Project Aviator and Other Things

It has been some time since I've actually sat down to write something of interest on this site but I assure you that there is plenty of areas in my life that have required attention. Nevertheless, I have a lot of articles that I'm going to have to back date to fill in the gaps of space and I'll try and do that sooner than later. For now I'll attempt to bring anyone reading this up to speed on the various things that have crept into my world as of late. I'll begin with the projects and then taper off into the of current tasks that have consumed me.

The first is important to me and one I've named "Project Aviator". My idea for it began at some point during my flight training. I noticed that, at certain times, I was lacking motivation and feeling frustrated at any point where the training was impeded. Not to point out specifics (see I'm a Private Pilot! for that) but there is an assortment of reasons for it and it's more common for students than not. Some of them being self-inflicted while others not. Either way, once I got down the long(er than usual) road to obtaining my license I saw a unique opportunity to take the good parts that pushed me through the training process and try to help others who are struggling in theirs.

This idea ultimately shaped into what I've been creating lately and that is a website based community for student pilots to vent their frustrations, seek advice from others who are going through the same things, hear training techniques and lessons from licensed pilots, and at the end of the day help students get to where they're trying to go. I'm hoping that I've successfully painted a picture but since it's late and I've been working on this among other things all day, here is the link to the About Us page if you want to know more. It's a shell for now but the development stage is just about finished.

In addition to the recent time spent on Project Aviator, one of my childhood best friends (Sean - pictured below) came up with an idea for a video blog (Vlog). I'll try to spare you whatever suspense you might be silently harboring and only say that it is going to essentially follow the mantra of this website in it's unstated mission to reveal the personal struggles of following a dream while attempting to inspire the uninspired. Unlike this website however, it will focus on two people in two different industries and follow a sort of discussion format between Sean and I where we share the types of things involved in what we do, what it's taken to get to the points we're at, and kind of share the experience of two paths less known.

For the record, he's a professional DJ and the project is called Airplanes and Audio. I'll throw up the YouTube link as well as the first few videos once it gets going but it looks to be interesting. For the record, I'm not an audio-visual guy by any means so I'm telling everyone in advance to not expect much production value at first. I just got this GoPro HD Hero 2 and it's going to take me sometime to develop anything more than a series of homemade videos. I guess we will find out together what the final product will look like.

A side from those two 'side' projects, I'm now happy to announce that I've been accepted into the Lewis University Aviation Graduate program and I'm looking at also being paid to work in the aviation department on various things including research. Since I'm planning on finishing my Commercial Pilots license (hopefully sooner than later) while looking into my options of military flight packets, this allows me to finish my Master's degree, contribute to industry research, complete my rating and licenses, and weigh the option of becoming a Certified Flight Instructor in the meantime.

If I did end up becoming a CFI, Lewis' program wouldn't be a bad place to start building hours for commercial flying option, too. Of course that's all only an idea at the moment. For now though, it's with sadness that I have to admit that I haven't flown all summer. Originally the plan was to stay in Chicago but a lot happened in the beginning of May and I decided to take sometime and instead go see my family back in Maryland. I hadn't been home for a consecutive two month stretch in three years so it was wonderful to see everyone and spend so much time with my son.

Yet I'm back in the Chicagoland area now and with next semesters flight operations getting ready start back up, I'll be back in the air soon. Like I said I still have a lot of updates that I've been saving to back date because of everything going on (including my final thoughts of graduating with my Bachelor's Degree), but those will have to wait a little longer. Until then it's time to put things back into focus and plow through the next phase of whatever is to come.

"We make way for the men who boldly push past us." - Christian Bovee