Aviation

I am an instrument-rated private pilot with 387 hours of flight time spread across 213 flights (as of May 21, 2017). Inspired by my grandfather, who was a long time helicopter mechanic and pilot, I took my first discovery flight—an initial flight lesson—in October of 1992, as a high school student, and while I wasn't able to pursue training at the time, I did attend a ground school that was organized at my local airport.

I began training in earnest in September of 1999, during a period when I was working for EMC Corporation in Cambridge, MA. I made considerable progress, but unfortunately was stymied by a question the FAA had on my medical condition (an adult diagnosis of ADHD). I didn't know, at the time, how to answer their question, and so stopped flying in October of 2000; one year later, after the events of September 11, 2001, the recession that followed resulted in my layoff from EMC, and I used the opportunity to return to college to complete my degree.

It took a while for me to complete my schooling, but in February of 2011, I moved to San Antonio to take up a software development job with Rackspace. This put me in a financial position to pay off school loans, and I started to consider again earning my pilot's license. During this time period, Discovery Channel began running a series called Flying Wild Alaska, a documentary show about an Alaska-based airline. During the run of the series, one of the cast members, Ariel Tweto, began flight training herself, and the show's depiction of her first solo made me nostalgic for my own first solo, back in July of 2000. This inspired me to research how to satisfy the FAA's query about my ADHD, and in March of 2012, I received my new FAA medical certificate, and I began flight training through Anderson Aviation in Bulverde, TX, the following month.

Since I was a software developer, that gave me a lot of flexibility in my work hours. Thus, with the permission of my boss of the time, I arranged my work hours so was working three 10-hour days and two 5-hour days per week, allowing me to have three flight lessons per week. With this schedule, I was able to complete my private pilot's license in September of 2012.

I began working on my instrument rating—an add-on to the pilot's license that allows flying an airplane solely by reference to the instruments; without this rating, private pilots can only fly in visual conditions and must avoid clouds—in March of 2013. I chose not to use as aggressive a schedule as I had for my initial training, so I did not complete the rating until October of 2014.

By the time I completed my instrument rating, I had really began to discover the depths of my passion for flying. It was about this time that I decided that I wished to earn a flight instructor's certificate, and so I began working on my commercial pilot's license, which is a prerequisite, that same month.

I had also been considering purchasing my own airplane, rather than continuing to rent from Anderson Aviation. I had explored co-ownership with a pilot friend: this is quite common, as airplanes are not only expensive, but also like to be flown fairly frequently. This, however, fell through, as my friend became too busy (owing to enrolling in law school). However, an evaluation of my own financial position revealed that I could afford to own an aircraft as long as I looked for a budget option: used aircraft are often no more expensive than a mid-range car. I had long been intrigued by the Mooney, a family of aircraft with a reputation for speed and fuel efficiency; a college friend of mine had owned one, and I enjoyed a flight I had taken with him to one of the islands off Massachusetts (I have unfortunately forgotten which one; hopefully, he can remind me one of these days). Thus, I began looking for Mooneys in my price range that had the features I considered essential, such as a reasonably modern GPS.

The result of my search was the 1969 Mooney M20C, pictured above. Not only did this plane have a Garmin 430W, it also had an autopilot (an STEC-30), which I considered a desirable luxury. It was also affordable enough that I could make plans for various enhancements I wanted or needed to make, such as the FAA mandated ADS-B Out addition, which will be required for a good portion of the US airspace as of January 1st, 2020. Although the interior is not in great shape, I have been quite pleased with my purchase decision.