Watching 2009 fly into the sunset...

What a year! I've already done one of those counting-the-hours posts (back in August, right after I completed my CFI), so I'll spare you more numbers. Suffice it to say, in 2009 I just about tripled my lifetime flight experience and earned almost 100 hours of instruction given as a CFI. Even a year ago right now (January 2), I couldn't have imagined just how well 2009 would go.

Thank you for following me so far. I haven't been as good about updating here since I actually started working as an instructor, but you've followed me from a 10-hour-a-year private pilot who could barely center a VOR needle to a confident CFI/I.

What's ahead for this year? For me, there are a couple of housekeeping items I need to take care of. I have exactly "0" hours in multi-engine aircraft, and I plan to solve that this year by adding multi-engine rating to my commercial certificate. I'd also like to upgrade my seaplane rating to the commercial level. There's no reason for anything on my license to say "private privileges" anymore :). Of course, I'll take you along for the ride on both. Somewhere in there, I also plan to keep gently nudging Alisa in the direction of learning to fly. She's willing, but she needs a few extra pushes. If you're reading this, you could help with that!

Also, I'll be teaching the same Aviation History class at Baylor that I co-taught as a TA last spring. The difference is, this time it's all me! I'm excited about doing this. Not only do I like the curriculum, but presence among these students is a great way to get the word out about my full-time gig and being back on campus in a faculty capacity proves once and for all that the problems at my old job lay with the management.

For Waco Flight Training and Legacy Aircraft (our parent company), the sky literally is the limit. WFT will probably begin a radio ad campaign later this spring, and we are continuing to add students. Legacy Aircraft is about to expand into some cool new markets, and I'll share more about that as things happen. Parker and I really are working on turning ourselves into what I think of as general aviation solution specialists, and that's pretty exciting. It may keep me in a place where I can wear boots to work and keep me out of the cockpit of a Saab or ATR for a while, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I may have actually stumbled into a career here.



I'll close with a photo I took from N2150G the week before Christmas. Parker and I had flown down to my old stomping grounds at David Wayne Hooks in Houston to do some work on his CFII and I caught this sunset on the way home. Really good metaphor for 2009, I think. A day that I wasn't really in a hurry to see end, but ended beautifully all the same.

Blue skies!