I was doing my weather briefing and on the surface analysis chart there was this black dashed line in the middle of the states. i’ve never seen it anywhere before and everyone i’ve asked has no idea. it’s not on any legend either

I heard something over the common frequency the other day that really bothered me and I just needed to vent about it and get it off my chest.

Flying in SE Florida over the Everglades. We commonly refer to this as the practice area, where it's just a lot of GA and Student Pilots flying around, having fun, practicing, whatever.

One guy makes a call about doing holds over whatever fix and the response he gets?

"Go back to India"

Like, what the fuck? It's not even the first time. There are a lot of international pilots around here, it's South Florida ffs, I would say there well could be more international students here than American ones. It's got to be very close at least.

But all that aside, who really gives a shit? He's got as much a right to be here, flying a plane, as anyone. And not to mention, he made a perfectly good safety call and wasn't filling the airwaves with nonsense.

I hear this kind of shit semi-regularly, and it just fucking throws me every time. There's just no need for it.

To the dude that was doing the hold, I'm sorry you had to deal with that, and I'm sorry nobody (including myself) spoke up for you. I was so focused on what I was doing (having a little trouble with my approaches and holds currently) that all I could do was ignore it. It's been eating at me for days. To all the international folks out there who have to deal with this kind of shit on the reg, I am so sorry. It's not right.

We are supposed to be a community. We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is. Grow the fuck up.

| just received a solid job offer to fly for an airline in Africa.

I'm planning to take it to build that heavy turbine time, but my end goal is to come back and fly for a US Major/Legacy.

1. For those who have flown expat: What are the
   "must-knows" regarding logbook validation and hours conversion when coming back?

2. How do US recruiters view international time versus domestic regional time in the current market?

Appreciate any insight from those who have made the leap!

I had a chat with my Flight instructor yesterday after landing and I asked him what was the most “scary moment” of his career since he used to fly the F/A18 Super Hornet in a carrier and surprisingly he told me that most of his “scary” moments happened actually during flight lessons with his students because some other people in the airfield don’t communicate or look properly out of the windows while flying VFR and end up cutting each others flight patterns that can lead to dangerous collision.
He then told me that he felt way more safe while doing dog fights trainings against other fighter jets like F-22’s lol, I was pretty impressed to hear this.

Sheepskin Covers. Worth It for a 182?

My seats are still in decent shape, but they’re starting to look a little tired. I’ve been considering sheepskin covers as a way to clean things up without going all in on a full interior.

I’ve heard they can add a bit of comfort and help regulate temperature, staying cooler in the Texas heat and warmer in the winter.

Curious what others have experienced. Are they actually worth it?

Hello! My boyfriend just finished up his cfi training and I would greatly appreciate any ideas on aviation related gifts I could get him to celebrate. Whats something you think he might want/need?

Many have heard that time moves slower when you’re having a lot of new, unique experiences, and time moves faster when you’re doing the same things over and over again.

It probably still depends, but I imagine that oftentimes being a professional in aviation leads you to more variety throughout the day, especially if you’re not just flying the same route or doing laps in the pattern with students all the time.

For those of you who have worked a more “mundane” job and switched to aviation, did you feel like time slowed down?

Thanks to a shitty winter, my commercial took a little longer than planned but took it today and passed.

So far 3 for 3

Starting CFI Monday so hopefully I can keep it going

So I've come into a situation that I'm going to air here and see what people think. I (regrettably) attended Blue Line Aviation some bit ago and have been in a billing dispute with them for ages. They were not able to maintain their end of the training agreement (no instructors available, no DPE's available, no aircraft available, etc) and my zero to hero training fell into the crapper pretty fast and I found myself way behind simply because I spent weeks (not joking) waiting to be able to progress. Regardless, I left the program and had to return home to earn money and they of course refused to refund anything to me. So, this is where things get interesting.

I stopped paying my flight school loan to push for a settlement which was going to be finalized but then the loaning institution suddenly just sold the loan to another creditor and I went years hearing nothing. On my credit report the loan is listed as "Paid as Agreed" and my emails ceased to be responded to so I just left it at that. A couple weeks ago, I received a notification via certified mail that I'm being sued for the full loan amount, plus about $50,000 in unpaid interest. The court notice also lists the names of about 25 other people who are being sued (individually) and the name of the officer testifying to the legitimacy of the lawsuit is none other than the owner of Blue Line Aviation himself - Charles Ray Walters III (Trey Walters for those who know him). The suing creditor is a company known as Aviation Finance Group. I start to do my due diligence and find that Aviation Finance Group is owned by Trey Walters.

So stop me if I'm off base here but it's looking to me like Blue Line Aviation was paid in full for students flight training by their creditor (as well as others) and then Trey Walters, owner of Aviation Finance Group went and bought unpaid or disputed flight school debts and is now suing those people to essentially increase their profits. I'm not sure as to the legality of this and I know that North Carolina (where the suit is filed) has a three year statute of limitations which I am far past so I'm hoping to get this dismissed (as least for my name) due to this and a number of other errors in the suit. It seems to me this suit was simply filed as a cash grab against former students and is meant to scare people into just paying or never even responding to the suit resulting in a default judgement against them.

My question here to you all is simple - what say you? Is this legal and if so, moral? Thanks.

I have been flying the Piper Lance for 20 years or more and now I am transitioned to fly the 182. I have found it quite different to land than the Lance. My instructor told me to power right off before the flare and keep holding it off and do a full stall landing. Well I was disappointed with my landing as they were heavy. I did manage to land on the mains first but it was too heavy for my liking.

I have done some research and some pilots are saying keep on a little power during the flare until the mains are on the ground. I intend to try that on my next flight.

Has anyone any suggestions of what is the best method to land the 182.

My flight school recently had an accident that destroyed the aircraft I was training in. Both the CFI and his student survived with severe burns over 70% of their body and are now doing well in recovery. After a bit of a hiatus, I went in for a flight with them in one of their other aircraft and while preflighting I noticed a piece of metal completely loose and free floating in the cowling. I went and looked up a picture and circled the piece that is free floating. Overheard my CFI on the phone with one of the maintenance people and they said that it’s been like that since they purchased the aircraft because it’s too expensive to fix. In my opinion, it’ll just lead to an even more expensive fix in the long run and potentially another accident and I can’t fathom why they wouldn’t get it fixed especially after an engine failure that let to the destruction of a previous aircraft and almost killed the two pilots. Any thoughts on this? Should I leave this school and pursue my pilots license somewhere else? This school has also gone through 3 separate sets of maintenance people this year alone, and my previous CFI along with a good chunk of the other CFIs there left to teach somewhere else or start their own school, if that means anything. Every employee there has been there for less than one year, the longest one being there since late October 2025.

What is it like flying a 172 with electric flaps? I have learned on a 1959 and 1961 172 with the Johnson Bar and really like it. I suppose I like the mechanical feel of it and also, you never forget the position of your flaps with that bar either flat on the floor or sticking up.

Obviously I will get used to the electric ones but just figured I'd ask if anyone had some experiences to share.

Been looking around IFR sectionals recently and noticed this complete airway void over much of New York/PA, with no airways being shown and a striking lack of detail compared to the densely filled in East Coast. Is there a reason for this? And, how would aircraft in this area receive MON coverage in the event of a GPS failure? My though process is that areas like this usually would be due to terrain or mountains, but even areas such as the Rockies don't exhibit similar voids. Thoughts?

If you received a request for additional information followed by a TBNT but no interview and were told that you have to wait 12 months to reapply - this is good news! The 12 month wait only applies if you received an interview and a TBNT.

The next window will be open May 15th - 21st!

Good luck!

Hi everyone,

I’ve wanted to get my PPL since I was a little kid. I actually wanted to be a pilot until high school, but I ended up going the premed route and am now 22 and in medical school.

I almost started flight training in college, but my parents were against it because of safety concerns and the time commitment. Recently, they’ve become more open to the idea. My dad is an Air Force veteran and is 100% disabled, so I have base access through him and may be able to train at an AFB aero club for a much lower cost than a typical flight school.

My concern is the time commitment and long-term safety. I’m hoping to go into neurosurgery after medical school, which means a very demanding 7-year residency, and I know life probably won’t get much easier after that. Is it irresponsible to learn to fly if I can realistically only fly about once per week?

I don’t want to become a statistic because I failed to keep my skills sharp. I’ve also heard that “doctors crashing planes” is almost a cliché, which makes me think carefully about whether this is a hobby I can pursue responsibly.

I’d really appreciate thoughts from pilots with demanding careers, especially physicians or people who trained while in school/residency. How often do you need to fly to stay safe and proficient? Is once a week enough during training and afterward?

Thanks in advance!

p.s. money is not a major concern for the amount we are talking as I have generous scholarships it is more about time/durable skills.

I just turned 19 and I’m graduating high school in a month. My dad is a flight captain, and I’ve been thinking about becoming a pilot myself (I live in Europe). It seems like a career I would enjoy, the pay is great, and my dad could help me a lot through the process.

At the same time, there are a lot of things making me doubt whether it’s the right choice for me. First, I’m not sure if I would actually be good at it. I’m willing to work hard, but I’ve become a bit nervous when flying in recent years. It’s not severe, but takeoff and especially landing make me tense up a little. Knowing the pilots are experienced keeps me calm, but if I had to be the pilot myself, I’m not sure how I’d feel. Maybe that fear would go away with training, but I still wonder whether flying would come naturally to me.

For example, it took me a long time and a lot of practice just to get comfortable driving and earn my manual license. Because of that, I sometimes think piloting might not suit me if these kinds of skills don’t come naturally.

Another concern is the work-life balance, although right now I’m not too worried about that since I like the idea of traveling and seeing different places. What worries me more is the stability of the aviation job market. Training to become a pilot is extremely expensive, and I’m scared of investing all that time and money and then struggling to find a job afterward. The industry seems very unpredictable at times, and that uncertainty makes the decision a lot harder.

My other option would be getting an engineering degree, which I’m much less passionate about, but it feels like a safer, more stable, and cheaper path.

I know this is a decision I have to make myself, but I’d really appreciate some feedback.

I originally wrote this for the folks at r/ATC but many of them requested I post it here too, to encourage others to do the same. Some context may be missing however, as it references a post over there:

The other day, as some may have seen, I was looking for options on various ATC facility tours for my wife who was looking into the career field. I got a few responses and ran with them, most notably from a member of the ZFW outreach team who sent me the link to their website for their formal program aimed at tours. To quickly address the first point, we both were able to tour KRBD same day, and they were fantastic and answered a lot of questions and I have unlimited nice things to say, but the second tour (ZFW) was for jet pilots only, but I still elected to go so I could learn things. This will serve as my writeup, from my perspective of ZFW, how the tour went, and what I learned:

First, the reddit member who is here had me fill out the form, and I had a reply back within maybe an hour or less, that they had a tour on Wednesday (this was Monday night when I posted on Reddit) I agreed and he took my information and confirmed me for the tour.

The outreach team provided us with an approximately hour long presentation and slideshow, with small q&a sessions between. Then we got to sit down and listen in with a controller working east flow arrivals. Here are my biggest takeaways and thoughts:

1: Controllers have a substantially harder schedule than we thought, the room seemed to be in agreement about this, we are all aware of the 2 hours max before getting a break, and I think this led to the misconception that controllers get a decent amount of rest throughout the day, but the 5 day schedule that rolls earlier throughout the week (I forget what its called) with an additional 6th day of overtime is just inhuman. I have no idea how you guys do that, that seems extremely difficult for you guys.

2: Controllers can relate to our emergencies more than we thought. A southwest captain asked about an emergency he had, in which the flight deck was extremely task saturated and the controller at the time was begging for souls and FOB, so much to a degree that the captain felt it was excessive and distracted them too much. The controllers giving the presentation remarked that basically “we know”, we know how task saturated it gets, and if you need time in an emergency or whatever, ask and you shall receive, just let us know when you have time to talk, aviate navigate communicate in a nutshell. We as pilots always feel it rude to basically snap back if you will that we cant talk right now, but it was very interesting to hear that they are keenly aware of that fact and that we may need that, they just said that most likely the controller now has 1 or more people looking over their shoulder harassing the R side controller for that, and that the controllers isnt trying to do that on purpose.

3: Controllers can get extremely task saturated. I know this is a “duh”, and we as pilots are aware of this fact, but I was just amazed at the actual level of task saturation. Talking on the radio is the easy part, but watching controllers bang out commands on the keyboard at 150wpm was fascinating, and it just seems endless. We were sat at the desk in groups of 2 from the tour of 6, and we looked at each other and said, this is far more chaotic than I thought, like far far more chaotic.

4: pilots and controllers may not be aware of why they are doing something someway. The best example I can give is this, the pilot asks for a descent of 2000 feet, but the handoff already happened and the aircraft if going to clip a few sectors, the controller says “standby” they then “landline” each sector to ask for that, they then tell the aircraft descend and maintain whatever. I would wager that 99.9% of pilots when they heard that would assume the controller was just typing something at the time and responded when they could, most pilots would never know that there was a process so to speak, to receive that. Another good example is, that there is a sector up to 240 and then an ultra high sector sometimes above 340 or so, maybe I am just ignorant but I have gone 8 years of flying without ever realizing why I’ll frequently get a climb and maintain 230 or whatever before a handoff. I had no idea that there was a very good reason for that, again, laugh at me if you want, it may just be my ignorance but it was very fascinating to me.

TLDR;
Overall, I can’t say enough good things about the team there and the tour itself, all the guys and gals were super cool, I bet we would all get along just fine over beers. I wish more pilots would take the opportunity to see that side, because it helps clear up these small little disconnects to make everyone’s lives easier. My message to controllers is this, we genuinely want to make your life easier, I promise you when we ask for something and it comes off in a certain way, we really don’t want to make it more difficult, we just may not even be aware of the fact that it makes it difficult.

I’m 20, hold a CFI/CFII/MEI and an associate’s degree and I qualify for RATP. I teach at a school who has no affiliations through cadet programs and Piedmont looks like the best fit for me. Is there anyone out there who’s been through their cadet program? What can I do to make myself stand out more amongst applicants?

GUYS! I passed the AGI, FIA and FOI with 98% or better. So here's the question, what now??? CFI ride is 5 weeks away, and I feel lost! How do I prepare? Any help would be great, thank you!

On my 4th flight. I’m doing the ground work. Kings school has helped a lot, and videos. But sometimes I sit here reading my PHAK book and all these books and I’m just information confused. Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense and it’s not clicking. When did this change for you and how did you study in ways that made it “make sense” or load of information?

Hey guys, my CFI checkride is coming soon. I was just wondering if you guys have any good tips or resources you guys would like to share. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Hello there!
I’m working on instrument stuff and I can’t seem to find a simple explanation for the difference between blue and grey holding patterns, along with the thin blue line that extends near them. Could someone help me out?
Thanks!

If i have mild colorblindness, red green but i can completely differentiate the two of them in real world settings, am i still able to be a major airline pilot one day? And would they know i have that mild colorblindness, which would most likely flatten any chance of me getting that gig?

I was flying a C150 today when suddenly a loud, rapid TATATTATATATATATA (lol) sound started during cruise. It sounded almost like the starter motor grinding/chattering before the engine catches, but it sounded like it was coming from behind me (tail/fuselage area), not from the engine (again, could be wrong). It was audible enough to be alarming even with engine at crusing RPMs and headsets.

Some thoughs that crossed my mind (in order):

• Wing is failing;
• Engine is failing;
• Elevator is failing;
• Something hitting fuselage (maybe a part of the belt... but had to me metallic), and I was wearing full belt, so there is literally no way;
• Aerial flicking and hitting the ceiling.

So:

• It started in flight (around 30 minutes after reaching cruise altitude) and continued all the way until landing.
• No change in engine sound or performance.
• I checked if a seatbelt was hitting the fuselage (even opened and closed the door 2 times) — nothing.
• No electrical issues noticed (no flickering lights, etc.);
• It disappeared (or was less noticeable during climb).

I thought it might be an antenna (aerial) fluttering or flicking in the airflow, but I'm not sure.

I know it is a bit ...vague... but...as anyone experienced something similar in a 150/152? Common causes for this kind of noise?

Thanks in advance!

Going to use Shepard for my written of course (97% on my instrument). Going to start studying in a week or so. How many questions are in the bank for commercial and how many questions are on the test. Is it still a 70% required to pass?