Hello and Welcome

Hello everyone and welcome to my aviation blog.  I am currently a senior at Eastern Michigan University enrolled as an undergraduate in the Aviation Management Technology program with an accompanying business minor.  I will be graduating in April, 2014 with a Bachelor of Science and intend to complete the Dispatch practical exam shortly after graduation to obtain that certificate.

I started flying when I was 16 years old in a Piper Cherokee 140 at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti.  I accrued about 4.5 hours that summer cutting grass to pay for flying lessons.  At $5/hour cutting grass and $60/hour for the flight training, you can see why I only accrued 4.5 hours.  I stopped flying for awhile until years later when I got a gift certificate to the Aviation Center at the Ann Arbor Airport.  I logged another 1.3 hours in a Piper Cherokee 140/180 in 2005 and thought my flying career was going to take off.

Well, it didn't.  I decided to start saving money to finish my private license but couldn't seem to save enough, something always came up that took the funds.  Eventually, in 2011, I decided to finish my education so I enrolled at EMU in the Aviation Management Program to fix my flying bug.  Coming in with an Associate degree in Applied Sciences, I was able to dive right in to the aviation classes and haven't looked back since.  I have been enrolled at least 12 credit hours every semester, except summers, to finish the degree in three years and have also started flying again.

I took a job at the Aviation Center in February 2012 as a line crew member.  I never took a paycheck, just loaded up my credit account and started flying again, you guessed it, in a Piper Cherokee 140.  Since, I have logged about 35 hours and am nearing the end of my private training.  I did not fly much in 2013 because I was saving to purchase an airplane.  With two other partners, I did just that in July 2013.  We bought a 1973 Piper Archer I (a grown up Cherokee) with an IFR certification so I can move into instrument training when I am ready.  I have just begun to fly again and am planning on finishing the private pilot license before I graduate.  I will move into the instrument training this spring/summer with an expected late summer completion.

So that is a little about me and my aviation career up to this point.  I hope to be employed at an airport or with an air carrier this spring after graduation and intend to keep this blog active with current aviation topics, both commercial and general aviation.

Thanks for looking,
Scott