The Difference...

Greetings and salutations and all that.

Normally, a pilot begins his career as a private pilot, and progress through the instrument rating and commercial certificate, often earning a Flight Instructor certificate soon after. Thus a CFI progresses steadily and easily to professional pilot.

CFI-SP requires a sport pilot certificate and 150 hours of flight time, with the usual stipulations of pilot-in-command time, cross country time, etc. along with the practical, FOI and the flight instructor-sport airplane written. So, the transition from amateur to professional is rather abrupt. I am in the midst of that transition, and I'm going to chronicle that transition (as well as whatever else I feel like) here.

The Backstory: My intro flight was my 14th birthday gift. I spent most of high school studying the books, and began flying late in my junior year. I started flying PA-28 Cherokees at Albert J. Ellis (KOAJ) in Richlands, NC. Between weather, travel and aircraft availability, I spent about 3 months gathering 10 flight hours. I moved my training to a little closer to home, to Moore County (KSOP). No Pipers there; I completed my training in N500TC, a 30 year old Cessna Skyhawk. Great aircraft; the trim wheel isn't a damned window crank on the ceiling.

Shortly after I completed training, I rented the aircraft for about an hour. I came back, shot a lousy approach and decided to go around. On climbing out, the flaps wouldn't retract. I was blamed for the failure, charged for the repair and asked not to fly with them again.

I moved my operation to Sanford Lee Co. Regional (KTTA). Here I flew a newer but more run-down Skyhawk. And I mean that ship was tore up. It flew just fine, but it was less than glamorous.

At the other end of that same airfield are two other businesses that provide aircraft. One is a flying club that operates a fleet of about ten ships, from Cessna 152's to a pair of Mooney Bravos. The other one is B-Bar-D Aviation. I've spent about 23 hours in their aircraft, various examples of the Fantasy Air Allegro 2000.

So there I am. I'm a 110 hour pilot or so, needing another 40. Just fourty hours. I have fourty hours to become a professional pilot.

And so my blog post has come full circle; back to becoming a professional pilot. I once heard someone in the airline industry describe that transition thusly: The difference between an amateur and a professional is that an amateur practices until he gets it right. A professional practices until he does not get it wrong. I've got a lot of work to do