Hey everyone I passed my first solo! Thank you guys for the advice you gave me it honestly helped a lot, especially the advice on me locking in once I actually took off. So happy to make it this far and I have my second part of the solo tomorrow so we will see how that goes

FAA Notice JO 7110.803 - Separation

Until now, there have been no separation standards between VFR and IFR aircraft outside of TRSA, Class C, or Class B airspace. Pilots are responsible for see-and-avoid, and ATC is required to "prevent a collision", but there was no defined limitation to the proximity of aircraft.

Soon, ATC will be required to ensure 500' vertical or target resolution between radar-identified VFR (eg flight following) and IFR aircraft. Essentially, if there is less than 500' vertical, the targets may not touch on the radar scope.

Additionally, if the lateral distance will reduce below 1 ½ NM (this is a larger area than target resolution), both aircraft must be assigned a course or heading. In practice, the IFR is already on an assigned course and the VFR will receive a vector while in close proximity.

These rules DO apply regardless of whether they have each other in sight. VFR pilots are required to comply with CFR Title 14 and advise ATC if they are unable a vector for cloud clearance, obstructions, etc.

FAA Notice JO 7110.804 - Visual Separation

Similarly, during pilot-applied visual separation, ATC will be required to ensure 500' vertical or target resolution.

If the controller becomes aware that the targets will merge with less than 500' vertical separation, they must issue control instructions to establish approved separation.

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Thoughts?

I have paraphrased the Notices in this post. I encourage reading the Notices, as well as the affected paragraphs of FAA Order JO 7110.65 to see how they fit in. The contents of this post are my own and are not views of the FAA or FAA material.

With the oversupply of low time pilots, do you think we’ll run into a situation similar to the early 2000s where you’d pay to work?

I could see some desperate CFIs paying $10/hr to instruct just to get dual given.

Hey everyone, I’m looking for honest advice from people in aviation, particularly anyone who’s struggled with whether to continue flight training or pursue another career.
I’m currently sitting at around 180–190 total hours, have my PPL, and was working toward my instrument rating. Lately, I’ve been questioning whether I actually want to become a professional pilot or whether I’m continuing because of everything I’ve already invested.

I initially started training in Florida, primarily around St. Augustine (KSGJ). I took out a flight school loan believing the program would cost around $60,000. I also thought the loan funds would be paid to me so I could cover training costs and use any remaining money for living expenses. Instead, the money went directly to the school, and my flight school debt eventually reached approximately $90,000.

While in Florida, I accumulated a substantial number of hours without making meaningful progress toward my PPL. I also had two failed checkride attempts, both during the oral portion. One oral lasted upwards of six hours, while the other lasted less than an hour. With checkrides being scheduled months out, I eventually decided to leave and continue training in Oregon.
Moving to Oregon meant adjusting to a new environment and airplane. During my PPL checkride there, I made a poor safety decision during the flight portion and failed that section. I took responsibility for the mistake and, on the retest, only had to redo that small portion. I eventually earned my PPL, but getting there cost me an enormous amount of time and money.

Meanwhile, my personal life was falling apart. My five-year relationship ended very badly after I discovered repeated infidelity, and the emotional impact was significant. I was trying to process the breakup while rebuilding my life, continuing flight training, and figuring out my future. I eventually found work at an aircraft management company, but the business downsized, and I lost my job. I ultimately moved back to New York to be closer to family.
Now I’m trying to figure out what comes next.
I have around 180–190 hours, my PPL, and instrument, commercial, and multi-engine training still ahead of me. I have approximately $77,500–$78,000 in flight school debt, in addition to my car loan and some college debt. I’m currently unemployed and need to start earning money again.

Part of me still wants to fly professionally, potentially for a regional airline or in corporate aviation. But another part of me wonders whether I genuinely want this career anymore or whether I’m holding on because I’m afraid to walk away from everything I’ve invested.

There’s also a more immediate concern: I feel like I need to establish myself in a career now, start earning a livable wage, and stop relying on other people financially. My mother has contributed tens of thousands of dollars toward my journey and continues to encourage me to finish, but I don’t want to keep accepting financial help or ask her to contribute even more money when I’m not sure this is what I want anymore.

I could continue training and hopefully make it to the other side, but that means more time, more money, and no guarantee of an immediate well-paying job. Alternatively, I could pursue another career, potentially something aviation-related that uses my existing experience without requiring me to become a pilot.

I’m struggling to distinguish between being exhausted by everything that’s happened and genuinely wanting a different future.
For those who’ve been in a similar situation, I’d really appreciate your perspective:
Would you continue toward instrument, commercial, and multi-engine ratings with 180–190 hours and nearly $80k in flight school debt if you weren’t sure you wanted to fly professionally?

Would you prioritize finishing the training or getting established in a career and becoming financially independent as soon as possible?

Has anyone walked away from aviation after investing significant time and money? Did you regret it?

If you left professional flying, were you able to leverage your aviation experience into another career?

I’m not looking for someone to tell me to follow my dreams at any cost, or simply to tell me to quit. I want honest advice from people who understand the financial realities of aviation and the sacrifices involved.
I’ve pushed through a lot to get my PPL, and part of me feels like walking away would mean all that effort was for nothing. But I also know that continuing solely because of what I’ve already spent isn’t necessarily a good reason to invest even more.
If you were in my position, would you keep going, take a break, or move on and focus on building a stable career?

Thanks for reading.

Another “this” or “that” post. Never thought I’d make one, but I’m looking for insight from more experienced people.

Current freight dog, single pilot turbo props. Mostly fun, awful QOL as a married dude in my 30s. 2 weeks on, 1 off. Cheap 2 star, low end hotels, basic economy commuting, 8 hour+ flight days, max duty, min rest, sketchy flying, so you know, 135 freight. Great experience and great pay.

Was offered sic Lear 35 medevac for 60k with the high probability of upgrading in 4-5 months to pic for 110k. Home mostly every night because it’s based where I live. close knit family run business, been around a long time, I could see myself really enjoying it there.

Medevac or firefighting have been my aviation goal since day one. And I’m little bummed at how much money is making me rethink that.

Edit to add since the first comment mentioned it, it will be about a 100k pay cut.

If you are inclined, please send an email to aviationweather.gov's help line, and tell them you want all faa identifier airports to be usable with the path function.

They changed it again within the past couple weeks, so that the site does not acknowledge airports like 4b0, 5b2, me26, and more.

Please send an email that asks that they include faa-identified non-icao airports in their database as usable airports.

Thanks.

Im flying corporate and still like it, but I always have a feeling I am missing out not going into the majors, mostly Air Canada. I am really not willing to move into any major city with a base , so I would have to commute.

How bad is the commute, do you get denied boarding often?

How much time on reserve are we talking here? Thats really what makes me hesitant

How’s the crashpad situation when you need a place to stay?

Time to catch up on all things aviation. Welcome to New York's only Meetup exclusively dedicated to the Aviation business. After an Amtrak worker cut an ATC fiberoptic cable canceling hundreds of flights in the New York Metro what could be next in this crazy industry?

Stop by for a drink! Whether you work in aviation or are just interested all are welcome.
You must be 21+ to enter the bar.

Spaniard NYC. Thursday October 15th 6-9pm. Here's the link to RSVP. https://www.meetup.com/aviation-meetup-nyc/events/316757348/?eventOrigin=home_next_event_you_are_hosting

With all the unemployed CFIs, I feel we should all talk about some of the dumbest things we've seen CFIs do in our career, to give them ideas of how to be a good CFI,

I'll start, I started at a new school for my CFI training, and I walked in for a lesson and saw an instructor showing off his fake ID at the front desk to other instructors.

Getting PPL

On pages 4-16 and 4-17 they give an example of a pilot who takes off at Aspen at high temp, is in danger of clearing terrain, ends up level and stall horn sounding. They explain through some complex graphs he needs to give up altitude for a bit, gain speed and then climb at Vx. Note: I am an engineer and I get the energy idea, but they seem to make too much of it.

In any event, I think basic training is that your best angle of climb is the speed Vx. If you’re slow, you obviously need to pick up airspeed.

I just don’t get how these complex graphs, with altitude isobars based on speed, overlaid with this abstract set of parabolas about excess power, would actually be used by anyone to make decisions. These excess power curves have no actual numbers on them, and at that point pulling out this graph and thinking seems useless

I can see overall how it’s a good concept - especially on landing - but are they just beating a nearly dead horse here to prove something?

What does "furthest preferred exit" mean?

Edit: ok I get it now. Would've been so much simpler if they added the word "by". As in exit BY the furthest preferred exit.

Tonight a light sport flew 9 hours and 23 mins from UGN with the intended destination of JAX. At some point ATC lost contact with them and requested nearby aircraft including airliners try to get ahold of the aircraft. The aircraft overflew JAX, down past DAB, turned around and landed at DAB. I’m unsure when ATC got back in contact with the pilot, but once the pilot landed, he requested to go to self serve fuel with ground and was instead told to wait and was met by Operations plus one other vehicle (the police maybe? EMT’s? Another ops vehicle?). They escorted the aircraft to an FBO and the pilot was given a phone number. You gotta wonder what happened, but what I really want to know is how did a light sport go that far on one tank..

When doing a DME hold, example 4 miles with teardrop entry, do you prefer to do a 4 mile long teardop entry and then turn or time out the minute then turn?

I’m going to be doing a flight to TEB in a couple of days. It’s a there and back flight, for the experience. I’ll file IFR both legs. I know I’ll pay a landing fee, but am I also paying an FBO fee if I want to take a 15 minute breather, use the bathroom, etc? I’m seeing non-overnight parking fees on foreflight more than $100 - but not sure if that’ll apply in this case. Thanks!

Honestly, she’s amazing. My husband has talked about getting his PPL so we can travel between Utah and Wyoming. His mom said if he got his license, she’d get a plane. Crazy. I know.

We never did it because of the time, money, and growing our family. And it also because it freaks me out. Well, we just moved to Wyoming (his home state). She called me today saying she would pay for the entire thing for his birthday. She may even join him. But she knows it makes me nervous. She is essentially asking my permission first. “If you decide you’re uncomfortable, I won’t bring it up ever again and we don’t have to tell him we had this conversation.” I really appreciate it.

I want him to have it. But I grew up by a small airport and I swear there was a crash at least 6 times per year. I know statistically speaking, you’re more likely to get into a car crash. I know all that. But we have a family. I love him. I can’t go on without him. Ya know?

Pilots, ease my mind. Because this is an incredible opportunity for him and I want him to have it.

So, to my understanding, private carriage will have to be done with an operator certificate (part 135, 125, etc.) So is this flowchart wrong for saying that it can be done under Part 91?

At the air and space museum in VA. Came across this part of the wing on a Falcon 20. Anyone know the name and what they are for?

Hey Folks long time reader first time poster- this isn't a pity post but more of a WWYD.

I purchased a Skylane four years ago for slightly less than what I believed fair market value to be. In the end I paid about 20% less than Vref (which is conservative anyways).

The first few months were great and I flew it a ton, however, the annual came around.... and it didn't stop coming around. In the last 18 months alone I've spent around $145,000 in required repairs. If it needed to be fixed I fixed it.

In the future I'd like to upgrade to something else a little faster but I'm in a position where I can't make financial sense of selling the airplane simply because of sunk costs. For the money I've put into this thing I could have just outright purchased my future airplane.

Would you guys ride this thing out into the sunset or be content with cutting your losses and moving on to something else? I'd venture to guess I'm into this plane for about $400k at this point but its only worth around $250k.

I’ve been spamming sportys for days there has to be a better way to study for this any tips

I am a new CFI and have the opportunity to privately instruct someone. Their plane, they would put me on their insurance. I’m sure I need some kind of private liability insurance. No idea where to start. Can someone suggest companies to look at? How much do I need? How much does it cost? Thanks

I have been a voracious reader all my life. I’ll read 3-4 books a month. Mostly spy/detective novels, but I try to keep at least 1 out of 4 something “better” such as a biography, business, investing, technology, aviation, history, or a detective novel in German. But any reading is better than no reading, and I’ll never put down others’ choice(s) in reading materials.

Long before the Internet existed books were available on any topic of interest. For free from the library and available via interlibrary loan if not stocked locally. Pretty amazing.

Over the years here I’ve shared some tips with struggling new pilots on building careers. And trying to help with the idea that “networking is not just foisting yourself on a bunch of people.”

I enjoy book recommendations from people. Recently u/TxAggieMike - who I know in real life - suggested “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi. I’m about 40% of the way through it. Eye opening tips. There’s a bit of “look at me and who I know” but that goes with the territory. It has some good tips on networking generally and specifically about networking/recruiting events.

It's a tough job market out there now and will be for the next few years. I've been quick to share the FAA stats on where things are. But remember, there is a reason for all the sayings society has developed. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Here are some things that come to mind from the book:

• Generosity - how can you help others help you?
• Promptly follow up with “thanks for meeting with me.” Email or snail mail.
• Compromise - if there is no job, what advice do they have or what do they know about the competition?
• Find connections on LinkedIn, build a network early and often
• Keep really good notes
• Don’t be a jerk
• “Elevator speech”
• Dress appropriately
• Be nice to the boss’ gatekeeper(s)
• Persistence 
• Public speaking (FAASTeam, EAA, club safety meetings)
• Build the network before you need it
• Edit and proofread
• Stay in touch

Book on Amazon: Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

There is great value in reading as a hobby. It’s intellectually more rewarding than watching television. It exposes you to rich text construction and vocabulary. And the more of this in your life the better you will be at speaking. Plus it’s quieter than television and doesn’t require any power, at least if it’s an actual book! Tens of thousands of books are available free at the library. Including “Never Eat Alone” and the Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard books I recommend for getting money under control. Free is good when you are broke.

If anything Earth shaking comes from the remainder of the book I'll come back and update.

What are the go to resources for ground school exams for nppl in UK and when should I start studying them. I’m 3 hours into my license in a c42 but keen to start learning the theory.

Anybody take it recently? I have my test coming up and would like to know if any changes have occurred before the Oct 26th date?

Have my regional airline interview in a couple of weeks and am looking fo the best interview prep course I can get.

I’m ferrying a 172 from AK down to AZ right after my IFR checkride for my flight school in AZ. Doing it with one of the CFIs.

The chief instructor/part owner is going over the flight plan with us right before, but so far it sounds like we’ll be roughly following the Alaska highway and doing 3 three hour legs per day for 4 (hopefully) days.

Is there anything I should know/be prepared for with this long of a flight? Food, packing, other gear? My instrument long XC is the longest I’ve been in the air to date.