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As a pilot and a captain at a regional airline, no matter where I go, I get asked the question, “How much would it cost me to get my private pilot license or to fly for an airline?” I always respond, “That’s a tough question to answer. You got a few hours?” That is because unfortunately there is no right answer. When I read entries in forums like WillFlyForFood.com and AirlinePilotForums.com, you see people asking this question all the time. Now there are general guidelines and a certain career track that can guide you, but to earn a Private Pilot Certificate or go the distance and fly for a regional airline, the ultimate path will vary.

So, in today’s entry I’ll talk a little bit about what you can expect when digesting all the information you will get from a flight school you are considering attending. This is by no means everything but it should get you started in the right direction.

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Before you enroll in a pilot ground school, take the time to learn a little bit about flying from a book, just as most people do with almost anything else. With the right flying instruction manual, you can enter pilot school confident that you’ll be on equal standing, if not ahead, with other students even if you haven’t had actual access to a plane.

Here are several factors to consider when choosing the right flight instruction textbook to use for introductory research on the topic:

USE – Always look for textbooks that are actively used in flight schools and are recommended by expert and veteran pilots. There’s a good reason why they want you to read and buy them so take their advice! Stop by a couple flight schools and see which books they use to teach their ground schools. Is it Jeppesen, ASA Private Pilot Test Prep Book, Gleim Private Pilot Written Exam Guide, or something else? Different books meet different people’s needs. And sometimes you need multiple books that present the information in different formats. You will figure out what you need.

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I grew up a swimmer. Since I was seven years old, swimming was all I knew. I had a knack for it. My upper body was long and this provided me with a lot of power as I got stronger. I had some good coaches through the years, and they always emphasized long, efficient strokes that optimized the effort spent.

I remember one particular relay race where I was the anchor. We were a bit behind when I got my start but I wasn’t worried. I loved to race. Before I knew it, I was in the water swimming. I knew what I had to do so I just swam my race. Slowly I made ground on the other swimmers and eventually passed them and won. When I got back to the bleachers, my coach was all red faced from excitement and he came up to me and said, “Jeff! Can you at least look like your going fast!” It was a terrific compliment and I would always remember it.

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If you think that having a career as an air freight pilot (or commonly referred to as a “Freight Dog“) agrees with you or you are thinking of using it as a stepping stone to get into a regional airline or charter airline then here’s what you should know about making your dream come true.

First, A (Very) Brief History of Air Freight

The air freight business really began around the 1920’s but it wasn’t until the 1940’s, that the air freight industry really a ot some traction. Companies were discovering that you could move equipment and parcels quickly and efficiently using an air service but at the time there were only two companies that managed to survive the beginning years.

During this time, only one company – the Flying Tiger Line – survived, and eventually newer and tougher competition forced it to rival with the very company it was competing against, Federal Express.

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In any airplane there are a lot of buttons you will very rarely touch or press. The “DC Service” switch and the “DC Avail” push button are two of them. I talked about it briefly on the CRJ200 – Electrical Power Services Panel page, but this one goes a little deeper. Not much deeper because there really isn’t much to say about it…but I did it anyway. 

So, in all my time flying the CRJ200, I have never had an instance to use this switch and button, and to tell the truth probably wouldn’t know how to use them if I did; however, with that said, it’s important to know that they exist and how to use them IF you ever did have to use them.

So here is your CRJ Quicktip for today:

Once External DC is plugged in and energized, correct VOLTAGE and POLARITY are indicated by the Green AVAIL light being illuminated on the Electrical Services Panel (see the pictures above)

• DC Power will replace the batteries and the batteries will then drop offline. In the picture below, the batteries are still powering the system. Once you press the DC Avail pushbutton though, the batteries would drop offline and the “EXT DC” bars will turn green and power the systems that the batteries did.
• Batteries are NOT charged when using external DC power. AC power is required to charge the batteries.
• DC Power can be used to start APU but this is very rarely used because you have to do some very specific steps

DC Power energizes:

- APU BATT DIR BUS
- MAIN BATT DIR BUS
- DC EMER BUS
- And BATT BUS if Battery Master ON)

So, you can see, there are a few things that DC External Power does on the CRJ200, but with so many other options and easily accessible power sources, there are very few times that you will be required to use it.

But now you know!

To Your Flying Success!

Jeffrey

P.S. There are lots more articles on flying and CRJ200 quicktips located in my Articles section. I hope to see you there!

Need more information on the CRJ200? Then pick up your copy of the CRJ200 QUICKNOTES STUDY GUIDE here!