my experiences with aviation...
i remember the day i the day i held the brochure in my hands... the brochure from Phoenix East Aviation... i dont know if uve had one,,, but there it was... my "calling"... i thought "wow! this is wat i want to be!"... the brochure had in it pictures... pictures of wat my future wud hold... smart uniforms,,, groovy cockpits,,, a glamorous lifestyle... that's how this fiasco started... based on fancies... based on whims...
nothing much came out of it immediately though... dad didnt think it was for me... even though it was he who had sowed the seed of aviation in my brain... nothing... till ASA advertised... and again... it was my dad who brought it to my notice... it involved a lot of work... psychometry, class II medicals, KFA interview, trips to chennai and mumbai, visa interviews, bank trips... a whole lot of preparation... but there i was... leaving on a jetplane... to america... leaving on a jetplane... to learn to fly one...
i didnt really have any visions of wat america wud be like... but nothing... just nothing in my wildest dreams wudve prepared me for Atwater... dry as a desert... hot as a furnace... as boring as a geography class... it was in short... hell on earth!!! words cant describe the barracks... the carpets probably had never been cleaned since theyd been put there... the washbasin was perenially clogged.... the study was converted into a kitchen... it looked like it was ready for the wrecking ball... and the people... ive lived all my life in coimbatore... my dad is a teetotaller... ive never seen ppl drink... drink till they lost their senses and made fools out of themselves... till i got to ASA... it did take some getting used to... every night was disco night... music blared on and on... but i did get used to it... things didnt seem so bad once that happened... i lived my life... they lived theirs...
i waited... waited for 15 days for the ground classes to start... and then 3 months to start flying... wen i did start flying,,, it was once every fortnight... there's nothing as depressing as waiting at a flight school... dont argue till uve tried it!!! and then finally,,, ron appeared on the scene... flying picked up after that... things were pretty fine... except for a few hiccoughs... happens everywhere... right??? but then... came the 15th of may... a surprise meeting... in which we were told school wud be shut for 2 weeks... 2 weeks stretched on to 6 weeks... the worst in my life... not knowing... hoping... but still worrying if the worst wud come to be... it did... first the county shut the power and water connections... and then we were evicted... evicted!!! for god's sake!!!
ive never shifted houses ever... never ever in my whole life... well... never is a long time... n so... i had my dues to pay... and pay... i most certainly did! we'd been in the barracks 10 months... id never thrown anything away... id hoarded every bill,,, every brochure,,, every bit of junk that had come into my possession... and i had 2 hours (yes! 2 whole hours!!!) to sift through all that junk and keep wat i needed and do away with all that i didnt... it was hard... there was no time for sentiments or emotions... i was hard pressed for time... from the barracks to the gemini barracks... from there to motel 6... motel 6 to the apartment in dublin... and a month from then to extended stay... then to the apartment in livermore... i lived out of suitcases... ate junk... drove around... all this when the guilt hung over my head... pretty heavy... $25,000 heavy...
finding the apartment had been an accomplishment in itself... there was a day i broke down,,, midway between our house-hunt... we'd approach someone... they would show us the place... we'd sit down for paperwork... and then be asked for credit history... cruel joke... believe me, you,,, dont ever come to the states on an M1 visa! its a cruel joke!!! we'd re-enacted this drama so many times that i eventually lost count... i guess God eventually thought he'd step in and help... ive no other explanation for it...
the 2 months that followed were good... we flew our brains out!!! airport to airport... we were living the dream... life was good!!! best part of my flying career... marine layers, ils-es, vors, clearances... i loved it all... we had our instrument ratings before long...
there are times u have to make decisions... once u make one, it can go two ways... if it takes off, the world is in love with you... if it fails, u have reproaches, i-told-u-so-s, and worse still guilt to contend with... well, to cut a long story short, we got the latter...
shifted again... i dont even remember where we went and wat we did... its all a blur... but we did it with the best intentions... but i guess good intentions are not all that count... after a lot of starting trouble,,, things did get rolling... im sure ur thinking... "uh oh! a positive note?? wonder wat went wrong this time!"... if that is wat ur thinking... go ahead and pat urself on the back... it just means uve been paying attention to this rather lengthy tale of woe!! well... to cut a long story short (wonder why i didnt think of it b4 now...), i happened to taxi a lil too close to the threshold lights... the propeller kinda objected to this act of mine... sigh... the result... we're back to waiting... the sense of guilt is 100 times more pronounced this time around... there's money involved... as always... and worse still,,, im responsible for so many others having to wait... it doesnt help knowing that it was a mistake that couldve happened to anybody... it did happen to me... and thats hard to live with...
every time something went wrong i consoled myself saying "this is as bad as it gets... cant get any worse..." and every time ive been proved wrong... if all this is a test of character,,, i dont really know if ive passed or failed... if its just bad luck,,, i can only hope it has run its course...
i dont know wat the future has in store for me... bad weather is a certainty,,, its already begun to rear its ugly head at us... aviation in india is in a slump... for wat period of time, only time can tell... everything looks bleak... im as close as can be to losing faith... if miracles still happen,,, i sure could use one now!!!
wat continues to be a consolation is the support i have... from my folks back home... after all this,,, they still believe in me... they still think things will turn around... i will feed off their hope,,, till im brave enough... to hope again...
nothing much came out of it immediately though... dad didnt think it was for me... even though it was he who had sowed the seed of aviation in my brain... nothing... till ASA advertised... and again... it was my dad who brought it to my notice... it involved a lot of work... psychometry, class II medicals, KFA interview, trips to chennai and mumbai, visa interviews, bank trips... a whole lot of preparation... but there i was... leaving on a jetplane... to america... leaving on a jetplane... to learn to fly one...
i didnt really have any visions of wat america wud be like... but nothing... just nothing in my wildest dreams wudve prepared me for Atwater... dry as a desert... hot as a furnace... as boring as a geography class... it was in short... hell on earth!!! words cant describe the barracks... the carpets probably had never been cleaned since theyd been put there... the washbasin was perenially clogged.... the study was converted into a kitchen... it looked like it was ready for the wrecking ball... and the people... ive lived all my life in coimbatore... my dad is a teetotaller... ive never seen ppl drink... drink till they lost their senses and made fools out of themselves... till i got to ASA... it did take some getting used to... every night was disco night... music blared on and on... but i did get used to it... things didnt seem so bad once that happened... i lived my life... they lived theirs...
i waited... waited for 15 days for the ground classes to start... and then 3 months to start flying... wen i did start flying,,, it was once every fortnight... there's nothing as depressing as waiting at a flight school... dont argue till uve tried it!!! and then finally,,, ron appeared on the scene... flying picked up after that... things were pretty fine... except for a few hiccoughs... happens everywhere... right??? but then... came the 15th of may... a surprise meeting... in which we were told school wud be shut for 2 weeks... 2 weeks stretched on to 6 weeks... the worst in my life... not knowing... hoping... but still worrying if the worst wud come to be... it did... first the county shut the power and water connections... and then we were evicted... evicted!!! for god's sake!!!
ive never shifted houses ever... never ever in my whole life... well... never is a long time... n so... i had my dues to pay... and pay... i most certainly did! we'd been in the barracks 10 months... id never thrown anything away... id hoarded every bill,,, every brochure,,, every bit of junk that had come into my possession... and i had 2 hours (yes! 2 whole hours!!!) to sift through all that junk and keep wat i needed and do away with all that i didnt... it was hard... there was no time for sentiments or emotions... i was hard pressed for time... from the barracks to the gemini barracks... from there to motel 6... motel 6 to the apartment in dublin... and a month from then to extended stay... then to the apartment in livermore... i lived out of suitcases... ate junk... drove around... all this when the guilt hung over my head... pretty heavy... $25,000 heavy...
finding the apartment had been an accomplishment in itself... there was a day i broke down,,, midway between our house-hunt... we'd approach someone... they would show us the place... we'd sit down for paperwork... and then be asked for credit history... cruel joke... believe me, you,,, dont ever come to the states on an M1 visa! its a cruel joke!!! we'd re-enacted this drama so many times that i eventually lost count... i guess God eventually thought he'd step in and help... ive no other explanation for it...
the 2 months that followed were good... we flew our brains out!!! airport to airport... we were living the dream... life was good!!! best part of my flying career... marine layers, ils-es, vors, clearances... i loved it all... we had our instrument ratings before long...
there are times u have to make decisions... once u make one, it can go two ways... if it takes off, the world is in love with you... if it fails, u have reproaches, i-told-u-so-s, and worse still guilt to contend with... well, to cut a long story short, we got the latter...
shifted again... i dont even remember where we went and wat we did... its all a blur... but we did it with the best intentions... but i guess good intentions are not all that count... after a lot of starting trouble,,, things did get rolling... im sure ur thinking... "uh oh! a positive note?? wonder wat went wrong this time!"... if that is wat ur thinking... go ahead and pat urself on the back... it just means uve been paying attention to this rather lengthy tale of woe!! well... to cut a long story short (wonder why i didnt think of it b4 now...), i happened to taxi a lil too close to the threshold lights... the propeller kinda objected to this act of mine... sigh... the result... we're back to waiting... the sense of guilt is 100 times more pronounced this time around... there's money involved... as always... and worse still,,, im responsible for so many others having to wait... it doesnt help knowing that it was a mistake that couldve happened to anybody... it did happen to me... and thats hard to live with...
every time something went wrong i consoled myself saying "this is as bad as it gets... cant get any worse..." and every time ive been proved wrong... if all this is a test of character,,, i dont really know if ive passed or failed... if its just bad luck,,, i can only hope it has run its course...
i dont know wat the future has in store for me... bad weather is a certainty,,, its already begun to rear its ugly head at us... aviation in india is in a slump... for wat period of time, only time can tell... everything looks bleak... im as close as can be to losing faith... if miracles still happen,,, i sure could use one now!!!
wat continues to be a consolation is the support i have... from my folks back home... after all this,,, they still believe in me... they still think things will turn around... i will feed off their hope,,, till im brave enough... to hope again...
posted by nIrAnJaNa at 11:35 AM
2 Comments:
A friend of mine went through a similar experience in San Deigo...I can understand you completely. That friend's aviation school was a fraud and didnt have flying for almost a year...in fact they had one plane for the entire class of 50!!
Once the course is over(fingers crossed that you come out with flying colors!!) can you please post the lessons that you learnt from this experience, so that others dont make the same mistake..
@ rehab: hey! thanks for stopping by! n yup! there are many schools that are not as awesome as their websites makes them out to be. n sure! will make that my next post!
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