I never thought I would be writing a post like this. We all know flying is inherently risky, but these were two of the most incredible pilots and human beings I have ever known. One was the chief pilot for our flight school. They were flying mid day, in good weather, with a plane I know was maintained well. Details are still scarce but it seems like there may have been some sort of mechanical failure involved.

How do I even begin to move on from here? We are a small community and this has completely broken us. The thought of ever going back seems impossible to me. I had seen both of them just a few days ago, and I was in complete disbelief after hearing the news Sunday afternoon. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Any insight or personal experience would be appreciated.

Hello. This post in a genuine request for advice. I am a senior flight instructor in a 141 school. We have a very hostile working environment, my goal has always been to try and weather it while waiting for the airlines. Lately, it is becoming way overboard. My question is, how damaging is it to my airline aspirations if I leave flight training to work in a non aviation job just to get some peace of mind? I already am a graduated with all minimums met (one failure).

Okay.. Oddball question. Some of us like to wear Shirt garters/stays, to keep us tucked in & looking sharp in uniform. (mostly ex military, in my experience). But SOME airports have their machines turned up too high, and they are causing me a headache everytime they dont have KCM or I get random'd.

- Hell, Carlsbad, CA just made me go into a private room for a DEEP patdown, because of them-

Does anyone have an "airport-safe" solution for the garter issue?

dummy me grabbed the wrong bottle. instead of W100 I put in W15W-50. Standard 172 with Lycoming IO-360-L2A engine. is this something I report? or rather let it alone?

I am a fairly new pilot with low total time. I would like to buy a Bonanza G36. Unfortunately I am having a tough time getting insurance. I am currently working on my high HP and complex endorsements in a c182 rg. Does anyone have any insights where I can go to get training time in the bonanza so I can get insurance? Thanks.

Hey guys what did y’all use to study for your CFI oral?

If I have an LOI where I lose both my situational awareness (airplane on the gps) and my HSI needle disappeared. Did I lose both RAIM and WAAS? Im guessing I’m outside the envelope for the ground based WAAS and I lost my 5th satellite. Could also be a placement error but I’m more curious if my LOI is specific to one integrity

Hi Chattanooga TN folks,

I've been inactive for a couple of years. Was last training for my instrument rating at Crystal Air in the SR20, and in a 182 club at KAPT for a couple of years before that. 103h PIC time. I miss flying. I'd like to think I'm a helpful passenger and would love a chance to ride along and split costs if you're day-tripping anywhere from the Chatt area. I haven't gotten to meet many pilots so far, and would appreciate getting to fly in different aircraft and seeing what might eventually be a good fit as I work on getting recurrent.

Thanks,

Brian

I’ll make it quick. I’m a 121 guy, never had a history of high blood pressure, usually around 120/75-80, very normal. I go to new AME for sake of scheduling convenience. This guys INTERN tells me I have 160/110, takes it again 158/102, tells me to come back next day, 155/110. Says go to doctor, I panick and I go to the doctor, they take it, 127/72, 123/75, they send the record to the AME office saying it’s normal and no prescription is needed, and also told me the others were probably using too small of a cuff. My AME says they need to recheck me before they issue the medical. Am I being defrauded by my AME? If they claim it’s high again, I believe I will wrongfully be deferred and I’ll not be flying for months.
What do I do?

Yes I will never be seeing this AME again, ever.

EDIT - first red flag was the actual AME never did anything, just stopped in at the end. The interns or whatever they are did everything, including what I am now realizing improperly taking blood pressure.

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone had any tips for Lazy 8s. Recently failed a checkride over that maneuver, and I've been retraining them and have been finding them rather challenging.

I'm finding what works is starting faster (piper archer says 113 entry speed on the placard) and just really taking it slow and letting the overbanking tendencies play into effect. It almost feels like a no-minimal aileron maneuver in the first portion to be honest....

But yea I was looking for any tips or advice.

Thank you!

Thinking of moving out there and doing there PPL and Commercial programs. Anyone have experience with this place?

Anyone working at Select Aviation College?
I’m interested in applying for a fixed-wing instructor position there. Has anyone recently gone through their hiring process? Just wondering what the process is like (interview, flight/teaching assessment, etc.).
Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks!

Like I said above, to anyone who is currently a pilot for fulltime work, and you lost your medical, what field of work/path would you go down????

Had a checkride with him, he is a weird in the air but nice on the ground. This was a few months ago but i often think of how odd of a checkride this was.

Ground about an hour, asked fuel system, prop system and gov. PAST. How DA affects VMC speed. Why we feather our prop. Simple stuff.

Flight:
Extremely efficient to the point he starts taxing the plane before you finish checklist(kinda nice tbh). Was setting up for slow flight, started giving me turning instructions way before I was set up. Im talking 90kts in a multi. Told me he is allowed to do that and that I had to start my maneuver. Just stayed at 90 kts the whole time with my flaps down because he made me turn and climb at that speed, so now thats my speed. Stayed in tolerances, no issue but threw me off mentally. All other maneuvers felt extremely rushed on set up like he had an appointment or something. I dont take a long time to setup but I will take my time it is my checkride. Short field he kept changing my point from the initial brief to when I asked what point in the pattern to short final. Prebrief: the centerline before the 1000’ers. Pattern: 2nd centerline. Fine no biggie I can hit it. Short final: “just make sure you arent short of that first centerline” I guess thats my point, went idle high, greased it. Felt like he had an appointment or something to go to the whole time(he didnt). Maybe I smelled bad and had bad breath(probably). Would I send a PPL to him, absolutely not. Would I send a multi to him, sure but id tell them its gonna be weird. I also told him to shutup(literally) while i was configuring for the OEI approach. He seemed to like it like he wanted me to tell him that, idk kinda weird but if thats his thing thats his thing 🤷🏽‍♂️. He flew us back to the airport for whatever reason. I told him he had set the auto pilot on roll instead of GPS. Went to fix it for him and he did not like that. He will verbally berate you from the second you touch the controls to the second you pass. He says you’re doing everything wrong and loves to say “thats not how you do that” while you do that and still do said ACS item within tolerances. I passed. Didnt give him anything to fail me on. 4/4 on checkrides at that point but was just a weird experience. Wouldnt recommend unless you were former military because he was and loves it.

Callsign Vapor

Very
Annoying
Personality
On
Request

He lives up to it.

Would get a beer with him, wouldnt send a student to him. My 2 cents.

Hello, I am currently going into my senior year of high school with pretty decent school stats. I have my PPL ride scheduled for the 30th of this month, and I am studying for that. After high school, I want to pursue aviation as a career, but I will definitely be getting a bachelor's degree as well. With my school stats, I think it's likely that I get accepted to at least a low-ivy with some good financial aid. In college, I would probably major in engineering or another STEM degree, as that is what interests me, as well as do Part 61 on the side to build up to my CFI (hopefully getting there by the time I graduate). My question is, do you think that it is worth it to go to a more rigorous (ivy) school that might be more expensive, or go to a relatively good in-state school (Uni of Maine) that would be practically free? I have also thought about a Part 141, but the only close one is Bridgewater State, and I have heard very mixed things. Thanks for any input!

Hey all, I am a first year college student enrolled in a Private Pilot Ground School Course meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays for the whole semester, we are using the GLEIM 2026 PPL test prep textbook. I also plan to start actual flight training very soon, for this I am asking which Online Ground School should I enroll in to earn my endorsement and get the PPL Written out of the way ASAP. Fyi I attend Mount San Antonio Community College in SOCAL, and I have my first class medical, any advice helps. Thx!

I took my CFII two months after my CFI checkride. IACRA and Airmen Registry still show my CFI recency as 24 calendar months after my CFI checkride, not my CFII checkride; I've been signing all documents and such based on what I thought was my current recency expiration date. So which one is right? How can I get that changed on IACRA/airmen registry?

Hi all. I am looking for a bit of advice/reality check on wanting to start a career in aviation.

Im 32 and currently work in a job I enjoy (Motion Graphics), however the future is so uncertain in my industry with AI rolling through and clients increasingly reducing budgets and creating ads/content in AI etc. I have loved Aviation since I was a kid, I fly on vatsim whenever I get the time and love commercial airline flying and flying in general

This has led me to start pursuing a career in aviation. I have a pilot friend at airnz who has given me some advice and has said to 100% go for it and that pilots in New Zealand are in demand and since I made it so far through the airnz cadetship selection I must have qualities theyre after.

However I get stuck on pulling the trigger for it, and I must admit its because of the posts I read here as of late about how the industry job market is extremely tough right now which goes 100% against what I’ve heard from people in industry personally and also seen published in the media about a global pilot shortage especially in New Zealand.

If I do go ahead with it, my plan is:

Over 2027 self study the PPL and complete by eoy
Then in 2028 quit my current job and go full time study for my CPL & MEIR.

Once I am qualified I would then pay out of pocket for hours building to get me to that 500 hour mark, I don’t plan to go down the CFI route as I can freelance after I’ve finished studying to pay for hours.

The dream is to work for Airnz, and they accept applications from pilots with 500 hours for their turboprop fleet. I don’t expect to get straight in to working for airnz once I have the required hours, but thats the goal Im working towards.

Now looking for a reality check. If there are any Kiwi/Aussie pilots here that could offer some advice that’d be great. Im wondering if there is anything I should be aware of, have missed, or should know.

Hey all,

Just posting here to help out a family friend. He’s got 2 aircrafts at KLOT (a C175 Skylark and Piper Lance), and he’s looking for a avionics guy who can troubleshoot an issue that’s going on with his JPI/tach connection on his Lance.

Additionally, he needs a GNS 530 installed on his C175 - so if the same person has experience to install the GPS as well that’d be great.

Ik this is a long shot, but thought I’d ask the community for recommendations.

Trying to figure out where to go. Looking at lakes area aviation or Midwest corporate air. Has anyone done these? I’m more interested in lakes area aviation because it is significantly less expensive but I want to hear what people have to say.

Hey y'all!

I am a student pilot who has had to stop training three times due to financial reasons. I'm about to run out of money again, but would much rather not. I apply for every scholarship that opens but so far have only received one $500 scholarship which did help me a decent amount. I love flying and very much do see it as my dream career and I love the part 61 school that I am currently with and my instructor. I currently live at home and would like to fly full-time and the only way for me to do that is to get a loan since you can't do that without money while working 60 hours a week at your day job.

Do creditors even offer loans for part 61 schools beside ATP? I have a decent enough credit score (720-770 depending on how Equifax / TransUnion feels that given week) would I be making a mistake doing that? Any advice is appreciated. I would like to mostly hear from people who have taken these loans or know people who have, but obviously every perspective is valuable

Hey, I currently have 270 total flight time and still haven’t done my CFI check-ride.

I did all my training in part 141 school and passed all check-rides first attempt (but had a few stage check failures), then just before starting my CFI flight training on part 61 my school has shut down so I had to move, moved to a completely different school in a busier environment (South FL) and had to join part 141 CFI training for my visa requirements.

This school program requires 23 hrs training for CFI but I flew more for training because I wasn’t ready (mostly Lazy Eights and power off 180 issues) so I have 36 hrs of CFI training and now doing EOC (which I already failed once busting the power-off 180)

So the main factors are:

1. School shut down so I was forced to completely move a few hours away (including a new place to live)
   
2. My previous school had only Pipers, this one has only Cessnas (started immediately from the right seat)
   
3. Airport is much busier

I feel really bad having so many flight hours before even finishing EOC and check-ride.
Is it a really bad position to be at or am I just exaggerating? I know I have no check-ride failures but I’m really worried about this CFI one because my power-off 180 and some comms aren’t there yet

Howdy folks,

We all know there's a recurrent issue of people brand new to the industry that need advice from someone inside that has done it all before, and we see that almost daily on this and other aviation subreddits/forums. Everyone from adults considering career changes to teenagers just figuring things out are looking for answers to questions. I was fortunate enough to have family already in the industry when I went through, which essentially meant I had a built in mentor to help me out. As a CFI, I instructed many individuals that had no prior connection to aviation, and one of the aspects of instructing that I miss the most since moving on to the airlines is the ability to make a difference in someone else's journey by helping out with advice and sometimes nothing more than just commiserating and being there during tough times. I can't count the number of times my relative had to field phone calls or texts from me after a particularly difficult training flight or sim, and I just can't fathom trying to do this without someone like that in my corner.

If this resonates with you, consider signing up to be a mentor for new pilots. It's usually a very low time commitment, checking in with your mentees every so often but mostly just being there for them to talk to and ask questions.

The organization that I am a part of is called Professional Pilots of Tomorrow, but I'm not here to recruit for them specifically. There are others out there that are similar and it doesn't really matter which one you go to, just as long as you are willing/able to mentor new pilots.

I was flying at 17,000ft over the top of most of the weather, between 0C and -3C, when the cloud tops started rising. I knew it was plenty warm enough that if I picked up icing, a small descent would solve the problem, so I wasn't overly concerned. The reason I was up so high was because I was flying over the Carolinas and storms were popping up, so I could keep a visual on them...until I got into full IMC.

I was staying super vigilant about icing, and watching my ADS-B for the moderate+ areas of precip, knowing that my ADS-B weather had a 5-10 minute delay. I also knew I was only about 30 miles or 10 minutes until I was clear of the worst of it and would have smooth sailing after. As I was heading north along the coast, I watched an area of moderate to heavy precip moving west to east, and as I got closer, it looked like I would just nick the western edge of it. Based on how it was moving, I figured, with the ADS-B delay, it's probably already past me. It wasn't.

It felt like someone smacked my plane and poured a bucket of water on it at the same time. Heavy precip, heavy turbulence. Bouncing all over, I was immediately nervous that it would freeze. With the quantity coming down, I realize I fucked up badly.

I made an immediate left turn, knowing I was on the western edge of it, and was out of it in about 10 seconds, but that felt like way too long. It was the second time I ever drastically changed course prior to asking ATC permission under IFR. As soon as I was stable, I let them know what was going on, and they were awesome, gave me whatever I needed, asked if everyone was ok, then he gave the warning to everyone else flying through that area.

In my debrief, this is what I figure:

Things that I had going for me

1. I was high enough that my IAS was pretty low, well below Va. If I were cruising lower, chances are I would have been well above Va.
2. I had plenty of altitude to handle the situation if it started getting worse
3. It was a nice warm day, so icing would have melted off quickly with a descent
4. ATC gave me some good heads up after that about additional cells. Luckily right after I was VMC and could keep a visual on everything building

Things I messed up

1. Got into IMC when I knew storms were building without real time radar
2. Didn't ask ATC for an update on the cell I was heading towards. 5 seconds on the mic and they could have told me I was going to head into it
3. Thinking I was so smart knowing that ADS-B has a delay. Well, it outsmarted me.

Lessons learned, everyone and everything's ok, but hoping by sharing my dumb move it can help someone else.

Edit: Thank you everyone for your thoughts and comments. Very interesting discussion on icing in this thread. Over my decade and a half flying piston (dealing with weather I can't climb over, terrain I need to plan around, etc.), I've tried to learn the difference between possible icing, known icing, what to avoid, and what falls within my risk tolerance. A fairly thin layer around 0C with plenty of outs has fallen into my risk tolerance, but it's occasions like these that lead to reflection and reassessment. All good pilots should continously reassess these. I'm a firm believer that overly conservative can lead to complacency and be just as bad as overly aggressive. Making sure I don't become overly aggressive, but continously reassess my risk tolerance usually keeps me out of these situations. When I find myself in one that is post worthy like this, I'm first of all humbled, and secondly a bit more conservative going forward.