Wow, school has taken up so much time. By the way, thanks everyone for your comments of encouragement. I am actually surprised that anyone is reading this. I mostly did it to keep a record for myself, so I guess I need to try to make it interesting for others to read.
I am now in the summer semester, and about to start work on turbine engines. When I am done with that in about 8 weeks, I will be able to take my first FAA exams and become licensed as a 'P' (powerplant mechanic). Then all I have to take is 2 more semesters working on the Airframe courses and I will be done with the FAA part. If I want to get any sort of degree from the school, I still have to do some general subjects: math, communications etc. Not everyone in the class cares about that, they just want to get the FAA licensing and get to work. I am not sure what I am going to do. So far I have only done one of the required classes, English, and it was hard to add that extra work. I still have a 4.0, so it is not the work, but the time required that makes it more difficult.
It looks like THE PLANE is about to do another road trip. I just completed a 60 hour internship at a restoration hanger in Heber (part of the course). Just the type of work I want to do - it was a great experience. Anyway, the owner of the business is going to make room in his hangar to put my plane in there so I can work on it out of the weather. Only problem is, it is about 45 miles from here, so I will have to work out a schedule to make sure I get up there and do it. But there is a lot of expertise, help and support at Heber, so I have more chance of success up there.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Not Bad!
Last week I competed in the Skills USA Competition. we had to do various tasks, like timing a magneto, riveting, safety wire, tube bending and composite structure fault finding. I ended up placing second in the state, which gives me free tuition for a semester.
Considering that most of the skills are things we had not studied yet, I think I did OK. As for finishing second, when we first started do the training for this, there were about 20 or so students from SLCC. Most were second year students who have done plenty of this work, and knew what they were doing. None of them ended up competing, probably because they will graduate in the summer, and the tuition is of no value to them. The school won't give them the cash. So in the end, only 4 1st year students competed. The other A&P school who should have come down and competed, was USU in Logan. They didn't send anyone down. So by coming second at the school, I came second at state (by default, but I am still claiming it). My purpose in competing wasn't to win the tuition, but to get better at those skills. I only found out about the tuition later on, and that is a real bonus. A lot of the other 1st year students now wish that they had taken the time to compete, but I kept telling them and they all had excuses why they didn't. Too bad.
Considering that most of the skills are things we had not studied yet, I think I did OK. As for finishing second, when we first started do the training for this, there were about 20 or so students from SLCC. Most were second year students who have done plenty of this work, and knew what they were doing. None of them ended up competing, probably because they will graduate in the summer, and the tuition is of no value to them. The school won't give them the cash. So in the end, only 4 1st year students competed. The other A&P school who should have come down and competed, was USU in Logan. They didn't send anyone down. So by coming second at the school, I came second at state (by default, but I am still claiming it). My purpose in competing wasn't to win the tuition, but to get better at those skills. I only found out about the tuition later on, and that is a real bonus. A lot of the other 1st year students now wish that they had taken the time to compete, but I kept telling them and they all had excuses why they didn't. Too bad.
Monday, January 10, 2011
School
It has been such a long time since I was in school. 35 years since I graduated high school. Wow! Well the commitment to go every day, 5 days a week, was a pretty solid one. But I guess that learning enough to be competent, and to claim to be a qualified aircraft mechanic, takes lots of time.
I got through the first semester pretty well, though. 16 credits with a 4.0 GPA. I start school again tomorrow, doing another 16 credits of aviation studies plus 3 credits of English. Lets see how I do this semester. The break has been nice, not having to travel the 150 mile round trip to school every day, but I am looking forward to learning about engines. That is the focus this semester. We will be tearing down and rebuilding several aircraft engines and also working on turbine (jet) engines as well. Should be fun
Unfortunately, because of the amount of time I am spending at school, not much has been done on the plane. However, a group of us is working on getting a hangar right near the school at SLC International Airport. If this happens, then I will move the plane up there. Several of my classmates have volunteered to help me with the restoration if I can get it moved to Salt Lake.
It will be another fun adventure moving it up the freeway, and I will post pictures of that event when it happens. This time, I will have one of my neighbors, a highway patrol officer, escort us on the freeway as we will be moving through more congested areas and several areas of highway construction.
I have been giving some consideration of continuing my studies after I have my A&P license, finishing off the bachelors degree with a teaching certificate. I did a fair amount of coaching last semester, and everyone tells me I would be a good teacher. Years ago, when I was going to go to college to become a high school teacher, I could not face the challenge of trying to teach teenagers who didn't really want to be there. But the thought of teaching a college level, especially with aviation as the subject is very appealing. That is a few years away though, so we will see what happens in the future. At the moment, surviving as a student will take all my focus and energy.
I got through the first semester pretty well, though. 16 credits with a 4.0 GPA. I start school again tomorrow, doing another 16 credits of aviation studies plus 3 credits of English. Lets see how I do this semester. The break has been nice, not having to travel the 150 mile round trip to school every day, but I am looking forward to learning about engines. That is the focus this semester. We will be tearing down and rebuilding several aircraft engines and also working on turbine (jet) engines as well. Should be fun
Unfortunately, because of the amount of time I am spending at school, not much has been done on the plane. However, a group of us is working on getting a hangar right near the school at SLC International Airport. If this happens, then I will move the plane up there. Several of my classmates have volunteered to help me with the restoration if I can get it moved to Salt Lake.
It will be another fun adventure moving it up the freeway, and I will post pictures of that event when it happens. This time, I will have one of my neighbors, a highway patrol officer, escort us on the freeway as we will be moving through more congested areas and several areas of highway construction.
I have been giving some consideration of continuing my studies after I have my A&P license, finishing off the bachelors degree with a teaching certificate. I did a fair amount of coaching last semester, and everyone tells me I would be a good teacher. Years ago, when I was going to go to college to become a high school teacher, I could not face the challenge of trying to teach teenagers who didn't really want to be there. But the thought of teaching a college level, especially with aviation as the subject is very appealing. That is a few years away though, so we will see what happens in the future. At the moment, surviving as a student will take all my focus and energy.
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