Polar Express Spotted in Grand Forks

Cole and I we outside in the snow trying to get some pictures of Cole playing in the snow. Come to find out that Cole is scared to death of the snow and we decided to go and look at the trains instead.

I was carrying Cole on my shoulders and walking through snow that was up to my knees. Much different than Boise I must say. Here is the original picture of the train. Notice that you can not even see the tracks under the train.

Snow Is Finally Here!!!!

Well I was not impressed with the snow situation that was here in the big bad Midwest. It was well into the end of November and we hadn't really received anything in the form of snow. Well after this last week that was not the case any more.

Well one week and 7 inches later, winter is upon us. PS we are expected to receive more snow on Tuesday.

And another side note, there is only more week of school!!!!

And the counter that is on my desktop - 12 months/17 days/ 01 hour/ 07 minutes/ 40 seconds until Graduation.

Well getting into the final stretch for this semester. I really only have three more weeks of work plus finals week. Most of my classes are wrapping up with group projects, or long final papers. I am sure glad that I don't have a lot on general educations classes this semester. At least with aviation there is some interest in the classes, where as my English class I am bored out of my mind with writing papers. Oh well, today is the day that I get to register for classes. I have been planning out my next semester since the class schedule game out over a month ago. I am just hoping that the classes are not full by the time that I get to register.

Job Hiring

The way that the job offers go, for those of you who are curious (Jenn), after I pass the AT-SAT test the FAA places my name into a "pot." In this pot I am allowed to pick a couple of states and then my name goes into that state's pot. After that I get placed on a list for that particular state and finally interviewed by the facilities within that state that are in need of hiring controllers. So looking at the Boise facility they are currently at 92% staffed with four people who are able to retire at the end of the year. This looks promising because they try to hire controllers from around the area first, plus it takes near two years of on the job training just at the facility before you can really control on your own. So there should be several spots open in Boise by this time next year. Here is a website that you can look up facilities and the staffing at each facility. http://data.gannettnewsservice.com/airtraffic/facreport.php?FACID=BOI

I hope that clears up any questions out there.

Half Way Done

Well I am half way done with semester # 1 making that 1/8 of the way done with school. Only 7 more half semesters to go. In my Intro to ATC class we are moving onto the radar portion of the class as depicted by the image on top. This is a screen shot of what my radar screen looks like. You can click on it to get a better view of the picture. The circle in the middle with the two dashed lines going through it represent the academy airport (fictional airport). The dashed lines are one mile apart and they are the ILS approach lines. The circle that they go through is the tower's airspace. The circle just to the south is another airport Jeske Air Base with the ILS approach lines. The "goal looking" things on the outer most part are called gates in which departing and arriving traffic must go through. There is four departure gates, North, South, East, West and these are depicted with the poles of the gates pointed inward. The other four gates are the arrival gates. Each of these gates are named something different to depict on the map where they are. Sounds confusing, but with the proper memorization it shouldn't be too hard.

In my tower class we are moving on from giving clearances and weather to the proper way to taxi aircraft and the correct departure intersections at which they are to depart from.

Math, just moving on from the same old theorems that will not mean anything to me in the future, English, getting ready to write the eight page report on an environmental issue.

Human factors working on Crew Resource Management, Aviation Orientation we are still listening to boring lectures about the different career paths for aviation offered at UND, this is a freshman course worth one credit I wish I could have done without.

And on a side note I have enrolled in a distance Management course, that I have to take, that I hope to complete during the month break I will have over Christmas. I am hoping that I can get it done in time to take another before the end of the year. I am hoping that by Fall of 2008 I have gotten three of these courses done to lighten my load for that final semester. My goal is to only be taking four classes during the Fall so that I can TA in some ATC courses and make a little bit of money to prepare for the move to OK.

Here is a link that talks about what you have to go through to become a controller

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos108.htm

Spending Money??

Well the tests that I have had in the last couple of weeks went by without a hitch, classes seem back to normal. I have recently been looking at my next couple of semesters trying to plan them out so that I have to be here as little as possible. I have run into a problem with a flying class. In order to graduate in ATC you have to take either AVIT 101 or 102. One class is a survey of flight, the other is Private Flight class. I have already taken this class @ UVSC but they will not accept the completion of the class @ UND. Sounds rather stupid to me, I am finding out that I will have to retake a ground school class but instead of the 40 hours of flight time that I will need for a private, I will be able to by pass most of the lessons. At least that will take away some of the cost. My major concern is that this ground school will take up a good section of my week, possible delaying some of my other class into another semester. I am hoping that this is not the case, I would sure hate to have to hang out for another semester for just one or two classes. I talked with an ATC advisor / professor and he told me that he thought that I had to take the class again was just stupid. He thought the reason ATC has to take any of the flying classes is to keep the student instructors here with work. Makes sense but it still sucks being on this end. I read in a book ( one that I had to read ) that the UND aviation department logs over 100,000 hours of flight time per year.

On a side not, I am going to be taking my AT-SAT exam by Christmas, at least that is the plan. This is a exam that I have to pass to get a job offer from the FAA, so it is pretty important. If I don't pass I will be able to take the test again after one year, that is why I am hoping that I can take it now, so that I can take it again just before I graduate.

When I was working @ Skywest I had a co-worker that made me listen to this, I found it, so I thought that I would pass it on. It is rather length, but the content it funny if you can follow it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUnVlyyar4M&mode=related&search=

ATC First 6 Weeks

Well not much is happening in school, I have taken my first math test. Human factors test is on Wednesday, and I have a mid term in Tower Operations next Tuesday or Thursday. In my intro to ATC class we have just started going into the simulators. I would have to say that these are really life like sims. We are in a 360 sim as everyone around here calls it. You can actually watch your plane being pushed away from the gates with a little tug, and you watch you plane taxi to the runways. We are working on ground control and have ground control pass the planes to the tower. Tower is responsible for just the runways, both arriving and departing airplanes. This sim is really detailed, you can see the logos on the planes themselves. I will have to get a picture of this sim and place it on my blog. All of the aviation buildings are connected by "skyways" and on one of the "skyways" you pass over the 360 sim. You are able to look down in to it and watch the students working in there. Well that class is just basic stuff, getting to know all of the equipment that we will be working with. In my actual tower class we are working on reading the ATIS (automated terminal information system, weather) and reading clearances to airplanes based off of the departure strips. Will are going to get started in the sims after the mid term and I am really looking forward to that.

Well Cole and I decided to get out of the house for one of the last times before it really starts getting cold here. I know that it does seem like that is close right now since it was 92 here today, but forecasting in the 50's the next couple of days will change the feel in a hurry. But here is a couple of pics of the trains that I have been trying to get Cole to see.

On the way back I spotted some butterflies and tried to get a pic of Cole with them but he wasn't having any of that. The orange and black butterflies were huge.

Just Getting Started

Well after watching Sarah set up a blog, and talking with Rich on the phone for about a half an hour I decided to put together a blog to let everyone know what was going on with me. I will just focus on what is going on with school and I will let Sarah talk about the family. Stay tuned, more is on the way.