt to begin! (Outside of the Student Union, in the quad)

spring 4

Walking out of the dining hall, with a slight view of the AXFAB, or Aerospace Experimentation and Fabrication Building (our central engineering building on campus)

spring 6 The Entrance to our AXFAB engineering building

 

 

 

 

 

 

spring 7

Some sidewalk art our sororities and fraternities created outside of the Student Union!

And lastly, the Hazy Library and student quad…

spring 8 Spring 9

 

 

 

 

 

spring 10

spring 11

No Fear – Why I Now Love Arizona!

Arizona. If I am being completely honest, I never wanted to live in Arizona. From the sun, the snakes, and no trees I was skeptical and afraid when I moved here in August. But with the fall semester winding down, and my first semester of college wrapping up, I can honestly say that I have fallen in love with Arizona.

Slot Canyon
For one, Prescott has four seasons and trees. Perfect pool weather in August and chilly fall temperatures that makes my inner Washingtonian smile. I could not be more blessed. I love being able to walk around campus and see the leaves on the ground, with the chill of the fall breeze on my back.

Downtown
Besides the weather, there are so many adventures to be had! This past week I drove up to Page, Arizona with Chi Alpha and explored two different canyons. Coming from a place filled with trees, I found the bouldering, mountain goating, and crawling through slot canyons to be truly magnificent and different.

Page and George
Winding through narrow pathways surrounded by beautiful rocks, climbing over boulders that look like a scene from Star Wars, and watching the sunset over the Horseshoe Bend allows you to take a moment and reflect.

Star Wars SceneThrow What You Know
Arizona has challenged me, shown me glorious things, and gave me new friendships. The fear of moving to a place filled with cactus, snakes, and sun has left and been replaced with joy, adventure, and friendship.

Colorado River
Don’t be afraid of the unknown or moving to a new state, it will be scary and hard in the beginning, but trust me you are not alone. Soon the fear will be turned into other things, like it has for me, and you will wonder why you were scared in the beginning. It’s time to start a new chapter in your life, time to jump in with two feet, and know it will be worth it!

My Top 3 Fall Activities at ERAU

My favorite semester is fall, not just because I’m coming back to school and my friends but because there’s some great adventures I’ve made into a yearly tradition. and I want to tell you about them. I hope you try these out when you get here!

Snowbowl Ski Lift, Flagstaff, AZ. One of my favorite off campus events I enjoy Top of Snowbowldoing in the Fall is driving an hour and a half north to the city of Flagstaff driving around downtown and towards the San Francisco Peaks. Here in Prescott we get a fair share of fall foliage around town and even more closely here on campus. However, one of the best places to view fall foliage is in the city of Flagstaff. As a guy that was born and raised in New Orleans there is no such thing as fall foliage. The seasons down south are a lot less defined as it is in most states around the country. I still to this day get very excited when the Fall season starts because of the impeccable beauty it shares throughout Northern Arizona. I try to make time to take a trip up to Snowbowl every year in late September. At Snowbowl you can ride the lifts up to the very top peak of Mount Humphries and get a chance to look out and see miles and miles of crisp beautiful yellow, red, and orange leaves surrounding the San Francisco Peaks and throughout the town of Flagstaff, smelling the fresh aspen trees as you ride the lift up to 11,500 ft. the highest mountain peak in the state of Arizona.  It is honestly one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had while living here in Northern Arizona. It is one of the most relaxing and de-stressing day events that really help keep you leveled when the fall semester workload is beginning to pick up. Another really cool thing that you get a chance to take advantage is that they have amazing sales at the ski shop located at the bottom of the lift. You can take advantage of the exceptional deals and pick up some great snow and ski gear to impress skiiers and snowboarders once the winter season gets into full swing.

Off Campus: Go Kart Racing, Scottsdale, AZ Whenever I have the need for speed Racing!I love to drive down an hour and a half south and visit Octane Raceway and go Go Kart Racing with my friends and fraternity brothers to take a break from studying. Octane is located in Scottsdale, AZ which is a city located to the east of Phoenix. Scottsdale has great shopping and some amazing restaurants so there’s a lot to check out while you’re down there. Octane Raceway has a very challenging course that takes you from the inside of the facility to an outdoors patio lounge area where you get a chance to feel the very dry hot air from the Phoenix dessert. The Karts go up to 45 miles per hour so there’s a lot of power for you to get your urge for speeding and racing out of your system. Its so much fun taking a break and coming down to race with my friends because it gives us a chance to hang out get a little competitive and just have an incredible time with each other.

On Campus: Halloween Haunted House sponsored by the Safety Center If you are like me and enjoy your occasional scream here and there around the Halloween season you don’t have to look too far. Our Robertson Safety Center puts on a Channeling Jimizombie-themed haunted house that utilizes their crash site as the backdrop. There’s nothing more exciting than the eerie feeling of wrecked planes surrounding you while zombies pop out at every corner crouching over bent propellers and behind crushed fuselages. It was so much fun being able to have a moment where my friends and I could laugh at each others facial expressions as the suspense of not knowing what was behind each corner or even next to our feet etched the most amusing look of fear on our faces. I honestly hadn’t laughed so hard in so long. It helped make that Halloween season one I will forever remember here at Embry Riddle with some of the most amazing people I have been so lucky to have met during my years here.

 

Here’s an update: Just went to Flagstaff this past weekend for the fall colors again!

Flagstaff 10-17-15

Flagstaff 10-17-15

Student Life

When you are choosing colleges or Universities that you might want to attend how much do you think about the student life? Well, most students say that it is one of the most important aspects of their decision and because it is so important wouldn’t it be nice if a current student told you what it was like? Well your wish has been granted!!!

I’m Cherie Gambino, an Engineering student at Embry-Riddle Prescott campus  🙂 In my year or so on campus I have greatly enjoyed my experiences here, from watching movies in the amphitheater to laughing at comedians we have it all. Embry Riddle really tries to focus on the student and what is important to them so we have several campus organizations that operate to enhance your experiences at Riddle. These are Student government, the Board of Campus Activities, Greek Life, the Residence Halls Association, Horizons Newspaper, Riddle Vision, and Riddle Radio. In the fall there are also special programs for incoming freshman such as the Passport Program which hosts all kinds of fun  barbecues, competitions, and movie nights.

Orientation Day 1

 

The campus organizations that organize these activities are active year round so there is at least 2 or 3 events occurring during the week. For example, last week there was a pizza party at the pool, a memorial day barbecue, and a movie night where myself and a few other students got to go see the new Star Trek movie at the Harkins theater.

Some of our other cool events and organizations are listed below, feel free to check them out and get to know the fun side of Embry-Riddle 🙂

October West

Passport to ERAU

Passport Program Events

Organizations

Local Events in Prescott